Douglas Mercer
May 19 2024
That certain people are implicated in a network of prophecy becomes patently clear from the birds-eye perspective; that they are thrust into it and as they come out the other side they become (sometimes) partially conscious agents of it, or a preliminary version of it. During the time of their working together it was Lennon who was the more prophetic---words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup they slither wildly as they slip away across the universe, when the rain comes—cosmic words, rain (reign), paper (writing), wind (breath is speech), letter box (written letters, runes).
Though one could argue that “it’s coming down fast” gets the job done with more precision. But once the pairing was over Lennon’s voice was only a faint mechanical echo—we will be playing those mind games forever, some kind of druid dude—whereas McCartney became conscious of the gift that had been laid surprisingly at his door—somebody’s knocking at our door, somebody’s ringing our bell do me a favor, open the door let him in, or I believe I’m going to rain, listen to what the man says (the man being Christ), you hold up a sign. Transparent and cryptic in equal measures, he played a hinge but not final role in the coming of unconcealment.
***
Well, the travel agent told me that everything was taken care of,
But here am I, got the kids got the wife, nowhere to stay tonight.
The smug complacency of the world where the answers are pat and conventional, where the Sunday homilies are boring tripe, where everything has it normal place is here skewered; rather the narrator is unhoused, is a wanderer on the earth with his family, is in an existential situation of anxiety while seeking a home. A nod to the biblical story where there is no room at the Inn.
Yeah, the hotel in Benidorm, they are still building it.
Won't be finished soon, won't be finished soon.
Yeah, the hotel in Benidorm, still building, building, building
Benidorm is a tourist spot on the Mediterranean Coast of Spain. A rough translation form Latin could be the “good sleep.” Sleep is always death, the sleep of death and the opening of up of the rich world of eternity. But this new world is not finished, is still being built, is being built up in our minds. Heidegger’s essay Building Dwelling Thinking identifies thinking as building, that we golden ones are building the future world in our mind’s eye. It won’t be finished soon/ long is the time—Holderlin.
We go to the beach and we go for a swim,
But sooner or later
We are going to need to lay our whole world down
Sooner rather than later surely. A simple and straightforward statement of fact. The earth is not our home, and mankind has finished its news. Eventually the god will indicate that the recalcitrance of humanity has reached its limit, and the (g)olden ones have reached a state of spiritual development where it is time for it to become the intruder. That’s when they will have to lay their whole world down.
The hotel in Benidorm still isn't finished,
I guess we are going to just have to hang around.
The poem is a richly dense field of allusion; is an ominous portent. A signpost, a wave of psychic energy.
***
Notes:
Raise High The Roof Beams, Carpenters is a title of a Salinger book, taken from Sappho and once more the reference is to building, this time the completion of the house.
Ἴψοι δὴ τὸ μέλαθρον,
ἀέρρετε τέκτονεσ ἄνδρεσ,
γάμβροσ ἔρχεται ἶσοσ Ά᾽ρευϊ,
ανδροσ μεγάλο πόλυ μείζων
Raise high the roof beam, carpenters
Like Ares comes the bridegroom
Taller far than a tall man.
Building
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Douglas Mercer
- Posts: 10963
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:29 pm
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Douglas Mercer
- Posts: 10963
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:29 pm
-
Douglas Mercer
- Posts: 10963
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:29 pm
