Black Hat Brigade: Episode 13
Sep. 16th, 2015 02:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastSetting: A clean, beautiful park beside the Multiverse Multiport. In the center of the park stands a statue of Aesop. A couple trees provide shade on the bright day. Within the shade of such a tree...
Reepicheep: The Way she described it was "insufficient illumination". Characters aren't shown honestly. Virtues are ignored, even if the story can't operate without them. Morals are simplified or even reversed. Canon does injustice that... well... if it's going to be righted, someone has to right it.
Templeton: I don't know. I don't think every character needs to be complex. I'm alright with my presentation.
Philo: Yeah, we've got things good in our canon.
Gunge: We serve Marjorie, but we also get to be smart and even her moral equal.
Reepicheep: Perhaps it isn't for everybody. In your canon, even the Gorgs get to display virtues and be good guys at times.
Rattigan: It might be for me. If nothing else, I could do with some exploration of why, in a late 19th century England, I had such objection, in the movie, to being called a rat.
Reepicheep: Yes. That could be... something. I confess to not being fully clear on how many vill... bad guys become good guys.
Rattigan: You were about to say "villains"?
Reepicheep: Yes, but it's becoming clear that some words may not mean what I mean for them to mean.
A warm light spreads over the shadey spot. Philo and Gunge look up, then zip off. Templeton is already scampering into some tunnel or hole to hide.
Rattigan stands to his full height, flourishing with his cape and addressing the source of the light: I do not believe we have met. I am Professor Rattigan.
Aslan: I know who you are, Padraic. You have no need for-
Rattigan: Rattigan. The name I gave myself is Rattigan.
Aslan: Your Christian name is Padraic.
Rattigan: My religion is whatever it is. The name I have chosen is Professor Rattigan. That is how I choose to identify and, as a sentient being, I have the right to choose my own identity.
Aslan: You will learn in time.
Aslan turns to Reepicheep: You are spending more and more time outside of our canon. And, I have heard you have spoken to Susan.
Reepicheep: Canon is hardly going to provide me with the opportunity to confer with that particular queen of Narnia's golden age.
Aslan: The queen who forgot Narnia, who rushed to the silliest of stages of a woman's life and-
Rattigan: Based entirely upon your idea of what constitutes "silly".
Aslan: Not just mine. It is a well-known moral of the failures of vanity.
Rattigan: From a narrative that constantly judges people by their appearance and their class.
Aslan: For a villain and a mouse in the presence of a lion that is Jesus himself, you speak very boldly.
Rattigan: I am voiced by Vincent Price. Only the unwise are unafraid.
Aslan: I am voiced by Liam Neeson.
Reepicheep: And, to point a fact, you aren't Jesus.
Aslan turns his eyes to Reepicheep: What did you say?
Reepicheep: You aren't Jesus. You can't be.
Aslan: I see you've been influenced by Susan, and perhaps the voice piece of an atheist author.
Reepicheep: Atheism has nothing to do with it. You are the creation of C.S. Lewis. Even assuming that Jesus Christ really existed as described in the Bible, you can no more be Jesus Christ than this can really be a pipe.
Aslan: If it is not a pipe, then what is it?
Reepicheep: The idea of a pipe, an assumed idea, not even the text specifying or describing. Whether small enough to fit in my hand or large enough for you to walk through, it can only be a description of what one author's idea of a pipe.
Reepicheep: All you are, and this is important to understand about you, is the rough idea of Jesus as expressed by one author who wasn't too big on second drafts. Even if Jesus Christ exists and is morally perfect, you can't be.
Aslan: Authorial intent is clear on this matter.
Rattigan: The author is deader than any of us. And, after a fashion, we've each died in our canons.
Reepicheep: I did not die.
Rattigan (shrugs): Went to Heaven, where people go when they die, nobody got to talk to you after that until the world ended. That's called death where I come from.
Reepicheep pauses, but looks back to Aslan: However it goes, you're fallible. The morality that claims you to be perfect is the understanding of morality by a not-perfect person. So, you can only be perfectly adhering to an imperfect morality. And, that morality... it's not so good for the likes of me.
Aslan: You do not like your place in canon? You would prefer, perhaps, to be Miraz or Grumpas?
Reepicheep: So, you're willing to switch places with me, but not with them?
Aslan (in mildly growling tone): The author may be dead, but canon will not see me as your subordinate.
