Author: Breagha

“symbols are a rich source of meaning.”

Historically symbols have always held a significance in society, the importance of these symbols is showcased in film, “Minority Report.” In this film one of the most prevalent symbols is the image of an eye. Eyes are typically referred to in literature as the ” Windows to the soul,” and this is exploited in the films own world. Shown in the fact that eyes in the film connect people to the world around them for advertising, social interaction and for surveillance. The justice system called pre-crime in the Minority Report world use technologically advanced eyes in order to register citizens and to identify them. In this world built for the film, eyes are a persons identity, they are essentially a person’s soul, and with all the advancements in technology the justice unit of pre-crime uses peoples eyes as a window of surveillance to judge their character; to judge their soul. The historical significance of eyes can be found in ancient Greece, where the goddess of Justice ‘Tiresias’, is blind folded, and also the ‘Moirai’ also know as the three fates were blind. In the film there are three pre-cogs mirroring the fates, and whom predict the future and therefore determine the destiny of our protagonist. Justice, in the form of Tiresias historically was blind in order to convey a fair trial, where a person could be weighed upon themselves and their crime. However, the justice department of the film disregard this, weighing up a persons crime by having the ability to be all seeing due the the pre-cogs power of being able to determine the future, by knowing a persons future before they know it themselves.

Literature whether it is a newspaper, to a novel, effects the daily lives of humanity. Its contents can do greater good, or greater damage than word of mouth. This is to say that our literature is our history, and our history is written in ink, “Literature is the immortality of speech”- August Wilhelm von Schlegel. Literature in all its forms has the ability to enlighten is readers and to inspire the action it represents, however it is up to the audience of these texts to decide its worth; to heed its action or to forget its very warnings. The genre of dystopia in literature has arguably been one of the most influential in these respects. This is due to dystopia’s core concepts of placing our audience in a familiar but wildly distorted setting, thereby forcing its readers to views itself through a new lens. This is done in order to reveal the faults that we must rectify to prevent the future set before us. The dystopian novel of ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ is not a great text. This was not decide upon by its reviews or by its cult following, but by the way in which it failed to communicate its warnings to inspire the action necessary to prevent the reflected events we see in our modern day. It is a piece of literature that although passes the mark is terms of “great’ work by a purely commercial point of view, it hasn’t inspired beneficial action, that would prevent its audience from the very dystopian future he has created.

• Two concepts, both alike in morality, in our modern world, where we lay our scene. From ancient beginnings for business, where now prison like monogamy makes a civil war of divorce, making modern love and marriage an illusion. This beginning may sound familiar to you all, and that will be because I have taken the liberty to re-write one of the most recognisable romances of our history; Romeo and Juliet. Ironic though isn’t it? To start with an allusion to a romance when its been re-written as to demonise the very act, well that’s what I will be speaking about today. The demonisation of romance through marriage and how in reality, real Love and marriage have no actual correlation.

 

• Marriage and love are two concepts that over time have become entwined through a signature on paper and a shackle on each others index finger, the promise of a forever with a very handy combining of assets to be more of less equally shared. In 1922, Edvard Westermarck defined marriage as “A more or less durable connection between male and female lasting beyond the mere act of propagation till after the birth of the offspring.” So to say marriage not even a hundred years ago was all business and no play, has a ring of truth to it, and really has it changed all that much? People in that era and before it were expected to marry for wealth and privilege, also to produce heirs to their accumulated fortunes. Marriage in its earliest origins was never even for love, it was all about connections. With Royal families marrying off children left, right and centre in order to have a bit of the British royal family influence all over Europe, and look at them now they’ve finally snagged an American to bridge the  gap between the two world superpowers. It’s not only the marriage itself that has become a cycle of business perpetuated by the masses, it is a real commodity for those who need it. Nowadays it is easier to marry a complete stranger to gain accesses to a country, than it is to apply for a visa. The marriage grants the partner a visa, allowing them to hop borders and now live and work within their partners country. My own parents have been married for 26 years, however a romantic proposal wasn’t made, my dad never got down on one knee. The reality was that my parents married for connivance.  Hence a long standing commitment to one another was signed into the institution that is marriage, not because of the need to establish love, but for the benefit that it would bring. My own parents did not marry for love, as it was already present, the marriage was a separate benefit to the relationship they had already maintained for years. And they both firmly believe that they would have remained together had they not been married, the marriage came as a way to beat the system. American comedian Groucho Marx once said “ Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution.” Well he may be right but when the institution is established as a beneficial contract rather than as the sole display of love then it maybe an institution willing to change with modern ideas of love and relationships. Older generations typically in their ignorance, often think that if we don’t get married that the love wasn’t real, that the couple won’t stay together, that if they don’t get married they won’t have kids, and if they don’t have kids then what will happen to the family line, and then what if the family line dies out? Shocking really, but family lineage has absolutely no meaning whatsoever in this day and age; the oldies are gonna take awhile to wrap their heads around that one.

