Day: March 21, 2008

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“I see you’ve found yourself a goat.”

From a five minute in-class exercise using the following constraints: must contain a ninja, a goat and take place in Belgium, in the rain

>Bring me a bowl of coffee before I turn into a goat.
_–Johann Sebastian Bach_

They walked without saying a word. Kurosawa was glad he was no longer alone; his black shirt and pants clung to his skin in the rain, it rained endlessly here, was there ever sun? Down from the grey skies, over tiled roofs, and down cobblestone streets; into labyrinthine sewers older than time itself.

She recognized him at once; he was the only Ninja in all of Belgium, and he sulked his way through the rain down the main boulevard, looking less like a ninja then a dejected schoolboy in November. She did not, however, recognize the goat by his side.

The sky was stained crimson the night they met–it was in Yokohama, 15 years ago–before her trouble with the police pulled them forever apart. Or so she’d thought. She fell from the face of the earth. And she was averse to admit it, but she had grown used to life alone. It replaced that dislocated longing for completeness that only comes from many years of solitude.

“I don’t need anyone to protect me!” she said, to no-one in particular. The young man at the table behind her looked up from his newspaper, only to cock his head in goatish amusement, and return to reading.

The little dog started barking, its owner had left it tied up in the rain, and it was beginning to take on the look of a drowned rat–she was pulled from the haze of memory into the very real, and surreal moment of staring a goat straight in the face.

“Hello Kurosawa,” She purred. “I see you’ve found yourself a goat.”

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Capra-cious

Wherefore art thou, goate?

>The diuell..dooth most properlie and commonlie transforme himselfe into a gote.
_–R. Scott. ‘Discov. Witchr.’ v.i.89. (1584)_

>If you’re short of trouble, take a goat.
_–Finnish saying_

The goat and the sheep, two animals locked in perpetual binary harmony. Like some star system, they graze together, but in realms beyond their comprehension take paths impossibly dissimilar.

>Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.
_–J. R. Lowell, The Present Crisis. St. 5._

The sheep blankly staring, flatulent falls, curled hair spiked with barbs for spinning and itching. Some have horns, and all follow. Their tails hang down. Some cultures dock the tails of their sheep. Others savor this, the finest piece of the sheep for eating–even if the herders must spend hours plucking maggots from oozing open slow-bite holes. Festering, crusted in shit. All fat.

There is one sheep, who we chase down, whirring in Chinese dirt-biking glory–it leaps blindly forward, eyes panick-stricken; away away, out out, between its legs flaps a blood-stained rag of a tail, maggots feasting deep in its flesh. One by one, the grubs are skewed and drawn from the baying flesh, like pulling a gummy-candy from ones mouth. (?). 10 minutes later, and there is a pile of fleshy naked bodies writhing in the dirt. A dusting of white powder on the wound to disinfect, and the knee is pulled off the sheep’s flank. It bulges to its feet and trots after its departed friends, reluctant victorious “baaa’s” sent back in our direction.

Herd or flock? A herd is a leisurely grazing through lush Biblical hills and valleys. Always following dumbly, sleeping soundly, until snatched in wolf-jaws.

>Lying there, I heard the gentle, drowsy tinkling if a goat-bell, and presently the herds wandered past us, pausing to stare with vacant yellow eyes, bleat sneeringly, and then move on.
_—Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals (1956)_

The shepherd stands peacefully-by with crook and gaze–pious and holy–rising tall/towering above the grazing beastss–his eye fastened on the heavenly horizon.

>As the goats,
That late have skipt and wanton’d rapidly
Upon the craggy cliffs, ere they had ta’en
Their supper on the herb, now silent lie
And ruminate beneath the umbrage brown,
Upon his staff, and leaning watches them:
And as the swain, that lodges out all night
In quiet by his flock, lest beast of prey
Disperse them: even so all three abode,
I as a goat, and as the shepherds they,
Close pent on either side by shelving rock.
–Dante Alighieri. _The Divine Comedy, “Purgatory. Canto XXVII.”_

The herd is ever-moving–a mile, two miles, three miles, each day. Out, then back. Again until grass turns to snow and howling other-worldy winds. Were it not for the endless blue sky resting behind, waiting to thaw the hearts of its people and the soil of its earth –the shoots of grass reawaken and the air is again filled with ambling calls.

The kids lag at the back, always, their short legs iterating walk walk ruuun MAAAA… walk walk walk ruuun MAAAA tongues slightly hanging, human-like in their calls.

>’I must discipline these idiots,’ Omolo said to himself…’I must beat them today, goats!’
_–Inside Kenya Today. Mar 37/2. (1972)_

“I will KILL YOU, fucking GOAT!” I calmly explain, “Then EAT YOUUU!” I kick the flank of my horse gently, and we trot over to the goats that just don’t seem to get the idea of following the herd.

