Mad poets society

[rob9443]

Edward Fitzgerald who wrote the Rubayat of Omar Khayyan said that all the Fitzgeralds were mad, but his brother was the worst because he didn't know it.

As someone with bipolar who has aspirations to be a writer I can relate to that.

There's mad and there's insane.  There's eccentric and there's weird. There's Foolish risk and there's idiotic risk.

In the film Elisabeth the Golden Years, Dr Dee tells the queen that astrology is an art not a science as the Armada comes sailing up the Channel. All he can tell he is that in a catastrophe on this scale everyone reveals his true nature.

Astrology is nothing to do with science or the real stars. But it can be used metaphorically for emotional counselling. It is also a source of codes that may used by the New Model Army and the Order of the Phoenix.

In the real world Dumbledores Army is Juliana's army.  Professor Dumbledore was Professor Julia Briggs who used to teach English at Hertford College Oxford before moving to Simon de Montfort university. She died of breast cancer in 2007.

The corporate commissars are privatising water across the Third World. Their insurance boys are pricing medicine out of the reach of the American people. In Ireland in the nineteenth century it was the Great Hunger.  This time it will be the great thirst as Madam Goldass and Mister Moneybucks sit in their bubblebath playing SM games as the children of Pakistan die of foul diseases caused by lack of basic sanitation.

Come Bonfire Night of the year Twelve the Phoenix is going to lay an egg and a Slytherin may find himself trapped in the Room of Requirement.

Up and down the City Road
In and out the Eagle
That's the way the money goes.
Pop goes the weasel

Half a pound of tuppeny rice
Spice's in the treacle
Mix it up and make it nice
Pop goes the weasel

[Brigg57]

Rob,
you've mentioned your bipolar disorder once before. I realise that it can be a very distressing experience. I'm sorry, and I sincerely hope that it isn't too severe in your case.

Do you reckon Blake suffered from bipolar?

Christopher Smart and John Clare are good members of the Mad Poet's society.

[wolfysmith]

Do you think manic depressive is a result of to deep an understanding of how the world works and a lack of solutions on how to change it? Maybe we should be reading celebrity magazines and Playboy then we wouldn’t be so depressed or maybe not.

What do you think Marx would say?

[rob9443]

Cheers guys.  Yes bipolar simply means you are far more vulnerable to emotions than normal people.  And yes frustation at feeling the world's troubles but feeling impotent to do anything about it makes things worse.

Julia Briggs obtitury in the Indpendent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-julia-briggs-461881.html

The three characters in Shakespear I most identify with are Caliban, Malvolio and Hamlet.

The Greek myths are a source of comfort. The American quasi fascist market fundamentalists of Chicago see the vulnerable and the poor as losers. They worship a writer called Ayn Rand who wrote a pernicious book called Atlas Shrugged.  In his book Meltdown Paul Mason mentions her and the poisonous influence she had on people such as Alan Greenspan.

In Ayn Rand's world the hero is a bastard called John Galt who organises a "libertarian" revolution against the welfare state. As far as these plonkers are concerned it is the bully boy corporate giants like Bill Gates who carry the world on their shoulders and the rest of us who aren't born into privilege or born with entrepreneurial energy are losers who should be grateful for whatever crumbs are tossed down by the lords of the market sitting in their boardrooms.

But in my world Hercules defeats Atlas, leaves the corporate bully boy caught in the trap he's made for himself and comes down from the mountain, bearing the grief of the world on his shoulders.