Here in Camazotz...

[helen99]

It came up in conversation today that spreading, malignant grey matter seems to be emanating from the DC area, and that the radius of this effect seems to be expanding. When I was a kid, I read a book by Madeline L'Engle called A Wrinkle in Time, and mentioned the similarity between the choking conformity that was forced upon the people of one of the dark planets in that story (Camazotz) and the current political climate in this world. The person I was talking to remarked that every time she heard the word "Camazotz" she felt like filking the song from the musical "Camelot".

Not wishing to disappoint this person, I did the filk. It was horrible! Her comment to me after being the victim of this horror was,

"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Ok, that's it (or IT), I'm never going to watch that musical again... (wow, that was good...and waaay too fast. You're scary...)"

For those who have not read A Wrinkle in Time, "IT" was the Giant Brain that controlled the planet Camazotz and everyone on it. "IT" allowed no deviations from IT's norm. "IT" practiced Total Information Awareness, and allowed no dissent.

But the scariest thing is, the words to Camelot fit the intent of the filk almost perfectly with hardly any modifications. I added a few verses and changed the word "Camelot" to "Camazotz," and modified a few other words, but no other change was made to the existing verses.

That, and it reminds me of my own city.



A law was made a distant moon ago here
July and August cannot be too hot
And there's a legal limit to the snow here
In Camazotz

Little boys may bounce their balls at noontime
And they must stop at thirty minutes past
Little girls must never miss at jumprope
For all know one false step will be their last...
In Camazotz

The winter is forbidden 'till December
And exits March the second on the dot
By order summer lingers through September
In Camazotz

Camazotz, Camazotz
I know IT sounds a bit bizarre
But in Camazotz, Camazotz
That's how conditions are

Spiderwebs of blackness all pervasive
Spreading out from IT, the giant brain
But we don't think that IT's at all invasive
And you would never hear a soul complain
In Camazotz

The rain may never fall 'till after sundown
By eight the morning fog must disappear
In short, there's simply not a more congenial spot
For conforming to the laws
Than here in Camazotz

Camazotz, Camazotz
I know IT gives a person pause
But in Camazotz, Camazotz
Those are the legal laws

Nobody will ever have a secret
For there is nothing anyone can hide
Thoughts are read as easily as stories
On this world wherein we all reside
in Camazotz

The snow may never slush upon the hillside
By nine PM the moonlight must appear
In short, there's simply not a more congenial spot
For conforming to the laws
Than here in Camazotz.

Comments

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

It's Camazotz, btw, and has an interesting derivation (at least, I assume L'Engle didn't simply make up the word):

Camazotz (Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil SA/NA): The "snatch bat" or "death bat" of Mayan legend. It was supposedly a giant bat which attacked human beings and other large animals, drinking the blood. It was also known as the "sudden bloodletter". Fossils of Desmodus draculae, the giant vampire bat, support these legends. there have also been skeletons of D. draculae found which were sub-fossil, of very recent age. These suggest that the bat was still common when the Mayans were around, and may still be today.

(from http://www.angelfire.com/bc2/cryptodominion/bats.html)

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Oops - thanks.. fixed it (I thought that didn't look right). A Mayan Death Bat, eh? L'Engle seemed to have some familiarity with and/or attraction to South America - one of her villains in a subsequent book in the Time Trilogy was a South American dictator.