- Sep 22, 2013
- 4,956
- 250
- 85
This is a capitalism omen involving Marvel Comics' Gray Goblin (a terrorist and mutant 'son-of-perdition') and a 'spooky martini' about the DJIA (a modern Wall Street 'marker' of capitalism-sanity).
This yarn (my last one, fortunately, most likely --- 95% sure) was inspired by Ghost in the Machine.
Cheers (Hope everyone had a cool and safe 4th of July),
====
Alan was a sharp stockbroker simply jaded by all the labors and tedium of modern era capitalism-ambition. Alan decided to go to the library and buy some ghost stories and read them on a cozy Friday evening in his lavish Manhattan apartment and contemplate the deeper spirituality of man and forget about the mindless work of Wall Street (if only for one night!). Alan fell asleep reading a rather eerie story about a creature called the Gray Goblin (a ghoul signifying terrorism and anti-social imagination) terrorizing stockbrokers in Manhattan.
Alan realized he was suddenly in a deep state of sleep, dreaming about encountering the Gray Goblin! Alan tried to pinch himself in his dream so he'd wake up, but he simply couldn't wake on will from this odd dream. Alan dreamt he was wandering around Manhattan in the year 2050, 10 years after Earth's nuclear-war apocalypse. Manhattan was a city in rumbles and scavengers and diplomats scrambled to both survive and think more clearly.
Alan came upon an abandoned skyscraper which had some strange lights lit inside at night-time. Alan wanted to go inside the building and talk to the people who might be inside, using the lights for some reason. Perhaps the building was their shelter, and Alan was curious to see what these apocalypse survivors were doing. There were about 6 rooms lit up in the skyscraper, and Alan wanted to explore each room. When Alan walked inside the skyscraper, the presence of the Gray Goblin(!) welcomed him and explained he would be Alan's 'tour guide.'
GRAY GOBLIN: Each lit room in this building offers a moral lesson.
ALAN: So in this post-apocalyptic Manhattan, people signify regret?
GRAY GOBLIN: Not simple regret; they're contemplating moral hygiene.
ALAN: So Manhattan has become a sort of purgatory...
GRAY GOBLIN: Precisely, Alan; the rooms you will visit in this building offer clues.
ALAN: Why am I having this dream?
GRAY GOBLIN: You're a successful but sceptical modern bureaucrat.
ALAN: Aha! So I'm to learn about the 'merits of capitalism,' eh?
GRAY GOBLIN: Perhaps.
ALAN: What if I don't like what I learn?
GRAY GOBLIN: That's a realistic possibility, but I'm sure you'll think.
ALAN: Is each room some kind of tribulation symbol?
GRAY GOBLIN: Of course, but you must decide what the symbolism means.
Gray Goblin wished Alan good luck, and Alan proceeded to climb up the stairs to the floor where the 6 rooms were lit. Alan decided to go to each room sequentially, starting with the first one closest to him exiting the stairwell and proceeding back towards the skyscraper hallway window. The first room was rather dimly-lit, though lit, and the light was flickering. Alan resolved to take mental notes of the symbolism of each room, just as Gray Goblin had advised.
ROOM 1
"In this room, I notice that the 3 people inside are worshipping a statue of a Buddhist child, perhaps signifying transcendental wisdom in this post-apocalyptic tribulation. The child is smiling and is meant to serve as a 'sacrificial goat' to the pagan gods of capitalism-ambition. The child suffers as the humans meditate on the yearning, pining, and lusting for fortune and fame in the proverbial American Dream. The child is obviously the AntiChrist."
ROOM 2
"In this room, a bride and groom are staring out the window and looking at all the scurrying scavengers on the streets of Manhattan below. The bride and groom are dressed in wedding attire but their clothes are stained with blood around their neck, signifying their paranoia about being 'decapitated' in this modern world of limitless capitalism-related avarice and Wall Street lust. The bride and groom must be analogous to the Biblical experience of Adam and Eve."
ROOM 3
"In this room, an artist is drawing sketches of the Gray Goblin. I approached the artist and asked him why he was drawing the Gray Goblin, and he coldly looked up at me and explained, 'This creature exemplifies our post-apocalyptic paranoia about alienation and abandonment, since capitalism has failed the human network (or civilization temperance!). These drawings represent my spiritual consciousness.' I have to conclude that this artist is some kind of 'false prophet'."
