h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Abiezer - A2673443
Author: Pinniped - U183682

Now here's a piece that really invites one to think upon the real workings of the world around us. What better way to start a new year than with a bit of reflection, pausing for a time to ponder the 'What Was' in order to better shape the 'What Will Be'

You know this one is so condensed it needed two readings. One to assemble all the background and also to get the... not sure how to put this... the rythm of some of the sentences - to place the emphasis correctly in order to get the meaning. Then a second read to actually read it through and be able to take in the ideas. Just like Abiezer's Fiery Flying Roll itself. Which I'm now going to reread.

As always, Pin's prose is superb. Though this reads like poetry more than prose - particularly in phrases like 'now they are stripped of their muzzles of drawn and hammered iron.'

As for Abiezer, it's difficult for us to think ourselves into his mindset. This piece makes me feel I ought to go and read up about him and his views. Perhaps this was Pin's intention.

Brilliant. Thank you.

Although I will now spend all day with that song in my head:

'In 1649, on St George's Hill, a ragged band they called the Diggers came to show the people's will...'</>

That certainly was my intention. Go and read around this. Coppe and his time are astonishing. Revelatory, even.

FWIW, this was originally written to go with another Entry about Winstanley (which made it into the Edited Guide, being relatively normal). I never got round to Muggleton.

And that's a great song too, dmg. Rosselson is a pretty good ranter himself.

Thanks all. Particularly to Spy for dusting off a piece that means more to me than most.

Pin

One thing, peanuts.

They struck me as exotic for those times. (I actually went googling to find out when peanuts arrived here and have aquired more useless info.)

Is there a reference for Abiezer and peanut shells? Not being pedantic, just curious. I found references to apples and pears. More effective as missiles, less effective in meaning.

I'm not sure where I got it from now.

http://books.google.com/books?id=93OxYSzOFCsC&pg=RA1-PA116&lpg=RA1-PA116&dq=coppe+trial+-copper&source=web&ots=UfGVk1fcM4&sig=JRf-ANoSpwWphfXde-5nrTyQ5R8

This mentions nuts as well as fruit.

I imagine 'nuts' might not be peanuts, or ground nuts. I doubt they would have made it to London by then, but I haven't got a hard reference for their arrival in England.

Fruit and nuts there.

I saw apples and pears mentioned somewhere else. Big stuff to chuck around! 'World Geography of the Peanut' -> http://www.lanra.uga.edu/peanut/knowledgebase/ Isn't the www a wonderful thing? It implies England and France were well behind the rest of the world in encountering peanuts. No date though, and who knows what they might have called them at the time.

Does it matter, do you think, that the peanut shells were probably never thrown?

I struggle with history. I love it, but I worry sometimes that I sully it.

That's a hard question. You're not writing a fact sheet.

The peanut shells suggest some contempt, which I reckon is accurate. The picture of throwing apples and pears is a bit ridiculous today.

Sullying pure fact while doing a better job of representing Abiezer - he threw fruit and nuts, in today's world the nuts would be peanuts. Or sunflower seeds.

Yes. Contempt is right.

All the literature I've read suggests that Coppe first tried to talk his way out of trouble, but then fell back on pretending to be crazy, and threw things to 'prove' it.

Not my Abezier. My Abezier confidently tells his persecutors that his senses dwell on a different plane to theirs, and demonstrates it through behaviour that's at once irrational and derisive.

More modern context there - we've got very little grasp of the real nature of the trouble he was facing. Your Abiezer does him justice perhaps? I wonder if he felt he would become what he despised if he wasn't so passionately full on.

And the last of February's Underguide selections, though this one has a provisional element.

congratulations Pin. (Or if you prefer?) Over the years you've contributed an extraordinary amount of writing, of great variety, to h2g2. The word that comes to mind most, considering all of it, is stimulating. Which is probably the most productive, best, thing writing can be. I'm saying this because it seems odd there isn't more of your work in the UnderGuide.

Thanks go to spynxxx for submitting this one here.

For the interest of AWW readers, here's the QA comment on 'Abiezer'

"This was fun to write, but it’s so pretentious and self-indulgent that few others will find it enjoyable. At the time of writing, the taunting tone seemed justified by the subject-matter, but Coppe actually deserves better. This is a caricature."

Well, self-indulgent maybe (is there any good writing that isn't?), and I think knowing some background is, or becomes, a necessity to 'get' it, but it's an experience to read and readers who stick with it and go exploring will get a lot from it.

The provisional bit - you also said you didn't want the street name bowdlerised. Well the -naked would need to change, which I expected, but the Eds said expletives needed replacing, and noting the 's' on that, I'm double checking they don't also mean the Conduit.

I can't believe a street name is a problem. If the BBC can't deal with it, I agree with you that that would be too silly to go along with and 'Abiezer' would need to go Under the Counter instead.

Whatever the outcome, on the miners' choices, and thank you for the very considerable contribution you make here.
UGeds

Thanks

Just 'naked' is just as good. Change it now if it helps.

Mesing with the street name would not be OK, not even with asterisks. The correct name should appear in full.

There won't be a problem though, since it already appears verbatim in the Edited Guide, quoting a moderately respected if occasionally licentious writer: A863309

(The claret seems to be flowing today, too: F74130?thread=5158889)

all's well. Actually, I should've checked yesterday evening but as the email didn't go till after five, I didn't expect any reply before next week. The PTB were working late, it was good of them to give an answer so quick.

I never thought to check h2g2 - I found an old map. Sent that.

It's just as well there's hardly ever any junk mail on that account because Yahoo put their email in the spam box. Thought it might be Nigerian millions - I never get offered Nigerian millions in my own email .

I confess to a moment's temptation, when I found that Entry, not to mention it and to see what happened next.

I cerainly would have done for Charlotte. I would have hoped for a knockback and a delicious riposte in those days, but the present Powers deserve and need support rather than smartassery.

The way I found it? Put the streetname into Google, and Hit#1 = h2g2. So much for the profanity filter.

The ways of google are mysterious. I googled it with London added, no h2g2 in the first 50.

I'm hopeless on this 'offensive' expletives thing. A slang word for urinating being unacceptable while nothing in boot's weight watchers piece is a problem is weird.

Not that I'm complaining about the latter - it's great. Really is.

This is a fantastic bit of writing. Knowing next to nothing about the history or events involved did not cloud my enjoyment of the piece. It's beautifully written, with poetic language that to me makes it more an interpretation than a factual piece. I prefer it that way. I don't particularly care about streams of facts. When history is brought alive in this way it's so much more appealing.

-G

Hey, thanks!

Perceptive point you make there. h2g2 tends to split on fact-veneration lines. Fact comes first in the Edited Guide and PR, sometimes so much so that the feeling gets squeezed out of the writing.

The UnderGuide and the more serious writing in AWW is mainly fictional. This younger side of the site tends to cover the ground that the EG rejects, and so ends up being largely fact-free.

Maybe we're a bit too polarised. I like the place in between, a real subject with a romanticised treatment. I'm glad you enjoyed this example.