Monday, August 30, 2010

Bathroom Monologue: The Invincible and The Endless

Who is more frightening: the juggernaut or the endless?

The invincible man you cannot knock down. Throw yourself at him two or three times and he does not budge. Shoot him. Throw acid. Bombs. Surely you find his force intimidating.

But the endless man you can thrash. Strike him in the chin and watch him crumple. Throw him across the room. Hang him and snap his neck: he wriggles, drops, stops, then wriggles again. He is the more frightening sight, for in the invincible man is something you can only lose against. You will resign yourself to it. But against the endless you will hope, in overpowering him time and time again, that some hour he will stay still. The truth? Some hour you will tire and be unable to harm him further, and at that hour he will sit up again. He is so much more fearsome than his betters.

5 comments:

  1. Very good! So many ways to go with this.
    (Do you really write in the bathroom? Just sayin'.)

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  2. A complex piece. I think it would be easier to be an invincible rather than the endless. I shudder to think at the abuse, how much has to be endured before the assailant gives up? But yes, the thought at the strength of someone that could endure it is terrifying and aweful.

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  3. TS, I'd much rather be invincible. Cannot be harmed? Yeah, sign me up! Though this monologue is about having to face such people, in which case I'm doomed either way.

    Mary, I do compose most of these in the bathroom. Usually it's oral composition, then I type it up when I return to the computer.

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  4. This is about the Undertaker, isn't it?

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  5. When is it not about the Undertaker?

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