>The damned goates he doth despise; Poynts out his lambs, whose sinfull dyes hee purgde with bloody streame
_–Sir W. Mure. ‘Spiritual Hymme.’ 326. (1628)_

They fan out in directions, wider than my sphere of influence, and are lost in smashing skulls or chewing grass, or staring into space, pondering their own existence.

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Goat Chops

>Lying there, I heard the gentle, drowsy tinkling if a goat-bell, and presently the herds wandered past us, pausing to stare with vacant yellow eyes, bleat sneeringly, and then move on.[^enmoveon]
[^enmoveon]:Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals (1956)

>A dirt and smelly nanny goats is invariably the victim of dirty and insanitary living quarters and of an owner who is too lazy to groom her.[^ groom her]
[^ groom her]:David Le Roi, Goats (1987)

>All goats are mischievous thieves, gate-crashers, and trespassers. Also they possess individual character, intelligence, and capacity for affection which can only be matched by the dog. Having once become acquainted with them I would as soon farm without a dog as without a goat.[^out a goat]
[^out a goat]:David Mackenzie, Farmer in the Western Isles (1954)

>One has fear in front of a goat, in back of a mule, and on every side of a fool.[^ of a fool]
[^ of a fool]:Edgar Watson Howe

>If you’re short of trouble, take a goat.[^ake a goat]
[^ake a goat]:Finnish saying

>Bring me a bowl of coffee before I turn into a goat.[^nto a goat]
[^nto a goat]:Johann Sebastian Bach

>By candle-light a goat looks like a lady.[^ike a lady]
[^ike a lady]:French Proverb

>See how the mountain goat hangs from the summit of the cliff; you would expect it to fall; it is merely showing its contempt for the dogs.[^r the dogs]
[^r the dogs]:Marcus Valerius Martial, Epigrams (bk. XIII, ep. 99)
[^mohair]
[^mohair]:From Finney Creek Mohair

>In Western European ritual magic, such as that practiced by Aleister CROWLEY, both the anus and the opening of the penis/phallus — together suggesting anal intercourse — have been referred to as the “eye of the goat.”

>Of a she-goat as a sacrifice to the classical goddess APHRODITE, SAPPHO writes,
“For you, Aphrodite, I will burn
the savory fat of a white she-goat.
All this I will leave behind for you.”

>Sacred to Greek god PAN and DIONYSUS, ‘symbolic of lust, creativity, humor, intoxication, sure-footedness, and bedevilment.'[^conner]
[^conner]:From Conner, Randy P. Cassell’s Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Lore. London: Cassell, 1997.

>Like the goat, you’ll mourn for your beard.[^your beard]
[^your beard]:AEschylus, Prometheus the Fire-Kindler. Frag. 117.

>And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel,… putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.[^Levit]
[^Levit]:Old Testament: Leviticus, xvi, 21. The word “Scapegoat” was employed in 1530 by Tindale as a translation of the Hebrew “Azazel.” (Vulgate: caper emissarius.)

>Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.[^that light]
[^that light]:J. R. Lowell, The Present Crisis. St. 5.

>The pride of the peacock is the glory of God
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God
The nakedness of the woman is the work of God[^ork of God]
[^ork of God]:
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-3), ‘Proverbs of Hell’

>As the goats,
That late have skipt and wanton’d rapidly
Upon the craggy cliffs, ere they had ta’en
Their supper on the herb, now silent lie
And ruminate beneath the umbrage brown,
Upon his staff, and leaning watches them:
And as the swain, that lodges out all night
In quiet by his flock, lest beast of prey
Disperse them: even so all three abode,
I as a goat, and as the shepherds they,
Close pent on either side by shelving rock.[^comedy]
[^comedy]:From The Divine Comedy, “Purgatory. Canto XXVII.” by Dante Alighieri

>The Cyclops’ isle, nor yet far off doth lie.
Men’s want it suffer’d, but the men’s supplies
The goats made with their inarticulate cries.
Goats beyond number this small island breeds,
So tame, that no access disturbs their feeds,
No hunters, that the tops of mountains scale,
And rub through woods with toil, seek them at all.[^ody]
[^ody]:From The Odysseys of Homer. by Homer

>If the roads are wet and muddy
We remain at home and study,—
For the Goat is very clever at a sum,—
And the Dog, instead of fighting,
Studies ornamental writing,
While the Cat is taking lessons on the drum.[^n the drum]
[^n the drum]:Charles E. Carryl Robinson Cruesoe’s Story. From _Modern American Poetry_. Louis Untermeyer, Ed. 1919.

–

>O heart of Nature, beating still
With throbs her vernal passion taught her,—
Even here, as on the vine-clad hill,
Or by the Arethusan water!
New forms may fold the speech, new lands
Arise within these ocean portals,
But Music waves eternal wands,—
Enchantress of the souls of mortals!

