sovay: (Psholtii: in a bad mood)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2011-05-16 01:32 am

Mr. Donovan says that all countries are countries of the mind

This may be the most random cross-connection I've run into in some time.

This afternoon I watched an episode of Danger Man (1960—'62, '64—'68), more famous in this country as Secret Agent and still not as famous as its sequel series, The Prisoner, to which "Colony Three" is clearly a kind of precursor: a smiling, officially non-existent village somewhere behind the Iron Curtain, English in every false particular; it is a training school for Soviet agents who will then be sent to England, to pass as perfect natives until activated for whatever intrigues or sabotage Cold War fifth columnists get up to, but most of its inhabitants are ordinary, unwitting British communists—librarians, newsagents, electricians—going about their usual business under the impression they're on some kind of work-study. In fact, they're a key component of the school: they are under constant surveillance, being studied. They'll never be allowed to leave. None of this is known to John Drake when he arrives, pretending to be the clerk from Citizens Advice, but he finds out soon enough from "John Richardson," the affable about-to-matriculate agent assigned to show them around half-built, surrealistically isolated "Hamden." I wanted to know who the actor was; a small, dark-haired man with one of those aging boyish faces with the trick of looking handsome, almost all in the eyes and the neat gestures, the smooth, never quite too-bold voice. Sometimes he seems to be flirting with the disguised Drake, or perhaps it's only that he's twigged that "Robert Fuller" is no more who he claims to be than Richardson himself. He gets thrown off a train in the end. IMDb told me he was Peter Arne. I wasn't sure if I recognized the name.

I didn't, but I recognized his story. He's the man who ripped off Mary Renault.

(And was then murdered, but I think the former is weirder. [livejournal.com profile] nineweaving, however, believes that Dionysos was defending his own.)

An oracle from Dionysos

[identity profile] papersky.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 12:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I will take,
I will take all you have
you are my cups,
I will fill you
the little madness of creation,
that moment of silence before the applause.

He was my servant
but she,
she opened your hearts to me
and so, at last
that was my wild honey.

Re: An oracle from Dionysos

[identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes.

He has spoken.

Nine

[identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Evoe!

Nine
zdenka: Miriam with a tambourine, text "I will sing." (ancient Greece)

Re: An oracle from Dionysos

[personal profile] zdenka 2011-05-16 07:57 pm (UTC)(link)
*shivers*

[identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 12:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Police issued an image after eyewitnesses reported seeing a young man loitering nearby eating a jar of honey.

Looks like Dionysos got Aristaios to do his dirty work for him.

[identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
P.S. When you said that he ripped off Mary Renault, I thought for a horrible moment that you meant he'd plagiarized her. I actually felt some relief when I realised it was only money.

How aesthetic am I?

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 06:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I had the same thought until I clicked on the link! And the same reaction!

[identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 04:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Looks like Dionysos got Aristaios to do his dirty work for him.

Nice!

Nine

[identity profile] strange-selkie.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 12:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Mary Renault was gay? No!

I'm sorry. I wish I knew who had switched me so permanently from Good to Evil. But I completely agree with [livejournal.com profile] nineweaving .

[identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 04:31 pm (UTC)(link)
An unknown young man, an object of desire, living wild in a city, seen loitering with a jar of honey? Someone his sacrifice let in?

It had to be.

Afterward, the flat was wreathed in ivy. The police had to tear it down.

Nine

[identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Think of yourself as a maenad with a reticule.

I want pictures!

Nine

[identity profile] strange-selkie.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I am setting myself up as the only maenad with a phaeton carriage, also. One must get around in style.

[identity profile] strange-selkie.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Dude, can you imagine? "Io Bromios! Io Bacchus! Get outta my lane, you lunatic, horse-drawn has the right of way!

[identity profile] nineweaving.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Does your phaeton have scythed wheels?

Nine

[identity profile] strange-selkie.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 08:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Only for interstate 95, the Garden State Parkway, and Mass Ave. (They're retractable.)

[identity profile] strange-selkie.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I'll put that on my cards. *starts garlanding the crosstown buses*

(I have no idea what Mary Renault looked like, but for intellectual sexiness alone she has long been entered in the F column of my FMK list. Nice to know she batted for the team. And that she had gods on her side in a roundabout way, which never, never hurts.)

[identity profile] strange-selkie.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh. Oh, Mary Renault was actually quite the thing if you like 'em trousered. *licks chops quietly in the corner*

...Dead, I suppose?

Drat.

[identity profile] strange-selkie.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"Not tonight, dear, we're out of sheep."

[identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 06:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Dude. Both ripping off Mary Renault and being murdered are equal degrees of uncanny weirdness.

And Dionysos defending his own is a very serviceable theory.

[identity profile] thistleingrey.livejournal.com 2011-05-16 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
My goodness.
gwynnega: (lordpeter mswyrr)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2011-05-16 08:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh wow.
gwynnega: (John Hurt b&w)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2011-05-16 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, and I also meant to ask if you've seen the Danger Man episode "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove," which as I recall is also a strong Prisoner precursor--pretty much the whole episode is a dream sequence.
gwynnega: (John Hurt Raskolnikov 2)

[personal profile] gwynnega 2011-05-17 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
I assume it's the source of the Dead Can Dance song?

Yes, I think it must be.

[identity profile] ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com 2011-05-19 06:15 am (UTC)(link)
I didn't, but I recognized his story. He's the man who ripped off Mary Renault.

Interesting. Thank you for sharing the story. It does sound as if Dionysos had a hand in the man's death.