Entertainment for the Masses

[ada_col]

I must admit despite Mrs. Hamilton's amusing little issues, I have been bored lately. Then I came across this:
Next! on LITERARY DEATHMATCH! Fitzgerald versus Wilde in... the CAGE

Comments

*raises eyebrow*

[le_beau_fersen]

You think, madame?

Re: *raises eyebrow*

[ada_col]

Well, if you helped her, maybe not. Would that I had such a faithful defender.

Re: *raises eyebrow*

[le_beau_fersen]

I'm sure she's more than capable by herself, madame, though I'm also sure that you are a worthy challenger.

Just saying. I couldn't.

Re: *raises eyebrow*

[ineversaidthat]

shush, my love, no telling of tales - you make me blush to hear you!

::hides face behind fan, eyes twinkling::

[ineversaidthat]

You would win by default Madame.

[npaganini]

Oh, you'd win. Hedonism tends to make one soft after awhile. I know from experience.
I'm certain I would be able annihilate any other violinist- on the sheer principle that all other violinists are Not Me.

[ineversaidthat]

You believe me a "hedonist", Mssr?

[npaganini]

What would you call it?

[ineversaidthat]

I would call it... many things, Mssr., none of them complimentary. But I can assure you that "hedonism" is not one of them.

Our beloved Marquis is a hedonist, to my way of thinking.

[sic_et_non]

Though I was an old man and infirm, I could certainly have defeated that arthritic abbot of Clairvaux in a fair fight, had I been permitted even that level of civility, instead of being condemned without a hearing. The fool, afraid of his precious faith being picked apart and broken like a common compass! And he believes-- he still believes! that his fragile devotion, so easily smudged and smashed by logic's clumsy fingers, is stronger-- he still believes himself to be a better Christian than I! The foolish, pandering

Hedonism may make one soft, npaganini, but fasting and incessant self-flagellation make one pretty damned brittle.

Er. . .pardon my occasional bitterness. I forget that I am supposed to have forgiven the pompous jackass that absurdity Bernard. Well, one can't remember everything without going mad, can one?

Anyway, I don't think he'd be seen around this little corner of heaven, the sanctimonious toad.

[ada_col]

Do not be so confident that your nemesis will not appear. I have noticed a tendency hereabouts to have least-favored "friends" appear. If you are lucky, Héloïse may also join you one day. However, I have been waiting for my Charles for a long time with no success.

However, I do not doubt that you can take Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. Aren't saints generally frail?

[sic_et_non]

Oh, Christ on a cruller, they made him a saint?

Why am I not surprised? I always knew the Church was hurtling straight down to hell in a greased cistern. You know, we used to revere the thinkers who used their God-given intellect to. . . oh, never mind.

Yes, very frail. This one, anyway. Gave himself rheumatism by the age of twenty-five by sleeping hunched and bent in moldy cells with deliberately low ceilings; ruined his bowels with fasting; wreaked ruin on his own body before it could wreak any on him. Utterly vain and foolish, and in a way, not foolish. I suppose one takes one's solace where one can.

They were nearly the same age. He and the Abbess, I mean. The same generation, in some ways very much the same. Human variety is astonishing in. . . I mean, the variety with which we. . . I mean, insofar as our frailties. . .I mean. . . oh, God, I don't know what I mean.

Well, he can't hide behind the Pope in here, can he? If he does show up, I'll be ready for him, won't I? Obviously this time will be different.

[seventhpillar]

Hm...I find fasting and self-flagellating to be quite invigorating. Especially the latter.

[6x9isfortytwo]

Tolkien's ass is mine.

[ineversaidthat]

but we knew that, dear.

[ada_col]

Now why would you need to hide that? Tolkien against Adams would definitely deserve a central spot in our lineup.

[6x9isfortytwo]

But of course; I've beat him in the past, I can do it again.