>So thought I,—but among us trod
A man in blue, with legal baton,
And scoffed the vagrant demigod,
And pushed him from the step I sat on.
Doubting I mused upon the cry,
“Great Pan is dead!”—and all the people
Went on their ways:—and clear and high
The quarter sounded from the steeple.[^he steeple]
[^he steeple]:Edmund Clarence Stedman, “Pan in Wall Street.” From Yale Book of American Verse. Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. 1912.

–

>I think this devotion of your life to music has had the tendency..to make you intellectually an ass and morally a goat[^lly a goat]
[^lly a goat]:Holland Lett. Joneses iii, 51. (1863) From OED

>When a covetous man doteth on his bags of gold..the drunkard on his wine, the lustful goat on his women..they banish all other objects[^er objects]
[^er objects]:Traherne. Chr. Ethics vii. 90. (1675) From OED

>’I must discipline these idiots,’ Omolo said to himself…’I must beat them today, goats!'[^y, goats!’]
[^y, goats!’]:Inside Kenya Today. Mar 37/2. (1972) From OED

>Where was the logic of the pact in blood with a goat-headed monstrosity?[^Lillie]
[^Lillie]:A. Lillie. ‘Worship Satan Mod. France’ Pref. 17 From OED

>Turkish goat-bells and Albanian goat-bells are quite different.[^different.]
[^different.]:Macm. Mag. Oct. 434/1 (1884) From OED

>It behoueth that in humane learning there be some Goat-like wits.[^-like wits]
[^-like wits]:Carew. ‘Huarte’s Exam. Wits’ v.68 (1596) From OED

>The controuersie is not about goats woolle (as the prouerbe saeth) neither light and trifling maters.[^ing maters]
[^ing maters]:J. Udall. ‘Demonstr. Discipl.’ (Arb.) 11. (1588) From OED

>The diuell..dooth most properlie and commonlie transforme himselfe into a gote.[^nto a gote]
[^nto a gote]:R. Scott. ‘Discov. Witchr.’ v.i.89. (1584) From OED

>The damned goates he doth despise; Poynts out his lambs, whose sinfull dyes hee purgde with bloody streame[^mure]
[^mure]:Sir W. Mure. ‘Spiritual Hymme.’ 326. (1628) From OED

>Leading a jet-black goat white-horned, white-hooved[^Teny]
[^Teny]:Tennyson. ‘OEnone.’ (1833) From OED

>After that I wente to the gheet in to the wode, there herde I the kyddes blete.[^ddes blete]
[^ddes blete]:Caxton. ‘Reynard’ (Arb.) 34. (1481) From OED

>Hgs angels..sal first departe {th}e gude fra {th} ille, Als {th}e hird {th}e shepe dus fra {th}e gayte.[^the gayte]
[^the gayte]:Hampole. ‘Pr. Consc.’ 6134. (1340) From OED

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Goat Quotes

From Finney Creek Mohair
>Lying there, I heard the gentle, drowsy tinkling if a goat-bell, and presently the herds wandered past us, pausing to stare with vacant yellow eyes, bleat sneeringly, and then move on.
_–Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals (1956)_

>A dirt and smelly nanny goats is invariably the victim of dirty and insanitary living quarters and of an owner who is too lazy to groom her.
_–David Le Roi, Goats (1987)_

>All goats are mischievous thieves, gate-crashers, and trespassers. Also they possess individual character, intelligence, and capacity for affection which can only be matched by the dog. Having once become acquainted with them I would as soon farm without a dog as without a goat.
_–David Mackenzie, Farmer in the Western Isles (1954)_

>One has fear in front of a goat, in back of a mule, and on every side of a fool.
_–Edgar Watson Howe_

>If you’re short of trouble, take a goat.
_–Finnish saying_

>Bring me a bowl of coffee before I turn into a goat.
_–Johann Sebastian Bach_

>By candle-light a goat looks like a lady.
_–French Proverb_

>See how the mountain goat hangs from the summit of the cliff; you would expect it to fall; it is merely showing its contempt for the dogs.
_–Marcus Valerius Martial, Epigrams (bk. XIII, ep. 99)_

From Conner, Randy P. Cassell’s Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Lore. London: Cassell, 1997.
>In Western European ritual magic, such as that practiced by Aleister CROWLEY, both the anus and the opening of the penis/phallus — together suggesting anal intercourse — have been referred to as the “eye of the goat.”

>Of a she-goat as a sacrifice to the classical goddess APHRODITE, SAPPHO writes,
“For you, Aphrodite, I will burn
the savory fat of a white she-goat.
All this I will leave behind for you.”