• The other part of this apparent correlation is love. Love, when trying to find a definition, was almost impossible to find with something concrete that in english seemed to fit the enormity of this emotion. But a common thread through all my searching was that the idea of monogamous, long term commitment, or any form of institutional ceremony to “celebrate” the act of love was non-existent; and totally irrelevant to the concept. If love by various  definitions does not require the act of marriage, then why I ask you, do we require it to show our love for the ones we do. The answer being that we don’t and that we are socialised through media, history and by economics to feel required that after we have meet the ‘one’ or have stayed with someone of that nature for an extend period of time that is becomes and expected next step. Often times in ancient greek society, a couple would be married but would both me having separate known affairs, this was not frowned upon because it was  understood that the marriage was a separate entity to the love they had with others. In ancient Greek there were considered to be four forms of love: familial love storge, friendly love philia, romantic love eros, and divine love agape. These were all used in everyday language to allow for the distinguishing of what we in common english call love. Can you remember what you said when you are first in a relationship with someone? no ? maybe it’s because it seems too childish to explain that we have such a limited vocabulary to talk about what is one of the driving forces of humanity. In english we don’t have these distinguished terms that the greeks had, instead when someone says, ” So…do you like  like them,” we say ” yes I like like them.” We, in english, have to double the adjective for lack of a better form of expression of the beginning of love. To me this comes across as a lack of understanding of what love even is, if we a supposedly smart species, cannot find the words to define it, and if we cannot define it, then who are we to say that what and when and where loves place is; personally I don’t have the words to describe it either, but I do know that a word such a love should not be attached to an institution based on accrued monetary value.

 

• “In love there are two things—bodies and words.” -Joyce Carol Oates.  I’ve spent a great deal of time talking about the crime that is marriage to the victim that is love. And if marriage be a crime then what is its punishment I ask you the audience? is it to take out marriage completely from our society, or is it more reasonable to systematically change the way in which marriage is viewed by new generations.

 

Dystopia Definitions:

• An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.

• A dystopia is an unpleasant (typically repressive) society, often propagandized as being utopian. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction states that dystopian works depict a negative view of “the way the world is supposedly going in order to provide urgent propaganda for a change in direction.”
• The most famous and considered to be the first dystopian novel is H.G. Well’s The Time Machine, published in 1895. The novel is considered to be science fiction( as most dystopian text usually are) but was the beginning of a subgenre eventually becoming dystopia on its own.
• The word dystopia comes from the words utopia with the addition of dys- meaning simply bad. It was created in the late 18th century, with its first appearance in an author Thomas More’s novel “Utopia”.

