Monday, 16 March 2026

Singing In Birth, Living Earth

After Doomsday, 13.

For each repeated line in "The Battle of Brandobar," we should see an appropriate image or hear a corresponding sound-effect. Thus:

"(The stars burn bitterly clear)" (pp. 103, 104, 104, 105, 105, 106, 107, 108, 108)

- the Milky Way seen from space.

"(The stormwinds clamor their grief)" (pp. 103, 104, 104, 105, 105, 106, 107, 108, 108)

- a very loud wind.

"(A bugle: the gods defied!)" (pp. 103, 104, 104, 105, 106, 107, 107, 108)

- a very loud bugle.

"(New centuries scream in birth)" (pp. 104, 104, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 108)

- the cry of a new-born baby.

And then, in the concluding quatrain:

"(New centuries sing in birth)" (p. 109)

- a beautiful voice singing;

- which should also accompany the concluding line:

"In the name of living Earth!" (p. 109)

The ballad could be effective on screen.

(Other reading: starting the eleventh Inspector Morse novel.)

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

That cry of a new-born baby should be magnified, be very loud, a true scream.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Yes, we should be shocked and challenged by each sound-effect.

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

Exactly what I was thinking.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

My wife and I didn't have children -- couldn't, medical reasons -- but I experienced young children when one of my married brothers moved in with two youngsters when I was about 12.

I managed to convince one of them that there was a monster under the table who'd bite him in half if he threw his food around... which wasn't very popular with my sister-in-law.

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

Ha! Amusing. I assume your sister-n-law reacted like a lioness protecting her cubs.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

As to carbon footprints, note that China produces 54% of new CO2 annually, burns five -billion- tons of coal, and that India is coming up fast behind. Nothing we in the First World do matters a damn.

Jim Baerg said...

I suppose some cooperation between Canada & India on building lots of CANDU reactors and providing uranium & heavy water for them could cut fossil fuel use. There was such cooperation early on but when India did a nuclear bomb test in response to China's bomb that cooperation was shut off.

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Jim!

Mr. Stirling: That's why I have zero use for our liberals/leftists and Greenies. They have no ideas of any use, any practicality. Nothing the US/UK does will put a dent in the CO2 put out by China and India.

Jim: I like that! I only wish the US/UK were going full speed ahead building CANDU reactors. Oil can be used for better things than just burning it.

India? I think India is too fully committed to fossil fuels to care about CANDU reactors.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

I have zero use for conservatives who are so contemptuous towards any alternatives.

Nothing to be done about CO? Then that is a big urgent problem for everyone.

Paul.

S.M. Stirling said...

Paul: I object to wishful thinking. Is China going to burn less coal because we do? No. Neither will India. "Good examples" are for chumps and suckers.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

But I am not sure what the practical implication of that is?

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!

Paul: Why? All I've been seeing for decades from people I consider to be fools and bunglers are catastrophic "ideas" driving the US/UK to destruction. I'm supposed to respect people who have no realistic ideas, only wishful thinking?

I've said over and over and over that the only realistic alternative to fossil fuels is nuclear power. Any alternative to nuclear, such as a space based solar power system, will need decades, at best, to become practical. CANDU reactors exist NOW.

Mr. Stirling: Absolutely, what you said about wishful thinking and futile "good examples." You can bet the politicians in Delhi and Peking cares nothing about Western leftists "virtue signaling."

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Why what? My question was what are the practical implications for anyone else if the Chinese and Indians keep burning coal. Your answer is not that we should keep burning coal too but that we should go nuclear. OK.

"Fools," "bunglers" and "catastrophic" are abuse. "No realistic ideas, only wishful thinking" means ideas that you disagree with. Yes, you are supposed to respect your fellow human beings. Discussion is impossible if all that comes from one side is uncompromising condemnation and contempt. I think that there is a lot of "bungling" going on at the highest level right now!

Can't we just discuss issues?

Paul.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

I think that we have to recognize that the whole world, not just some parts of it, is already in a catastrophic state and that any serious attempt to address the problems will be denounced as "catastrophic" by the powerful vested interests that want to preserve the status quo at all costs and to persuade the rest of us to accept the current climate crisis and conflicts as just the way things are and have to be. We have choices, both individually and collectively.

S.M. Stirling said...

Yeah, except that most people -- and politicians -- just don't think in the long term.

S.M. Stirling said...

Paul: it means that nothing we do matters crap.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

And I strongly suspect that you may very well be right.

Some of us think that life makes more sense if we continue to campaign around issues like opposing racism and war and defending union rights at work but what the longer term global outcomes will be we have no idea. I agree with the arguments about the unpredictability of future events. That unpredictability PARTLY works in our favour. Sometimes causes that seemed hopeless suddenly are not.

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

Again, as so often, I agree with Stirling, not you. Also, the anger and disgust I have for the Democrats/leftists in the US. goes back over half a century and is not going to change. I believe my reasons for that are valid.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Yet again of course we disagree.

Do Republicans do nothing disgusting? Surely anger and disgust are spiritually unhealthy?

Paul.

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

I reject the horrible Democrats for many reasons, based on ideas/beliefs and policies. That's not going to change despite Republicans being as sinful and prone to corruption as anybody else.

Btw, it's hard for Republicans to get away with much corruption when a hostile media, 90% controlled by leftists, are constantly waiting to pounce on them. And that media notoriously goes easy on leftist corruption!

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Democrats are not "horrible." That is absurd language. British Conservatives are not horrible. They are people that I disagree with. That is one big difference. (I have indeed met SOME horrible leftists, unfortunately.)

The US media is not hostile on a partisan basis, is not 90% controlled by "leftists" and does not pounce only on Republicans. Where is the evidence that the media is notoriously easy on leftist corruption? These statements are as unfounded as the ones about No Go areas and creeping Sharia law in Britain.

Paul.

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Paul!

The anger I have, at a minimum, for the leftists who dominate the Democrats is not going to change.

I can speak from personal observation as an American that the vast majority of media outlets, TV and printed, are hostile to Republicans/conservatives. Fortunately, even they are being forced to pay more attention to leftist corruption as reports of waste and fraud by Democrats keep leaking out. But far too slowly!

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

I think you have an anger management problem.

Wasteful, fraudulent Democratic politicians are not the kind of "leftists" that I would support if I lived in the US.

My impression is that you heed only a very narrow range of conservative media and that this generates prejudiced assumptions like that Jeremy Corbyn, an active anti-racist, is anti-Semitic or that there are No Go areas and creeping Sharia law in Britain.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Then we are going to have to agree to disagree. Plenty of dirt has been emerging on how corrupt, fraudulent, and wasteful US leftists are. Esp. in states and cities dominated for decades by the Democrats. Which is to be expected in a Fallen race.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

We have already agreed that we disagree.

I do not regard Democrats as "leftists" and do not agree that we are Fallen.

Paul.