>Sacred to Greek god PAN and DIONYSUS, ‘symbolic of lust, creativity, humor, intoxication, sure-footedness, and bedevilment.’

Stevenson, Burton. The Home Book of Quotations. 10th. Dodd Mead & Company, 1967.
>Like the goat, you’ll mourn for your beard.
_–AEschylus, Prometheus the Fire-Kindler. Frag. 117._

>And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel,… putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.
_–Old Testament: Leviticus, xvi, 21. The word “Scapegoat” was employed in 1530 by Tindale as a translation of the Hebrew “Azazel.” (Vulgate: caper emissarius.)_

>Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.
_–J. R. Lowell, The Present Crisis. St. 5._

Knowles, Elizabeth. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. 6. Oxford University Press, USA, 2004.
>The pride of the peacock is the glory of God
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God
The nakedness of the woman is the work of God
_–William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-3), ‘Proverbs of Hell’_

From The Divine Comedy, “Purgatory. Canto XXVII.” by Dante Alighieri
>As the goats,
That late have skipt and wanton’d rapidly
Upon the craggy cliffs, ere they had ta’en
Their supper on the herb, now silent lie
And ruminate beneath the umbrage brown,
Upon his staff, and leaning watches them:
And as the swain, that lodges out all night
In quiet by his flock, lest beast of prey
Disperse them: even so all three abode,
I as a goat, and as the shepherds they,
Close pent on either side by shelving rock.

From The Odysseys of Homer. by Homer
>The Cyclops’ isle, nor yet far off doth lie.
Men’s want it suffer’d, but the men’s supplies
The goats made with their inarticulate cries.
Goats beyond number this small island breeds,
So tame, that no access disturbs their feeds,
No hunters, that the tops of mountains scale,
And rub through woods with toil, seek them at all.

From _Modern American Poetry_. Louis Untermeyer, Ed. 1919.
>If the roads are wet and muddy
We remain at home and study,—
For the Goat is very clever at a sum,—
And the Dog, instead of fighting,
Studies ornamental writing,
While the Cat is taking lessons on the drum.
_–Charles E. Carryl Robinson Cruesoe’s Story._

From Yale Book of American Verse. Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. 1912.
>O heart of Nature, beating still
With throbs her vernal passion taught her,—
Even here, as on the vine-clad hill,
Or by the Arethusan water!
New forms may fold the speech, new lands
Arise within these ocean portals,
But Music waves eternal wands,—
Enchantress of the souls of mortals!

>So thought I,—but among us trod
A man in blue, with legal baton,
And scoffed the vagrant demigod,
And pushed him from the step I sat on.
Doubting I mused upon the cry,
“Great Pan is dead!”—and all the people
Went on their ways:—and clear and high
The quarter sounded from the steeple.
_–Edmund Clarence Stedman, “Pan in Wall Street”_

From OED
>I think this devotion of your life to music has had the tendency..to make you intellectually an ass and morally a goat
_–Holland Lett. Joneses iii, 51. (1863)_

>When a covetous man doteth on his bags of gold..the drunkard on his wine, the lustful goat on his women..they banish all other objects
_–Traherne. Chr. Ethics vii. 90. (1675)_

>’I must discipline these idiots,’ Omolo said to himself…’I must beat them today, goats!’
_–Inside Kenya Today. Mar 37/2. (1972)_

>Where was the logic of the pact in blood with a goat-headed monstrosity?
_–A. Lillie. ‘Worship Satan Mod. France’ Pref. 17

>Turkish goat-bells and Albanian goat-bells are quite different.
–_Macm. Mag. Oct. 434/1 (1884)_

>It behoueth that in humane learning there be some Goat-like wits.
_–Carew. ‘Huarte’s Exam. Wits’ v.68 (1596)_

>The controuersie is not about goats woolle (as the prouerbe saeth) neither light and trifling maters.
_–J. Udall. ‘Demonstr. Discipl.’ (Arb.) 11. (1588)_

>The diuell..dooth most properlie and commonlie transforme himselfe into a gote.
_–R. Scott. ‘Discov. Witchr.’ v.i.89. (1584)_

>The damned goates he doth despise; Poynts out his lambs, whose sinfull dyes hee purgde with bloody streame
_–Sir W. Mure. ‘Spiritual Hymme.’ 326. (1628)_

>Leading a jet-black goat white-horned, white-hooved
_–Tennyson. ‘OEnone.’ (1833)_

>After that I wente to the gheet in to the wode, there herde I the kyddes blete.
_–Caxton. ‘Reynard’ (Arb.) 34. (1481)_

>Hgs angels..sal first departe {th}e gude fra {th} ille, Als {th}e hird {th}e shepe dus fra {th}e gayte.
_–Hampole. ‘Pr. Consc.’ 6134. (1340)_