Scent of a flower we have not yet found.

[pyat]

Over the last few days, I've been finding torn pages from a copy of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe fluttering in the street, stuck in trees, etc., as well as page fragments from a Dragonlance novel. That tugs at me in an odd way. That, and belief in unicorns.

Elizabeth and I browsed through Youtube before bed. We watched the opening credits of The Last Unicorn, which she recently declared as the "best movie I ever watched!" This video led to clips of the unicorns from the live-action film, Legend. which prompted Elizabeth to say, "Unicorns are real? I thought they were make-believe!"

I replied, "I think they put a horn on a white horse, to pretend, for a movie."

She looked at me seriously, and said that no, she was very sure it was real. I said, I didn't think it was, and she did the little eye-roll thing that all children do to their parents, sooner or later.

I admit that I have no desire to press my six-year-old daughter on her belief in the existence of unicorns. It's a good world to live in, if it has unicorns in it. It put me in mind of C.S. Lewis, and his description of "sehnsucht."

"That unnameable something, desire for which pierces us like a rapier at the smell of bonfire, the sound of wild ducks flying overhead, the title of The Well at the World's End, the opening lines of "Kubla Khan", the morning cobwebs in late summer, or the noise of falling waves..."

And, tying this all together, consideration of the fellow who committed suicide last week. Not a friend by any means. A friend of a friend, and someone I'd not met, who seemed to have dedicated his few years of adult life to trying too hard to hold on to something, a bent and battered vision of the "unnameable something" that ended up bringing him grief.

"These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited."

The only way to go on, really, is to keep going on.

Comments

[clawfoot.livejournal.com]

It broke my heart in a million pieces when I finally accepted that unicorns didn't exist. I think I was eleven.

[melskunk.livejournal.com]

I still haven't

[pyat.livejournal.com]

:)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Did you let other kids know you did, or did you just sort of personally believe it?

[mrs-dm.livejournal.com]

The Girl-O is also in a unicorn stage. Tonight she insisted that she saw a unicorn at Disneyworld; that it had rainbow-coloured hair and was white, and it wasn't a toy, but ran by so fast! She asked if we had seen it too and we said "no".

Her Dad, doc_mystery subsequently muttered, "I guess we're not virgins, then." (Apparently, only virgins can see unicorns. I did not know that).

[pyat.livejournal.com]

That's terribly cute!

Say, if Brian isn't a virgin, why is he still playing D&D? ;)

[paka.livejournal.com]

The reality of myth. Actual horse things with horns and lion tails and split hooves don't wander around even in Canada, but horse thingies with horns, lion tails and split hooves will exist as unassailable archetype as long as there are small children.

And it's entirely possible that we're a few decades away from the technical ability to splice genes and make unicorns. This will really make push come to shove, because then people will need to decide whether unicorns, dragons, and all the rest are still as magical when they are breathing, crapping, snoring reality.

[melskunk.livejournal.com]

*pft* so says you ;) I'm pretty sure I saw a unicorn

[relee.livejournal.com]

They already make artificial unicorns. They're a type of goat where they cut off one horn and get the other to grow in the middle of the forehad and spiral-straight. It's done by some cult somewhere, I read about it and looked at some photos and stuff. Very neat.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

They were on That's Incredible! when I was a kid.

[lee-in-limbo.livejournal.com]

I remember that.

Lee.

Living Unicorns

[ankhorite.livejournal.com]

Zell Unicorn (http://www.google.com/search?q=zell+unicorn&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)

There y'go.

Zell Unicorns

[ankhorite.livejournal.com]

Zell Unicorn (http://www.google.com/search?q=zell+unicorn&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)

There y'go.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

a few decades away from the technical ability to splice genes and make unicorns. This will really make push come to shove, because then people will need to decide whether unicorns, dragons, and all the rest are still as magical when they are breathing, crapping, snoring reality.

That depends whether or not they'll be traipsing in a wood somewhere, or just sort of trotting about a paddock, cropping grass. Any animal loses its mythic qualities when you can feed it peanuts.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

But unicorns are supposed to talk, right? Or are just those Narniized ones?

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

I'm still pretty sure that if I turn down the wrong alley, I'd end up trapped in Charn.

Or Carcosa?

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Or Catan! *shudder*

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

"I'll trade you Wood for Spectral Remnants of a Dead World..."

[relee.livejournal.com]

Ahh, Legend was a nice movie. Even better screenplay.

If you can find it, the screenplay Legend of Darkness that the film Legend was based on is so much more awesome. It's too awesome. They had to make the movie less awesome so that they wouldn't blow people's minds.


The book thing is neat too. My brother told me a few months ago, that Dragons of Winter Twilight was the first novel he ever read. Ever. He's an author now, too. ^.^

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I hear the film would have been much better, except that the studio and sets burned down a few days into filming, and they had to make do with much less ambitious replacements.