Dystopian texts:

• Hunger games trilogy (Suzanne Collins) BOOK/FILM: government control, oppressive society, rebellion.
• The year of the flood ( Margaret Atwood) BOOK: Environmental
• The handmaid’s tale ( Margaret Atwood) BOOK/ TV: Government control, oppressive society, ellitest.
• Blade runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve) FILM: last remnants of humanity, collapsing society at hands of elliestism.
• The Matrix (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski) FILM: VR world, domination of more advanced species, collapsing society.
• V for Vendetta (James McTeigue) FILM: oppressive society, rebellion leading to revolution, starts with a single idea or person.
• Mad Max ( George Miller, George Ogilvie) FILMS: total disrepair of society, fight for survival and control.

Characteristics:

• Centred around the journey of one main protagonist
• Protagonist is usually an anti-hero, begins journey out for their own gain
• Plot reaches point of clarity for character where their attitude shifts from that of themselves to the betterment of their greater society, and thus a cause is born or now endeavoured for.
• Societal context is that our protagonist is on the bottom of society, having only known the worst aspects of their propagandised “Utopia.”
• Visually: society is gritty in our protagonist’s eyes, city setting usually (or what is left of one), crowded, filth of both mental and physically in our protagonists face daily, dull colours with statement pieces to contrast and accentuate the cheapness of it all. In comparison our elite members of society will usually have cleanliness on and in their settings and clothing to show their own lavishness. Their sets include clean lines and neutral palettes with structure and order.  
• The values of each member of society in our dystopias are displayed with their clothing, each wearing themselves on their sleeves to communicate to readers or viewers their place in the context of a story.
• Orally: bottom of society is loud with the sounds of people in every aspect of life, it is a daily commotion that is the set of background noise, noting to a lack of privacy. Top of society experiences a setting of calm and often almost unnerving quiet, showing their wealth again at being able to have a secluded private area, in which they do not have to share with other members of society; it also shows their exclusion of society that does not meet their standards.
• The way our characters talk is also outlined this way. With elite members having a more refined pattern and accent displayed when reading or watching a text. Bottom members (and usually our protagonist) will use ore colloquial terms and have a rougher tone and speech pattern, or in some cases may not speak at all.

 

 

Winston, protagonist, Chapter 5:

“yes they swallowed it. Parsons swallowed it easily, with the stupidity of an animal. The eyeless creature at the other table swallowed it frantically, passionately, with a furious desire to track down denounce and vaporise anyone who should suggest, that last week the ration had been thirty grams. Syme, too- in some more complex way, involving doublethink- Syme swallowed it. ”

Here we see that Winston is now even more sure of his first observation. That Syme may not be as orthodox as he may publicly appear to be. This is seen in the way Winston seems to sense the hesitation that Syme takes before he too gives in to the lie. Syme is already been seen to be a very intelligent man, and he here we see him see the mistake, realise that he is being feed a false truth, and accepting it anyway, because in their world a that is what a smart man does.

This quote from Winston seems to outline all the types of people that the new dystopian world contains. Those like Parsons who simply accept anything under the government as truth. Too dull or complicit, being young enough to not know anything else outside of it, to call anything into question now. These constant adjustments of the truth no longer phase people such as Parsons, people who are truly brainwashed by big brother.

The others are people described such as the “creature.” These are the people who have taken their devotion of the idea pushed onto them to the next level.  As Winston describes, ” the eyeless creature swallowed it frantically,” showing that the people such as these will take anything given to them. The concept of making the character be described as eyeless is also interesting. This is because it gives the reader the impression that the creature, and people like him, cannot see for themselves; and are therefore reliant on Big Brother.  They are so frantic to accept new information,  because for them all they know is Big Brother, as they have essentially had their own way at looking at the world taken from them.

Lastly we have the people like Syme. These are the bystanders of the new world. The ones desperate to stay alive that they keep their heads down and out of the way. Syme, much like many others, accepts things he know to be false simply to be able to old onto his life a little bit longer. They are also the people that have found pleasure in the smallest of things, these are what truly keep them from turning to rebels such as Winston. Syme has his work, this he is obviously passionate about, and for him seems to be what he holds onto in a world like this. its a tiny part of his life which he knows to be true, because he has created it himself. Syme is the example of all the people who choose to do nothing because they have something themselves which keeps them comfortable in their complicity to the dangers that surround them.