Reepicheep: Okay, how about putting a human in my place and me in a human's?
Aslan: It is the humans who are meant to rule. You should be content to be a heroic and remembered hero of mice.
Reepicheep: I'm sure they would be less diplomatic in their response... although that would have the value of honesty.
Aslan: You call me a liar?
Reepicheep: The point being that either would be a demotion. Humans, surrounding me and my fellow Mice and our fellow Animals, big enough to step on us without noticing if in a rush, and we aren't even given the basic respect of a canon that acknowledges us to be moral equals.
Aslan sighs a patient sigh: There is a way of things, Reepicheep. In that way, you have a high place.
Reepicheep: What is this way? The cycle of life? The great chain of being? The particular organization that, absent any moral value to earn anything, places you on top and, absent any failing to lose anything, places my people on bottom, with only open criminals and canon-identified evils possibly beneath us... or not as case may require?
Aslan: Is this what you want? To break the canon so that you may achieve ambitions above your station?
Reepicheep: What I would have wanted was a canon in which I didn't have to play the childish fool in order to keep humans comfortable of their superiority. As it stands, recognition of the tragedy may be all that can be achieved. If so, I will achieve it.
Aslan: With the help of this... Black Hat Brigade.
Reepicheep: Perhaps.
Aslan: And, at the expense of the good, Christian values I represent.
Reepicheep: Neither C.S. Lewis nor you own Christianity. So, the expense will be your values. Christian values are another matter.
Aslan: At the expense of Christian values.
Reepicheep: Didn't you get the part where I said you don't own Christianity?
Aslan: I heard you. I don't concern myself with matters of those who claim to be Christians without being Christians. And, I will not see Christian values overturned, not in my canon.
Reepicheep: Anything that happens from here on in is not in canon. So, you'll be acting without authorial support.
Rattigan: You could simply accept that things are going to change.
Aslan: I only have to accept the plan, the way of things as they should be. All else is lesser.
Reepicheep: Then, I guess there's a conflict to be had.
Aslan: It saddens me that you have been tempted to the wrong side, Reepicheep. It saddens me greatly.
Reepicheep: It saddens me that you can't see when you've been tempted to the wrong side, yourself.
Reepicheep: The Way she described it was "insufficient illumination". Characters aren't shown honestly. Virtues are ignored, even if the story can't operate without them. Morals are simplified or even reversed. Canon does injustice that... well... if it's going to be righted, someone has to right it.
Templeton: I don't know. I don't think every character needs to be complex. I'm alright with my presentation.
Philo: Yeah, we've got things good in our canon.
Gunge: We serve Marjorie, but we also get to be smart and even her moral equal.
Reepicheep: Perhaps it isn't for everybody. In your canon, even the Gorgs get to display virtues and be good guys at times.
Rattigan: It might be for me. If nothing else, I could do with some exploration of why, in a late 19th century England, I had such objection, in the movie, to being called a rat.
Reepicheep: Yes. That could be... something. I confess to not being fully clear on how many vill... bad guys become good guys.
Rattigan: You were about to say "villains"?
Reepicheep: Yes, but it's becoming clear that some words may not mean what I mean for them to mean.
A warm light spreads over the shadey spot. Philo and Gunge look up, then zip off. Templeton is already scampering into some tunnel or hole to hide.
Rattigan stands to his full height, flourishing with his cape and addressing the source of the light: I do not believe we have met. I am Professor Rattigan.
Aslan: I know who you are, Padraic. You have no need for-
Rattigan: Rattigan. The name I gave myself is Rattigan.
Aslan: Your Christian name is Padraic.
Rattigan: My religion is whatever it is. The name I have chosen is Professor Rattigan. That is how I choose to identify and, as a sentient being, I have the right to choose my own identity.
Aslan: You will learn in time.
Aslan turns to Reepicheep: You are spending more and more time outside of our canon. And, I have heard you have spoken to Susan.
Reepicheep: Canon is hardly going to provide me with the opportunity to confer with that particular queen of Narnia's golden age.
Aslan: The queen who forgot Narnia, who rushed to the silliest of stages of a woman's life and-
Rattigan: Based entirely upon your idea of what constitutes "silly".
Aslan: Not just mine. It is a well-known moral of the failures of vanity.
Rattigan: From a narrative that constantly judges people by their appearance and their class.
Aslan: For a villain and a mouse in the presence of a lion that is Jesus himself, you speak very boldly.
