You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.

This is but half the truth.

You are also as strong as your strongest link.

To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of the ocean by the frailty of its foam.

To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy

 

When I had nothing more to lose, I was given everything. 

When I ceased to be who I am, I found myself.

 When I experienced humiliation and yet kept on walking, I understood that I was free to choose my destiny

 

A Warrior knows that an angel and a devil are both competing for his sword hand.

The devil says: "You will weaken. You will not know exactly when. You are afraid."

 The angel says: "You will weaken. You will not know exactly when. You are afraid."

The Warrior is surprised. