sovay: (PJ Harvey: crow)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote 2021-03-28 07:21 am (UTC)

... maybe there's something legit wrong with my heart; it hurts all. the. time. ... except it hurts more when I read things like this, so I feel the pain probably just = understanding fully what it means to be human.

I think that's why the word poignant exists. Also empathy.

--Beautiful. Love the Leonard Cohen you're nodding to; love where you take it.

Thank you. It's such a powerful litany. Cohen himself was inspired by the Unetanah Tokef, the central prayer of Yom Kippur. And this story is a kind of judgment, except it would be easier to take if it were divine.

--FINE I'll go off and collapse in a corner and weep. But really. This is what gets me. This is it.

It's the important thing.

There's a scene in the first act where the men are settling into the mosque; Morelli is playing "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag," reminding Hale of the band that played as his wife saw him off to the war. "Here was I, standing on the deck, and there was Molly in a red hat, a-waving from the dock." He was married and shipped out on the same day. Proudly, he shows the picture of his son included with her last letter to Cairo—his two-month-old son—and the jaunty underscoring of Morelli's harmonica breaks off like a hiccup as he and Brown simultaneously realize that whoever the child's father is, mathematically it can't be Hale. A moment ago, Brown was baiting Sanders for his religion; will he do the same to Hale for his cuckoldry? A wistful, orchestral version of the song comes in under his next words, said firmly without a trace of mockery: "Splendid fellow, Herbert. Nothing like a family." Morelli runs the numbers again in his head and, too, keeps shtum. It's none of their business. If he makes it back to Blighty, Hale can take it up with his wife. If they're all going to die out here, what's the point of making him miserable? It goes by fast, but it's in the script and it's real. The Sergeant buries every one of his men.

If I could, I'd get you a MacArthur.

*hugs*

I believe you. Thank you.

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