Post by Sam Kidsgrove on Jul 19, 2019 13:37:47 GMT -5
God, small g.
Written by N. Gaiman
Story by N. Gaiman
FADE IN
INT - University of Manchester
SAM KIDSGROVE is on stage in the University Place lecture theatre. Flashing lights. A crowd full of curious academics. The large red sign on the stage reads 'TED’. He stands with his headset microphone, wearing a grey Kiton K-50 suit, waistcoat only, with a Thomas Pink white shirt. His Jacket is slung over the back of his chair. A glass of iced water sits on a table nearby. A hushed murmuring comes from the academics in the audience as they’re all excited about what’s to come. People even stand in the aisles, jockeying for position to be able to see Sam.
KIDSGROVE
Who here worships a god? Any god. It can be the Christian God, or Yahweh, Allah, maybe we have some Hindus here, who believe in Vishnu. Maybe we even have Buddhists present who believe in Buddha’s teachings and there are no gods. Every single one of those belief systems is fine, a belief after all is your own personal viewpoint on how everything fits together. You need belief and you need spirituality to get along and make sense of this world. Buddha himself said Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.
Kidsgrove clicks a button and this quote appears on the screen behind him.
KIDSGROVE
Powerful stuff, huh? What about the old gods? Cyrus the Bull? Heracles of Greece, Zeus! Even better, how about the Norse or Pagan gods? Which one is truly right? Of course the answer is subjective, the answer is whatever the person who believes in them thinks is right. Some might believe that Odin is a God, or one of them anyway. Some believe he’s vicious, some believe he’s kind, others believe he’s a legendary figure that’s untouchable and will dominate all in his path until he chooses to return to Valhalla.
Now what if that same God, with all his might and splendour was to join in some sort of unholy union with an actual witch and her demi-God familiar? That’d be unstoppable, right? People will believe in this power. People will believe they would usher in a new age of darkness, that they would summon all of the evil spirits from the underworld, that a new reckoning is upon us.
Kidsgrove takes a sip from his water.
KIDSGROVE
I don’t believe in gods. Not to that extent. No offence to anyone here, but I’ll tell you why I don’t believe in gods, not those ones anyway. You see, back when mankind were starting to look at spirituality, starting to find their place in the world, gods were the stories and myths. They were the legends of eras long forgotten. Gods such as Odin, Heracles, Zeus or whoever were tales told of love, drama, treachery and deceit.
Have you heard of the story of Ymir?
Shakes of the head in the audience.
KIDSGROVE
No? Well here goes. Ymir was a hermaphrodite, who was created by the drops of water which fell from the frost of a battle between Niflheim and Muspelheim. Ymir gave birth to 3 sons, Odin, Vili and Vé. After a while, the sons decided to kill Ymir, and after this, created the world through the skin, bone and hair of it.
Kidsgrove pauses for a beat.
KIDSGROVE
Now this doesn’t sound shocking to today’s standards, so let me put the situation into modern parlance for you. Odin is the son of a he/she, who he killed with his brothers, mutilated the body and created the world. Then he made up women from the dead body parts of his dad/mum and married one of them. Odin is hugely into incest, basically. If he was human, he’d probably be named Josef Fritzl.
However, from my point of view, Odin doesn’t really exist. I mean he’s just a myth, a legend, he’s one of the stories told by Vikings to keep their kids in check. And truth be told, that’s all he is. This mythological status he has, this legendary ethos he’s managed to procure is just as it says. A myth. He’s managed to pull the wool over the eyes of many people in Action Wrestling and I sometimes think he’s Loki, rather than Odin. This would explain why so many are under his spell. Like all myths though, his end will come, for Achilles, it was an arrow, for Odin, it’s going to be a Kidsgrove. Odin once hung from the world tree for 9 days and nights, until he received a blessing. I’m going to make him hang there for eternity.
What’s our modern day equivalent of a god? Could it be a politician? They have the power, they shape the world, they are the ones that control the narrative and the media, especially here and in the USA.
Could it be Corporations who create the jobs and horde the wealth of the world greedily, using their power and money to create a society in their image? Full of poverty, hunger and despair amongst the people in the developed world and even worse in the third?
Kidsgrove again pauses, ramping up the anticipation.
