Sunday, March 15, 2015

Fates Befalling Chinese and Greek Fliers

A preflight caution…

Daedalus: Of course, do not fly near the sun but also, these wings, do not speak of them to anyone.

Icarus: The knowledge is dangerous?

Daedalus: There was a man in China who made wings of bamboo and paper and flew. He was seen by the emperor. The emperor considered the invention dangerous and had the flier killed.

Icarus: But flying is a beautiful thing.

Daedalus: The flier was killed before other evil men could build machines to fly over the Great Wall and attack.
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Voice-over
Daedalus was not imprisoned for building wings. Impetuosity killed his son Icarus instead. But there is a parallel with Ray Bradbury’s Chinese story, The Flying Machine. Daedalus was imprisoned for his knowledge of the Labyrinthe. The Chinese flier lost his head. Beware of inventing something beautiful; leaders may see darkness in its design.

2 comments:

rolenzo said...

Beware of creating something mysterious; people will clap hands and laugh maniacally to cover their incomprehension. And then kill you.
David Lynch will not do the new season of Twin Peaks. Too low the budget to do a proper job - might as well lynch him.

Barry Natusch said...

The word mysterious … ranges from curious to unaccountable to bizarre.

At the bizarre end of the spectrum people become more unsettled … which might explain the pressure to conform … because the nail that sticks out will be hammered down (出る杭は打たれる)?

The nail might even even be lynched!