 

Winston, protagonist, chapter: 

“until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”

This quote from Winston is said during his walk through the proles. He ponders the idea that the largest mass of power does not actually  lie in the government, but in the poverty stricken areas on the outskirts of ‘London.’ However, we see that Winston is cyclical about this prospect because as we, as the audience, soon discover the people of the proles live in a relative freedom; in comparison to those that live lives such as Winston.  The people of the proles are governed more loosely, they are allowed small freedoms such as a family and items such as beer; this is how they are kept in check. Because they are allowed these small freedoms they do not call into question the governing they do receive, although their lives are not grand and cannot become so in this flawed system, they are not so bad as to think to rebel. Therefore in Winston’s own words they will never become conscious. This lack of incentive to rebel is what prohibits them from forming the realisation to do so. To rebel would lead to the realisation that they had been living under an unfair and unjust system, and allow them to explore a new avenue of thought and life outside of the hardship they have become neutral to. But as I have stated before they will not rebel because they have no cause, and they will not realise they need for a cause until after a rebellion is started. Winston desperately wants the proles to revolt, as it will free him more than anything else, and will in his own mind lead t a better future; at the moment he knows the means of getting his way but no way to deliver and rally this message.

 

Winston, Protagonist, Chapter: 7 pg 80  ( memory of a poem/ song from years back)

“Under the spreading chestnut tree, 

I sold you and you sold me:

There lie they,  and here lie we

Under the spreading chestnut tree. “

This memory of a broadcast is remembered by Winston when he discovers three former members of the ‘elite’ party at a drinking spot called the chestnut. The song or poem itself seems out of place in the scene and very unlike Big Brother to be promoting; what I gathered then from the irregularity of the message to the rest of the story was that it is meant to stand out, and that it could be a sign of rebellion. The lines themselves also seem to appear this way, the idea of a tree spreading out like an idea taking root in a community, from an area ( the chestnut drinking spot) that is seemingly notorious for rebellious meetings.

Another message that can be gleaned from the short song is the hopelessness and loss of trust. The lines ” I sold you and you sold me: There lie they, and here lie we,” show a darker side of the world in which Winston lives. No one can be trusted to not be sold out, or in selling another person out for their own personal gain.  The direct use of the word “lie” is another tell to this as it isn’t necessary o use that word, it seems deliberate, and immediately changes the context from simply laying down, to being lied to or about.

With the point described above the idea of a spreading chestnut tree does not show an idea of inside rebellion, but rather an idea of increased control. The chestnut tree spreads outwards, wrapping more and more people to be intwined within the parties ideals. This snippet of a song from Winston’s memory stands out for a purpose, as to which side the message is for remains unknown until further into the story.

Winston, Entry in diary, Chapter: 7 Pg 84

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. “

This is to say that if one is allowed to state the truth of one aspect, then all else that is factually true can also be deemed, and proved as such.  This quote shows to the reader how much the world in which Winston lives is different from our own, when even a truth that is simple for a child to understand can be called into question and can now be called a lie. It’s a deliberate demonstration of how much control the Government has, when the obviously true can be called into question. It also shows how little freedom the people within this regime have. That can be seen in how the quote seems to ask permission to say the truth, rather than being able to sate it openly.

• extension: pg 261 – O’Brien holds up four fingers to a beaten winston after repeating quote back and asks, ” How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?”
• this is a blatant act of aggression by O’Brien.

Winston, interaction with girl, page 111: “In front of him was an enemy who was trying to kill him: in front of him, also, was a human creature, in pain and perhaps with a broken bone. ”

Winston, after being discovered at the bookshop, Pg :  “It struck him that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy, but always against one’s own body. ”

• Winston is deciding whether or not to take his own life

Winston, pg162: “History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.

after an encounter with O’Brien where O’Brien acknowledges the rebellion, pg 167: “He had the sensation of stepping into the dampness of a grave, and it was not much better because he had always known that the grave was there waiting for him.