[lee-in-limbo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was the 007 stage at Pinewood Studios, wasn't it? EON had to rebuild the whole thing so they could shoot A View To A Kill. Too bad. I'll bet Legend would have looked amazing if it had all been shot there. The place is frickin' huge.

Lee.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

That's the one!

The film might not have been more coherent, but the outdoor scenes might have been more... outdoorsy?

[lee-in-limbo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was one of those films that needed a certain amount of scale, and several of the sets they ended up with were much more claustrophobic than I imagine Ridley had wanted. Lots of close shots and tight camera angles because there simply wasn't room or budget. I still think it's a pretty great looking film. Some of the sets and costumes were fantastic, and the lighting was pretty cool, even when it's obvious they were shooting on a small sound stage and the lighting was pretty artificial. Really, the only truly dodgy bit was probably Tom Cruise, and I try not to bust his chops over that, because it was a bit of a stretch.

Lee.

[relee.livejournal.com]

Yeah the original was pretty outdoorsy. Jack wasn't just a forest dude, he was The Green Man, and Lili didn't just get a wardrobe change, she turned into an anthro black panther. Darkness wasn't a classical demon; there's no doubt they made a beautiful demon for the film but originally he was an anthro wolf with bat wings decked out in black armour. He had a dark citadel that would make Sauron blush and part-way in there's a fight scene like out of 300 where a phalanx of faeries are fighting an army of giant insects, trying to protect Jack. When he finally gets into the citadel he finds the transformed Lili having burning hot demon sex with Darkness, and she tries to kill him, and only transforms back when he stabs her. Then he chases Darkness across the plane of Hell itself to finally end his dark reign and restore the mother unicorn's horn.

It was awesome.

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

And sometimes, on rare occasions, you post as Piet, and not pyat *hugs*

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Only sometimes. Piet is a big ol' softie. :)

[hossblacksilver.livejournal.com]

Well, both you and Elizabeth are both right. Those are white horses with artificial horns on their heads. There are real unicorns, but they have horrible stage fright, near paralyzing.

Those that don't have the stage fright tend to be real jerks though.

They shun the non-believers, Charlie. They shun them. ;)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

That explains a lot!

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

Of course Unicorns existed.

They just didn't get on the Ark when it started raining. Neither did the Dragons and Mermaids. They all drowned!

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Well, the mermaids were eaten by the dinosaurs, who then drowned.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

Then how could Sigmund slay Fafnir? Or do shapeshifting giants float?

[shadow-maze.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, "sehnsucht", I didn't know that was what it was called...I would say that it is a necessary human quality...and if you lose it or feel those yearnings are hopeless, then the bridges start to beckon...

[pyat.livejournal.com]

There's an excellent LJ entry for it. :)

How are you, today?

[shadow-maze.livejournal.com]

I'm doing OK...it's kind of a blah, work, blah, work kind of a day. Shortage of motivation, I guess. (:-)

Generally, though, I'm doing much better lately than over the past few years, so that is an improvement!

Sort of moved from a "sucky / neutral" to a "neutral / occasional bright spot"...

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Looking at my comment, I should have written "there's an excellent wiki entry for Sehnsucht", not "LJ entry."

Bright spots are good. :) Were the last few years that bad? You never mentioned it much, aside from work woes.

[shadow-maze.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd looked at the wiki entry for it before relying to your post. I've book marked it for later reference.

Well, things have/had been a little bit touch and go for quite a while, in a personally depressing kind of a way, not life circumstances per se, but more that undefined "sehnsucht" kind of a thing, which was why your post and the wiki entry were rather enlightening.

[shadow-maze.livejournal.com]

Your entry has certainly struck a cord with a lot of people!

Take Two

[lee-in-limbo.livejournal.com]

I think that video actually made more sense than the movie. ;)

It's sad when a dream dies. It's even sadder when a dreamer dies because they can't achieve their dream. I've been dancing pretty close to that flame for most of my life, so I know how heartbreaking it can be. I wish I knew words that could make the interminable wait more bearable, but somehow, it always winds up coming out 'just one more day'.

Hope your day is going well, sirrah.

Lee.

Re: Take Two

[pyat.livejournal.com]

You've done some impressive and memorable things - and your dreams are, at least, ones that might come true with luck and skills.

And, you're a good fellow. That counts for lots.

[akelavincent.livejournal.com]

It's a good world to live in, if it has unicorns in it.

For whatever reason, this quote has stuck in my head. I read this post last night, and I still woke up with this quote in my head this morning. And it makes me smile, so... thanks. :)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome, sir!

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

I can't remember what it was that Adam said this morning, but I responded - you have such an intersting brain! I'm always telling Piet that. You guys have that in common.
Adam smiled.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Isn't that a Chinese curse? "May you live in an interesting brain?" :)

[mar2nee.livejournal.com]

I think it was "interesting times."

I wish I could remember what it was he said. He takes such unexpected things and puts them together in interesting ways.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

He's a cool kid. :)