ROOM 4
"In this room, two grown men were playing poker. They began to lament about trying to unwind and forget about their post-apocalyptic woes with a fun card-game but failing, since the 'ruins of capitalism' were literally all around them! The poker game was at times fast, at times slow, but each hand signified a general human malaise about the terrible consequences of unmitigated gambling in a 'civilized world.' I realize the poker game symbolized the influence of the Devil."
ROOM 5
"In this room, 4 women were in black dresses, dancing to music they were humming collectively. The women were expressing some joy at being independent and hence safe from the vain ambitions of capitalism-obsessed men such as 43rd U.S. President Donald Trump and 21st Century Microsoft power-tycoon/merchant Bill Gates. The women were happy to be left alone to their enchanting ritual and perhaps completely free from the 'bad influence' of drunken debauchery."
ROOM 6
"In this room, a man was scribbling notes, trying to use mathematics to decode the terrible problems of post-apocalyptic Manhattan. The man was trying to find a 'formula' to equate social schizophrenia with Orwellian mindless bureaucratic traffic, and he believed he could use parking-meter counters as 'markers' of the general 'synchronized heartbeat' of America/civilization. I realize this man is like the spiritually-tested character of Job (from the Christian Bible's Book of Job)."
After Alan visited each room, he proceeded back down the stairwell and exited the skyscraper-building. He was once again greeted by his 'tour guide' (the eerie Gray Goblin) who demanded to know what Alan had discovered/learned. Alan explained that he found that each room conveyed some 'face' of the 'general darkness' of untampered capitalism, which was suffocating the imagination of man, but that each room was different in its consequence-symbolism. Gray Goblin congratulated Alan for having received the right lessons from this entire dream.
Alan awoke from his dream and was shocked to find a strange color-pencil sketch of the Gray Goblin lying on his Manhattan apartment coffee-table. Alan realized the sketch resembled the child-like doodles the artist from Room 3 was making of the Gray Goblin and wondered how the sketch got there! Alan wondered if a friend of his made it and left it there while visiting him. Maybe it was the subconscious memory of this unidentified visitor that inspired Alan to 'construct' the character of the strange artist from Room 3 in his Gray Goblin dream. Alan picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal that afternoon and noticed that the DJIA resembled the 'hauntingly-inviting proportions' of the skyscraper from his Gray Goblin dream/nightmare. Alan concluded that capitalism was like a giant amusement-park...complete with funny-mirrors and hypnotizing rulers!
THE END
====
This yarn (my last one, fortunately, most likely --- 95% sure) was inspired by Ghost in the Machine.
Cheers (Hope everyone had a cool and safe 4th of July),
====
Alan was a sharp stockbroker simply jaded by all the labors and tedium of modern era capitalism-ambition. Alan decided to go to the library and buy some ghost stories and read them on a cozy Friday evening in his lavish Manhattan apartment and contemplate the deeper spirituality of man and forget about the mindless work of Wall Street (if only for one night!). Alan fell asleep reading a rather eerie story about a creature called the Gray Goblin (a ghoul signifying terrorism and anti-social imagination) terrorizing stockbrokers in Manhattan.
Alan realized he was suddenly in a deep state of sleep, dreaming about encountering the Gray Goblin! Alan tried to pinch himself in his dream so he'd wake up, but he simply couldn't wake on will from this odd dream. Alan dreamt he was wandering around Manhattan in the year 2050, 10 years after Earth's nuclear-war apocalypse. Manhattan was a city in rumbles and scavengers and diplomats scrambled to both survive and think more clearly.
Alan came upon an abandoned skyscraper which had some strange lights lit inside at night-time. Alan wanted to go inside the building and talk to the people who might be inside, using the lights for some reason. Perhaps the building was their shelter, and Alan was curious to see what these apocalypse survivors were doing. There were about 6 rooms lit up in the skyscraper, and Alan wanted to explore each room. When Alan walked inside the skyscraper, the presence of the Gray Goblin(!) welcomed him and explained he would be Alan's 'tour guide.'
GRAY GOBLIN: Each lit room in this building offers a moral lesson.
ALAN: So in this post-apocalyptic Manhattan, people signify regret?
GRAY GOBLIN: Not simple regret; they're contemplating moral hygiene.
ALAN: So Manhattan has become a sort of purgatory...
GRAY GOBLIN: Precisely, Alan; the rooms you will visit in this building offer clues.
ALAN: Why am I having this dream?
GRAY GOBLIN: You're a successful but sceptical modern bureaucrat.