• the realisation that with the acknowledgment of rebellion his own acts will now actually effect his life. actions that themselves are a life or death situation.

Julia and winston talking about rebellion and the party, pg 174: “if you can feel that staying human is worthwhile, even when it cant have any result whatever, you’ve beaten them.”

Winston reading Goldstein’s book to Julia, pg 227: “sanity is not statistical,”

 

O’Brien and Winston having a conversation mid torture pg282:

” do you believe in god, Winston?”

“no,”

” then what is it, this principle that will defeat us?”

” I don’t know, the spirt of man. ”

” and do you consider yourself to be a man?”

“yes,”

” If you are a man, Winston, you are the last man. ”

Winston after a couple of weeks after his torture reteaching himself pg290: “sanity was statistical. It was merely a question of learning to think as they thought. ”

• previously we saw that winston believed that ” sanity is not statistical,” on page 227. Now we can see that by this point in the story that Winston has finally had his values broken, that he is not the rebellious man we saw before and that his older concepts of thought crime and double think do not exists for him anymore.

( Last line, a defeated winston sits in the chestnut and the war has ended) pg311: ” He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. ”

• the last line of Winston story is the final blow. He has given up, the system he fought with his soul rather than through direct action has been painfully stripped away. He was the ” last real man” and now he has joined the masses. His proof of sanity was statistical as he joined along with the people he thought to be brainwashed.

 

1. Pick a social convention/ life event:

• Turning 30 years old
• subject: a step by step process of growing old

1. Exaggerate

• “your best years are behind you”
• ” I have not died today, but maybe tomorrow” – saying how death is catching up on ones self, but has not been caught yet.

• Thinks that their life is now over, the best part of their youth is gone
  3. Understate:
• “never ask a lady her age.” – describing oneself as extremely old, while in reality still being quite youthful
• Are expected to be an adult now, face certain social requirements that means they “must” become more formal
• lessons they have learned to now pass on

 

 

“Voting is the foundation stone for political action.” This is a quote by Martin Luther King, after his involvement in the 1965 Selma protests. Martin Luther king was a major influential figurehead in the civil rights movement in America. Helping to gain equality for African Americans through their fundamental human rights; such as the right to vote. Voting is one the most basic forms of giving an opinion, and is a fundamental human right for all, according to most countries. Voting is an important and necessary tool for a fair society to function, and is an act carried out by all those that believe in a fair system and society. There are many aspects to voting and its history that carry relevance into our present and future with voting, some of which are common democratic voting systems, their workings and stages. The benefits of voting for people of all class level and the overall betterment of our current systems. And lastly the ways in which voting helps those who face disadvantages from unfair systems of oppression in our modern societies. Learning about some of these key aspects stated above, can give a reader a further informed opinion in voting for themselves and a greater insight into the ways in which their vote will affect them.

The word democracy comes from the greek words “dêmos” which means people or neighbourhood and “krátos” meaning force or power; meaning that the word democracy literally translates to “people power.” The earliest recorded forms of democratic voting dates back to 6th century BC, when it was introduced in Greece, as part of the Athenian democracy. The Athenian democracy was set up in the city of Athens, and the province of Attica. The area of Attica is recorded as one of the first democratic regions in history. Citizens of the province elected leaders and passed bills via the act of voting. However, their initial vote system, much like our modern version still is, was severely biased and flawed. Attica voters had to be a adult males who were also neither a slave or an “alien, ” this meaning someone born from outside the city of Athens/ province of Attica. This bias obviously greatly affected what laws were passed and leaders put into power at the time, creating a new life for most in Attica from the ideas of only a few. Even with this bias voting, the creation and implementation of even basic voting system to govern large populations was the very start of a more democratic way of governing in our history.