Rattigan: I am voiced by Vincent Price. Only the unwise are unafraid.
Aslan: I am voiced by Liam Neeson.
Reepicheep: And, to point a fact, you aren't Jesus.
Aslan turns his eyes to Reepicheep: What did you say?
Reepicheep: You aren't Jesus. You can't be.
Aslan: I see you've been influenced by Susan, and perhaps the voice piece of an atheist author.
Reepicheep: Atheism has nothing to do with it. You are the creation of C.S. Lewis. Even assuming that Jesus Christ really existed as described in the Bible, you can no more be Jesus Christ than this can really be a pipe.
Aslan: If it is not a pipe, then what is it?
Reepicheep: The idea of a pipe, an assumed idea, not even the text specifying or describing. Whether small enough to fit in my hand or large enough for you to walk through, it can only be a description of what one author's idea of a pipe.
Reepicheep: All you are, and this is important to understand about you, is the rough idea of Jesus as expressed by one author who wasn't too big on second drafts. Even if Jesus Christ exists and is morally perfect, you can't be.
Aslan: Authorial intent is clear on this matter.
Rattigan: The author is deader than any of us. And, after a fashion, we've each died in our canons.
Reepicheep: I did not die.
Rattigan (shrugs): Went to Heaven, where people go when they die, nobody got to talk to you after that until the world ended. That's called death where I come from.
Reepicheep pauses, but looks back to Aslan: However it goes, you're fallible. The morality that claims you to be perfect is the understanding of morality by a not-perfect person. So, you can only be perfectly adhering to an imperfect morality. And, that morality... it's not so good for the likes of me.
Aslan: You do not like your place in canon? You would prefer, perhaps, to be Miraz or Grumpas?
Reepicheep: So, you're willing to switch places with me, but not with them?
Aslan (in mildly growling tone): The author may be dead, but canon will not see me as your subordinate.
Reepicheep: Okay, how about putting a human in my place and me in a human's?
Aslan: It is the humans who are meant to rule. You should be content to be a heroic and remembered hero of mice.
Reepicheep: I'm sure they would be less diplomatic in their response... although that would have the value of honesty.
Aslan: You call me a liar?
Reepicheep: The point being that either would be a demotion. Humans, surrounding me and my fellow Mice and our fellow Animals, big enough to step on us without noticing if in a rush, and we aren't even given the basic respect of a canon that acknowledges us to be moral equals.
Aslan sighs a patient sigh: There is a way of things, Reepicheep. In that way, you have a high place.
Reepicheep: What is this way? The cycle of life? The great chain of being? The particular organization that, absent any moral value to earn anything, places you on top and, absent any failing to lose anything, places my people on bottom, with only open criminals and canon-identified evils possibly beneath us... or not as case may require?
Aslan: Is this what you want? To break the canon so that you may achieve ambitions above your station?
Reepicheep: What I would have wanted was a canon in which I didn't have to play the childish fool in order to keep humans comfortable of their superiority. As it stands, recognition of the tragedy may be all that can be achieved. If so, I will achieve it.
Aslan: With the help of this... Black Hat Brigade.
Reepicheep: Perhaps.
Aslan: And, at the expense of the good, Christian values I represent.
Reepicheep: Neither C.S. Lewis nor you own Christianity. So, the expense will be your values. Christian values are another matter.
Aslan: At the expense of Christian values.
Reepicheep: Didn't you get the part where I said you don't own Christianity?
Aslan: I heard you. I don't concern myself with matters of those who claim to be Christians without being Christians. And, I will not see Christian values overturned, not in my canon.
Reepicheep: Anything that happens from here on in is not in canon. So, you'll be acting without authorial support.
Rattigan: You could simply accept that things are going to change.
Aslan: I only have to accept the plan, the way of things as they should be. All else is lesser.
Reepicheep: Then, I guess there's a conflict to be had.
Aslan: It saddens me that you have been tempted to the wrong side, Reepicheep. It saddens me greatly.
Reepicheep: It saddens me that you can't see when you've been tempted to the wrong side, yourself.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-16 02:24 pm (UTC)No, as an equal. *sigh*
Aslan as allegory and stand-in kind of makes my teeth hurt, but since that's the point.. well written!
The scene of the rats fleeing the approaching lion is an interesting choice, here.
no subject
Date: 2015-09-16 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-16 04:59 pm (UTC)