Living a Slow Death...
  |
In any case, two things were obvious: the signifyin' monkey had surveyed
the skies while the porch monkey, presently, measured the porch. Theseus
could at any moment step beyond the porch, beyond the academy, but had
chosen to stay in his place. To assuage the nagging reality that he was
responsible for his own fate, he reasoned that his great ancestor had finally
been thrown off the buzzard only to land on the porch. No one, not even
the porch monkey, could blame the buzzard for wanting to jettison his cargo.
After all, a monkey on one's back, for whatever reason, is quite a burden,
and according to legend, it was the original signifyin' monkey that had
"convinced" the buzzard to allow the monkey to get on his back in the first
place. So who could you blame: the first monkey to be trusted or
the last buzzard to listen? Indeed, the signifyin' monkey was a double-talkin'
monkey, versed in the art of getting his point across (or getting what
he wanted) by casting out lyrics or "sayings" that allowed the listener
to hear what he wanted to hear while allowing the monkey to say what needed
to be said. Such played-out contradictions cannot be allowed to exist for
long. There must have been a breaking point, a point at which the animal
kingdom "got wind" of the original monkey's shenanigans with the buzzard.
They must have collectively refused to strike up any more "harmless" conversations—conversations
that were essential in initiating the art of double-talking. Theseus concluded
that the gig had played out, and as a result, his ancestors were relegated
to porches all over the territory. What made the academy porch different
from all of the others was that conversations with monkeys could occur,
but somebody had imposed a rule that double-talking was strictly forbidden.
In other words, there was freedom of speech as long as the speech wasn't
doubled.
Regardless of any of these speculations, the porch was still the porch
and the monkey was the still the monkey. Theseus wondered, even if he were
allowed to do so, if he could conjure up the double-talking gifts of his
ancestor to resolve the questions in his own mind (as small as it was),
and cause the particular animals of this particular kingdom to do some
double takes. He had been doing some research on the history of this craft
in the archive of the academy and had come across something called Animal
Farm. Although he liked a substantial part of the story, he had been
disappointed by the ending—everyone knew that pigs, with their status in
the com Rather than rummage through the garbage of the archive, Theseus decided
that if he were to regain his natural gift as a double-talker, he would
be better served if he looked elsewhere. Unfortunately, "elsewhere" meant
only the porch, and Theseus thought he already knew its every nook and
cranny. The only thing significant on the porch, other than the various
dates and inscriptions, was himself, and this information was too obvious
and of no use to him. |
munity,
would never have stooped so low as to "dine" with humans. This ending struck
him as pure propaganda. It was obvious that the writer, who was human,
was trying to compensate for his own inadequacies.