In a 21st century democracy the ideas of basic governing remain the same, but the flaws of bias and corruption still clearly evident; due to each democratic nation modifying the system in order to suit their culture and populous. Most commonwealth countries, such as New Zealand and Australia, hold a fair election. The people vote in members of their communities into parliament to represent different regions of the country, and also a main prime minister who acts as a leader in place the head of state; that currently being the Queen of England in New Zealand and in commonwealth countries. Every New Zealand citizen is automatically enrolled to vote once they reach the age of eighteen, voting however is non-compulsory. In a non-commonwealth country such as Germany, a parliamentary system is also used to govern. According to Germany’s constitution “Act. 38 of German Basic Law, elections are to be universal, direct, free, equal, and secret.” One can vote or be elected once they have reached the age of eighteen in Germany, and much like in the commonwealth, Germany has a two vote system. One vote for a regional representative and one for a head of state; in Germany that is called the Chancellor. The parliamentary system is the most commonly used in democratic nations, as it allows for the most representation of people by their governments. This is due to the addition of regional representatives spanning the country. Regional members are voted in from each district, and so are more able to accurately translate the needs and the wants of that particular region to their representative party, or government. The most important part of voting is representation, giving the people more power over their governments; running them rather than being run by them.

A common misconception around voting is that there is no point in taking action, as a little addition will do nothing to effect real change. To quote the movie Cloud Atlas, “ you are simply one drop in a vast ocean”…”yes, but what is an ocean but a multitude of small drops.” This quote is metaphor for how much impact a collected force of people power can achieve to effect change. One vote counts as much as any other, and every vote will be counted, a single vote can make change happen; meaning that to vote has more power over an outcome than most realise. There is a problem that most voting systems are facing today; the lack of youth voters. It is now the job of the next generation to vote for the future they want to live in. Statistics show that 18-29year olds have the lowest voter turnout percentage and that only 64% of youth voted or are even registered to vote in England. Here in New Zealand all 18-29 year olds are automatically enrolled to vote, while only an average of 62.42% actually make it to the polling stations. These statistics do show that just over half of NewZealand youth are going out and voting, however, this is not enough. The 62.42% of youth voters are currently making the decisions for the rest of this generation, because they are the ones being heard on decisions through their votes. These statistics show that a trend of young people not voting is allowing leaders into parliament and bills to stand by the choice of those who have come before us. By voting and becoming some what more actively involved in what’s happening in the political environments of our respective countries, we can learn about what is happening in our parliaments, and make the change that we wish to see in the world through small direct political actions.

Voting should be fair, and open to all, this has not been the case when looking back into history. For example women had to fight for the right to vote, in a movement called the women’s suffragette. Women eventually gained the right to vote in many countries by  late 1920; although women still had to fight to be allowed into parliament and many other aspects of creating an equality based democratic governing even today. Another example of systemic systems of oppression that prevented voting rights for people is in the minorities. People of colour/ minorities of orientation and class level, had to fight for their right firstly to be seen as people, then to qualify for the right to vote in America; a country that prides itself on being the “land of the free.” America was and is one of the wealthiest and most influential democratic nations today and back in the 1900’s when this fight for voting rights first began. Unlike with most nations however, America is a country renowned for corruption in government and for its extortion and under representation of people of colour. Fights against this type of oppression in the voting system were seen in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s onwards, where human rights as well as voting rights were being protested for by the black and Latina communities of America. In the past as stated before governments were decided upon by the highest classes of society, not by all those whom it affects, this has lead to corruption and anger towards the relatively unchanged system still in place today. Now the youth have the responsibility to continue to make our current democratic systems fair and just. They must vote not only for themselves but because they have that right due to the efforts and actions of the people who have come before, and fought for their privilege to vote on issues that really matter. It’s a responsibility that is easy to take on, and means more to those who can’t vote, than those who can realise. Voting can be used as a form of protest, it is a privilege to have the right to vote when it should be a universal right. It is now a responsibility of the youth of today to fight for those who have no voice, giving their vote to help others, to bring about change for those who are being oppressed still by the system, and through this direct action they can be the leaders to a more fair future.

