Post by Fewms on Oct 2, 2009 1:17:52 GMT
Written in ink in Morporkian:
The State of Elitism in Klatch
Or, Memorials from the Pharaoh's Throne-room
By Gwydion in Effigy
In wine there is accuracy, and in hasheesh, truth. Hasheesh is not permitted to trespass our empire's bounds. Yet wine is found everywhere. Should it then surprise us that veracious utterances occasionally fleck the lips of infidel philosophers? By no means. But since flashes of truth must daze those wrapped in error's night, it behooves us to gently correct and improve the barbarians' wisdom-sayings and aphorisms of crude sapiency.
They say, for example, that Klatch is elitist and xenophobic. Here the tribes of Mor-pork, among others, are correct. Yet this fact seems to lose some subtlety by being so abruptly stated. I would follow the custom of our priests by offering it again in the form of two parables, yea, that are even allegories for the initated.
The first is Mr. Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World', wherein is described a survivor of post-apocalyptic Morpork discovering our still-flourishing collective and being driven mad by its superior of culture. Note how our each of our utopias identically disburse goods, lands, and Morporkian eunuchs to the people at negligible cost. Such is the legacy of strict State ownership of all banks and shops. Freed from the petty concerns of the money-grubbing capitalists, we fulfill their most grandiose goals casually - presently we, a communist empire, have a Treasury more filled with golden stuffs than theirs (built but recently and modelled on our own) has ever known.
'Brave New World' also boasts a drug, 'soma', capable of inducing an Auriental languor most useful to the State. Surely hasheesh and this 'soma' are one. Currently, hasheesh is restricted to the Hashishim, and whoso can obtain it by bribery and magisterial influence. But since its utility in social engineering is obvious, its al-chemical synthesis, or greater availability on the black market, seems desirable. May some day the dictum 'Better a gramme than a damn' evoke the reply, 'why not an ounce?'
Similarly striking is Djelibeybi's resemblance to the ideal community of Mr. George Orwell's '1984'. We would expend striking sums to recruit their spies, were they not, apparently, already ours. Several of our agents, for that matter, sit on the Morporkian Council. And why not? We carefully engineer Ankh Morpork's opinion of us. Hate Week is best held all year round, a perpetual festival. Oceania and Eurasia
[Court Scribe's Note: The rest of this article was torn from the manuscript to which I had access. A search for the missing text proceeds apace.]
The State of Elitism in Klatch
Or, Memorials from the Pharaoh's Throne-room
By Gwydion in Effigy
In wine there is accuracy, and in hasheesh, truth. Hasheesh is not permitted to trespass our empire's bounds. Yet wine is found everywhere. Should it then surprise us that veracious utterances occasionally fleck the lips of infidel philosophers? By no means. But since flashes of truth must daze those wrapped in error's night, it behooves us to gently correct and improve the barbarians' wisdom-sayings and aphorisms of crude sapiency.
They say, for example, that Klatch is elitist and xenophobic. Here the tribes of Mor-pork, among others, are correct. Yet this fact seems to lose some subtlety by being so abruptly stated. I would follow the custom of our priests by offering it again in the form of two parables, yea, that are even allegories for the initated.
The first is Mr. Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World', wherein is described a survivor of post-apocalyptic Morpork discovering our still-flourishing collective and being driven mad by its superior of culture. Note how our each of our utopias identically disburse goods, lands, and Morporkian eunuchs to the people at negligible cost. Such is the legacy of strict State ownership of all banks and shops. Freed from the petty concerns of the money-grubbing capitalists, we fulfill their most grandiose goals casually - presently we, a communist empire, have a Treasury more filled with golden stuffs than theirs (built but recently and modelled on our own) has ever known.
'Brave New World' also boasts a drug, 'soma', capable of inducing an Auriental languor most useful to the State. Surely hasheesh and this 'soma' are one. Currently, hasheesh is restricted to the Hashishim, and whoso can obtain it by bribery and magisterial influence. But since its utility in social engineering is obvious, its al-chemical synthesis, or greater availability on the black market, seems desirable. May some day the dictum 'Better a gramme than a damn' evoke the reply, 'why not an ounce?'
Similarly striking is Djelibeybi's resemblance to the ideal community of Mr. George Orwell's '1984'. We would expend striking sums to recruit their spies, were they not, apparently, already ours. Several of our agents, for that matter, sit on the Morporkian Council. And why not? We carefully engineer Ankh Morpork's opinion of us. Hate Week is best held all year round, a perpetual festival. Oceania and Eurasia
[Court Scribe's Note: The rest of this article was torn from the manuscript to which I had access. A search for the missing text proceeds apace.]