ALAN: Aha! So I'm to learn about the 'merits of capitalism,' eh?
GRAY GOBLIN: Perhaps.
ALAN: What if I don't like what I learn?
GRAY GOBLIN: That's a realistic possibility, but I'm sure you'll think.
ALAN: Is each room some kind of tribulation symbol?
GRAY GOBLIN: Of course, but you must decide what the symbolism means.
Gray Goblin wished Alan good luck, and Alan proceeded to climb up the stairs to the floor where the 6 rooms were lit. Alan decided to go to each room sequentially, starting with the first one closest to him exiting the stairwell and proceeding back towards the skyscraper hallway window. The first room was rather dimly-lit, though lit, and the light was flickering. Alan resolved to take mental notes of the symbolism of each room, just as Gray Goblin had advised.
ROOM 1
"In this room, I notice that the 3 people inside are worshipping a statue of a Buddhist child, perhaps signifying transcendental wisdom in this post-apocalyptic tribulation. The child is smiling and is meant to serve as a 'sacrificial goat' to the pagan gods of capitalism-ambition. The child suffers as the humans meditate on the yearning, pining, and lusting for fortune and fame in the proverbial American Dream. The child is obviously the AntiChrist."
ROOM 2
"In this room, a bride and groom are staring out the window and looking at all the scurrying scavengers on the streets of Manhattan below. The bride and groom are dressed in wedding attire but their clothes are stained with blood around their neck, signifying their paranoia about being 'decapitated' in this modern world of limitless capitalism-related avarice and Wall Street lust. The bride and groom must be analogous to the Biblical experience of Adam and Eve."
ROOM 3
"In this room, an artist is drawing sketches of the Gray Goblin. I approached the artist and asked him why he was drawing the Gray Goblin, and he coldly looked up at me and explained, 'This creature exemplifies our post-apocalyptic paranoia about alienation and abandonment, since capitalism has failed the human network (or civilization temperance!). These drawings represent my spiritual consciousness.' I have to conclude that this artist is some kind of 'false prophet'."
ROOM 4
"In this room, two grown men were playing poker. They began to lament about trying to unwind and forget about their post-apocalyptic woes with a fun card-game but failing, since the 'ruins of capitalism' were literally all around them! The poker game was at times fast, at times slow, but each hand signified a general human malaise about the terrible consequences of unmitigated gambling in a 'civilized world.' I realize the poker game symbolized the influence of the Devil."
ROOM 5
"In this room, 4 women were in black dresses, dancing to music they were humming collectively. The women were expressing some joy at being independent and hence safe from the vain ambitions of capitalism-obsessed men such as 43rd U.S. President Donald Trump and 21st Century Microsoft power-tycoon/merchant Bill Gates. The women were happy to be left alone to their enchanting ritual and perhaps completely free from the 'bad influence' of drunken debauchery."
ROOM 6
"In this room, a man was scribbling notes, trying to use mathematics to decode the terrible problems of post-apocalyptic Manhattan. The man was trying to find a 'formula' to equate social schizophrenia with Orwellian mindless bureaucratic traffic, and he believed he could use parking-meter counters as 'markers' of the general 'synchronized heartbeat' of America/civilization. I realize this man is like the spiritually-tested character of Job (from the Christian Bible's Book of Job)."
After Alan visited each room, he proceeded back down the stairwell and exited the skyscraper-building. He was once again greeted by his 'tour guide' (the eerie Gray Goblin) who demanded to know what Alan had discovered/learned. Alan explained that he found that each room conveyed some 'face' of the 'general darkness' of untampered capitalism, which was suffocating the imagination of man, but that each room was different in its consequence-symbolism. Gray Goblin congratulated Alan for having received the right lessons from this entire dream.
Alan awoke from his dream and was shocked to find a strange color-pencil sketch of the Gray Goblin lying on his Manhattan apartment coffee-table. Alan realized the sketch resembled the child-like doodles the artist from Room 3 was making of the Gray Goblin and wondered how the sketch got there! Alan wondered if a friend of his made it and left it there while visiting him. Maybe it was the subconscious memory of this unidentified visitor that inspired Alan to 'construct' the character of the strange artist from Room 3 in his Gray Goblin dream. Alan picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal that afternoon and noticed that the DJIA resembled the 'hauntingly-inviting proportions' of the skyscraper from his Gray Goblin dream/nightmare. Alan concluded that capitalism was like a giant amusement-park...complete with funny-mirrors and hypnotizing rulers!
THE END
====
