We are all inhabiting our own Here and Now, each at a place and a point in time, on a journey that a combination of factors has led us to, directed by internal and external events, decisions, influencers, accidents. How many of us, given where we are now, would not be tempted to reverse at least some of the steps we have taken, some of the decisions we made? Equally, how many might be tempted by the opportunity to take a glimpse into our possible or probable futures? Such was always the lure of time-travel. I say always, but with the exception of the odd 9th century Hindu text and the occasional fairy story (in both of which characters fall asleep and wake up in the future - a one-way trip), the concept of being able to move both backwards and forwards in time has only been a cultural notion for the last century and a quarter, since H.G. Wells conceived the Time Machine.
Since then, it has become interesting to speculate about whether or not someone travelling from current to past times can change the course of events by virtue of arriving in the There and Then like some deus ex machina; equally if someone travelling to future times can change the course of current events armed with that glimpsed foreknowledge, thereby altering the future scenario. And beyond those puzzling ponderings, can time itself possibly flow in two directions? It is all still science-fiction.
...now read the lines above in reverse, bottom to top.
Cleverly done and thought-provoking, don't you think? I'm sure none of the hundreds of thousands who have been fleeing Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria over the last twenty years saw a life in detention centres and refugee camps on their timelines when they were growing up, getting an education, entering professions, starting families in their once peaceful and prosperous countries. So how do we encourage the human race consistently to regard refugees in Bilston's bottom-up rather than top-down mode?
Here's the poem, for what it's worth. I may expand it over time. And yes, that is Blackpool tower you can just make out in the artist's impression above...
 |
| essential time-travel apparel |
It is also all a matter of perspective. Trust me to know where this is going and have a read of the poem below, written by Brian Bilston in 2016:
Refugees
They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way
...now read the lines above in reverse, bottom to top.
Cleverly done and thought-provoking, don't you think? I'm sure none of the hundreds of thousands who have been fleeing Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria over the last twenty years saw a life in detention centres and refugee camps on their timelines when they were growing up, getting an education, entering professions, starting families in their once peaceful and prosperous countries. So how do we encourage the human race consistently to regard refugees in Bilston's bottom-up rather than top-down mode?
 |
| still from 'The Sixth Finger' (episode five of The Outer Limits) |
My absolute favourite sci-fi programme from my boyhood was The Outer Limits, 49 episodes of superbly-written, cast and acted dramas aired from 1963 to 1965. The fifth episode concerned an experiment to accelerate a human being (a Welsh miner played by David McCallum) through the evolutionary process in precisely the hope that humankind might become more intelligent and caring.
Unfortunately things didn't turn out for the best. The more advanced the specimen became, a dome-headed super-brain, the more destructive he was, which can be read metaphorically I suppose. The decision was made to reverse the process and that temporarily overshot, rendering him momentarily hirsute and caveman-like, before returning him to his original 20th century self, whereupon he promptly passed out from the stress of it all. (I've attached a clip of the closing few minutes at the end of the blog.) I guess we'll just have to go on taking very small and painful steps in real time towards that more intelligent and caring future and hope that our descendants survive to enjoy it together.
However, in the meantime I fired up the imaginarium this week to produce a poetic window on what life might be like in the future, supposing that human beings decide that the march of progress is actually a march towards destruction, and consequently act to reverse that march via some comprehensive de-industrialising of society.
 |
| back to the future - the Fylde coast in the year 2121 |
Rivurzd
A plesent day dun, sensing spring in the ayre
Roste ottur supper wiv weetcakes und pikkle
Later hunny beer und singsongs on the guttur
Happy famly fed und safe, praze to the Ludd
This simpel lyf weer living wun wiv ar wurld
This harmuny wiv nacher, woz neerly spoyld
But ar wyzend wuns sore far of into the futtur
Fortold ov distrucshun by megattuns ov bomz
Progres had to be rivurzd bifor orl woz rooind
Orl mashinry was spurnd und orl bookz burnd
Iz not az tho we dident no wot we wer dooing
Gud lessenz hav been lurnd praze to the Ludd
In case you're interested, here's a link to a short YouTube clip of the closing minutes of the Outer Limits episode that partly inspired my poem. Just click on the title: The Sixth Finger
Thanks for reading, S ;-)
31 comments:
Interesting!
The refugee poem is clever and thought provoking - as your poem is too - Illustration fun - Reminds me of Planet of the Apes when they find the Statue of Liberty half buried in the sand - another culture reversed. Cheers for an interesting read. :)
I've read a couple of 'reverse' poems recently. Refugees is very cleverly done. I'm assuming your own is a reversal/reversion of language to a simpler future form? As already noted, it's an interesting read.
Ooh, a time-shifting conundrum for Sunday morning. Thanks Steve, I enjoyed reading this and even watched the film clip. Your poem reminded me a bit of Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker, whether by accident or design.
Oyston's mammoth would feel right at home again! As for refugees yes a clever poem and I wish no one ill but we're all pawns of political power games - need to get Syria/Afghan/Iraq sorted so there people can go home again.