The average democratic voting system should not discriminate, If the person is rich or poor, old or young, whatever their sexual orientation, skin colour, gender or social class level: Each person has the right to a fair vote for a leader they believe best represents their needs and beliefs. Each vote should be private and that is what gives it power. Individuals have the choice to elect a person based on what they chose; with no outside influence once that vote is cast. The people, are the givers of power in our free societies, they control the power and the future of their respective nations, due to a fair democratic system. The people decided who will hold office, the laws that get passed, they control more over their governing than is usually thought to be possible. The voters of our countries have more power than can be conceived over more than could ever be deemed possible. Using that power to help, to encourage and to lead; this is what voting brings about. The average vote from an average person may be enough to sway a decision and change the world for the better, this is why there is a necessity to go out and vote.

The room is calm, quaint and quiet. All lays still. Dust will settle before you rise again, everything seemingly so peaceful after such a storm. Night will move to day, winds will start to blow, the earth will move, and still you lay. Floors start to groan, and the curtains flutter with a faint breeze. The only view point is to stare forever upwards, you study the blank roof. Treating every scratch, every dirt smudge as though it was the Sistine Chapel; as though it had every depth and colour to explore, every wonder imaginable right before your tired eyes. You ignore the agony of knowing that a blank wall is all there really is to see. A feeling of warmth like sunlight on a summer morning, hot but gentle, as though the sun is not yet at full peak; spreads upwards from your toes.

Memories are a way to return, to outside, to summer, to sun, and light, and life, and growth, and all that makes the world feel so brilliantly and so absolutely golden. You use this to escape from your current place, surrounded by thoughts and the movement of time seemingly unchanged, the monotonous days, lost again in a haze. Some movement is allowed, a lolling of the head, a twitch of your toe, raising a finger, somewhat near perfect vision to gaze longingly about the room. This subtlety of movement is more freedom than most will experience in a lifetime; with every movement restricted, this little allowance, comes as a little bit of bliss.

That warmth from before seems to have spread, lapping now at your outstretched hand. Your fingertips feel these waves dance playfully, reluctant to to come any closer. More awake, a smell becomes more obvious, a smell that could only mean morning. The faint scent of black coffee, the stark chemical stench of cleaning fluid, and quiet literally squeaky clean floors; indicated by the sound of footsteps followed by a squeak of ripping rubber soles from vinyl floors. With morning, comes change, although little of it. Voices murmur discretely, shadows fall in and out of your peripheral. They usually don’t say much, if anything at all; and they never stay long. Perhaps these visitors feel sad for you, maybe they pity you, probably they don’t care for you at all. For who would care after so much time has past, you are now only a body to them, immovable, unable to communicate or to show any sign of recognition or love. Who could care for something that appears to be inanimate, a puppet with no strings, something so broken, with no ability to establish meaningful connection. 

Open your eyes, you say into the silence, a thought shouted out to the void; look out, look up, try at all to show you can, try at all to show the want to get up from this torturous bed. When you were younger, a bed only housed a sleeping body, tuckered out from daily expeditions, only needed for short recuperation before another adventure began with a rising sun. Now that fresh air, the grass between your toes, the feeling of running as fast as possible, shade from trees on warm grounds, hot earth, and course sand, is all a far away wish. All the feelings and experiences seem captured in a little bottle, you’ll wander here between rough sleep and numbing consciousness. Resigned to fate, you lay in patience for any development. Maybe the next person will change everything, maybe in this next second you will rise from your spot and dance out of this hospital, down the street right to the sea. There you will stand, with toes curled into the sand, waves pushing against your shins, eyes stinging from salt, nose filled with brine, body and soul abundant with youth. There you will wander forevermore in dreams, deciding that reality is no longer worth the painful wait. Fall sleepily into dreams, living in the bliss you have bottled, leaving behind that which was not worth experiencing anymore.