KIDSGROVE
No, the truth is the gods today in our current era of information, media and rampant consumption of entertainment are us. The actors, the singers, the entertainment industry. We are seen, worshipped and admired weekly by more people across the globe than any religion. We are venerated by more people in one day than gods like Odin are in a year. Our Premieres are sold out, Box Office takings are at an all-time high drawing billions of dollars regularly. Even after 22 films of the same damn crap we’re being worshipped and adored by the whole world, so who is the true God here? That’s right, the Hollywood Elite. We’re the ones the people worship, we’re the ones the people look up to, we are the ones that people ask to make their minds up for them, we’re the ones who go out there and try to make a difference in the world when these so called gods have failed you. We’re the ones with the vision and drive to create new worlds and give them to you. This is why we cannot lose.
Kidsgrove surveys the audience in attendance, scratching his chin a little before continuing.
KIDSGROVE
Which brings me to the idea of visionary versus myopic, a leader versus a follower. You see there are some of us that are born to lead. Take the Hollywood Elite for example. Now all three of us are leaders, we can do our own thing and can fight alone against anyone if called for. I don’t need Shadowlove here right now to hold my hand and do everything with him. Shadow is currently meditating and thinking about the velveteen wrestlers in the back. TFK is currently on a media tour promoting his number 1 contendership, making sure the people will tune in and watch him become the next World Champion.
Odin does have one thing going for him as a god. He has 1 worshipper in the form of Noble Savage. For those who don’t keep up with the ins and outs of Action Wrestling, Noble Savage is a demi-god who’s semi controlled by a witch and has not left Odin’s side since he offered her protection. This is a very myopic way of thinking from her. What happens when Odin is beaten and leaves for Valhalla? What happens when he looks upon her - as he did with Ymir and decide that she is nothing but a pile of skin and bones he can remake the world with? Savage may be tough, she may even be, excuse the pun, savage.
But she’s not smart, she’s not a leader. She’s a follower. Without that witch, she knows she would be nothing, and without Odin she knows she doesn’t have what it takes to compete in wrestling, never mind stand up to a woman poisoning her mind and turning her into some sort of demi-demon thing.
She has a follower’s mindset. This is why you never see her nowadays without Odin nearby, or without the witch in tow. She is afraid of having to make a decision in her life, afraid of responsibility and afraid that she will have to grow up one day and become an adult. This fear is what she feeds off, this fear is what she desires. She might believe it’s the fear of others that she craves, but it isn’t, she wants her own fear to manifest because somehow that makes her feel alive and perversely in control.
I have to chuckle at the notion of fear. I once saw a wise man on this stage. He said the following, which stuck in my mind.
There’s two sorts of fear: One you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.
The fear that I embrace is the fear of standing still, not moving forward and being the best I can be. The other fear, the one I listen to and turn the other way because it doesn’t bother me? Little girls who have seen Charmed and have issues about being alone, so they shack up with the biggest meanest dog in the yard. They might think they are big, mean and scary now, and they strike fear into the hearts of their competition, but they aren’t. I don’t have that kind of fear. I pity them because they can be so much more, more than just a vessel for someone, more than a dependant to some false god or witch.
Kidsgrove smiles sheepishly at the audience, who are still mostly with him.
KIDSGROVE
There is a point to this, I promise.
Together they can be formidable, no doubt. The false god and his follower, their bond shall never be broken. The false god will become more powerful as a result.
But what if we sow seeds of doubt? What if the people who follow Odin realise what he is? What if we, a collection of social outcasts, rats, or even falsely elite dimwits manage to beat Odin? What if we manage to beat your protector, your saviour, your leader? If you have no one to lead you what will you do? Will you stand up and fight? Or will you high tail it and run when you realise the real gods, the modern gods are here and they don’t need your worship to make them feel powerful, as we have billions of people over the globe?
What if we just beat Savage to Hell? Odin will be looking down at her like the pathetic human familiar she is. Will he realise that she’s not strong enough to follow him on his path, will he realise that she’s not what he really wants and the witch is the one, so he casts her down and disowns her? Or will he realise that without a follower, he’s not a god, he’s just a nothing. Only human, I mean you can’t be a god if no one believes you are, right? After all, she is the only one who does believe in him now. The reason why?
Well it’s simple, I can tell you the reason in three short words. The. Hollywood. Elite.
Kidsgrove stops and takes a drink while the academics talk amongst themselves for a short while.
KIDSGROVE
One final thing before I go. Shadow and I face these people this Monday night. After the godlike camera shows us to be the winners, with Shadowlove standing there like a greek statue of perfect physicality alongside the beautiful Miyamoto and myself; with TFK behind the camera making sure that those shots look so, so beautiful as we stand over this so called god and his follower. We’ll then go to Carnage and do what we do best, we will make people believe.
FADE OUT
THE END