Reverse poetry looks fairly tricky but I might give it a go with lots of lockdown left still. Your blog provided food for thought as usual (and I don't just mean 'roste ottur') though I can't see the sort of reversal you've documented in your poem arriving via choice or any means other than a horrendous global accident.
Interesting that you don't menshun the Time Lords. Obviously, in the year 2121 all teechurs have died out and home-teaching by parenz is wonce again being donne. My 13 year old dyslexic grandson would win the Nobel Prize for Literature! I am booking my holidays on the Fylde Coast immediately while a good bed and breakfast can still be enjoyed rather than a night in a tent and roste ottur.
More quirky brilliance la. Your blog a hi-spot on a down day!
That Brian Bilston poem is clever, a notch above some of the other things I've read by him. I'm too young to have caught The Outer Limits. There's something compelling about those early forays into sci-fi on screen, a naive, atmospheric quality that modern CGI can't capture. Your poem was interesting, to say the least, a blast from our phonetic future (sorry, futtur). š
Make a nice Tarka dhal with the leftovers :D
But the donkeys. I hope the Blackpool donkeys survived. They'd have a key logistical role to play in that non-mechanised future. It's a thought-provoking blog, I'll give you that, but I agree with Jen McDonagh I can't see people voting to reverse civilisation in that manner.
I thought the Refugees poem was very clever and your musings on life's reversals are interesting. I don't see the Second Coming of the Luddites myself but stranger things have happened.
Someone once said: "The essence of comedy is that we make mistakes, the essence of tragedy is that we cannot reverse them." I like the simple life sentiment of your Rivurzd poem, Steve, but the devolution solution seems overly drastic.
An interesting read. I wouldn't want to live in a tent and eat roast otter but I agree that we need to evolve in a less selfish way if we are to avoid ruining the planet.
I agree with the above comments. No reversing into the future for me either, but we do need to use our intelligence more wisely.
Enjoyable as ever Steve. The Refugees poem is well done, different from Brian Bilston's usual tongue-in-cheek style. Your back-to-the=future poem is interesting. I like the fact you've written it in a devolved phonetic fashion. As with other comments, not sure I'd like that vision of the future - especially as artists' impressions always paint a brighter picture than the reality!
I'm sure there were some small pockets of 'indigenous' peoples still living 'win wiv ar wurld' as your poem describes it in parts of the world well into the 20th century, on reservations in America and Australia, in parts of Africa and Asia, in the remote forests of South America but the white man has stolen their lands and corrupted their cultures in a way that doesn't appear to be reversible. Everyone's aboard the runaway train now.
There are not any major events turns in my personal life that I would choose to reverse but as nation I wish we could have (and maybe still will) reverse that Brexit decision. I enjoyed both the poems and the clunky sci-fi clip which came from way before my time - it's in b&w!
Save the otter ;) Anyway, no doctors, no dentists... no way!
A thoughtful post about life's reversals. I particularly liked the Refugees poem you shared. It's cleverly done. I thought your poem was intriguing as is the concept of mankind deciding to reverse the technological march in recognition of the damage it is doing to the planet...and who knows, maybe we would all be happier living in tents and eating roast otter with pickles.
Great blog Steve. š
Random Friday thought: H.G. Wells, being a devotee of Free Love would have enjoyed a trip to the 1960s! Good blog Steve. Brian Bilston's poem is very clever and yours in challenging for its interesting use of devolved language. I saw the reference to Riddley Walker above and remember trying to read it 30 years ago and giving up too easily.
Thought provoking indeed, well done, Steve. As someone who has spent many years training myself to not have regrets, I never want to go back. I'm pretty sure if I did, I'd just land where I was at the tame, with no knowledge of how I could do anything differently.
I was struck by the Outer Limits clip, and the claim that the aim of evolution is to have everyone intelligent, assuming it would result the end of appallingly bad behaviour. Somehow, I just don't think that's the answer!
Enjoyed the Refugees poem - thank you for sharing it. Always good to try and look at things differently, in this case in reverse!
Hi Steve. I loved the blog.
Great blog, clever poems. I watched the re-run of The Outer Limits in the 80s (too young to have seen the original broadcasts). It still stood up quite well but its impact first time around must have been immense. š
Ooh. I hope those happy peasants don't get picked off by the subterraneans!
I used to watch The Outer Limits (in the late 1960s) and wondered if you knew if any of those programmes are still available maybe on DVD? I'd love to watch them again. Your blog has whetted my appetite for them, but not for roste ottur!
Thanks everyone for the feedback. TJ: the answer is yes, at least the first series (of 32 episodes) has been remastered to blu-ray in an 8-disc box set by MGM but it's region-A coded, so you'd need a multi-region machine to watch it on - worth it though for 27 hours of excellent early 60s sci-fi.
That Brian Bilston poem is very clever. I'd read some of his works online before and always thought he was a bit light-weight or facetious but Refugees is excellent.
Very clever, "praze to the Ludd", assume the Lord has become a Luddite in popular 22nd century mythology.
Post a Comment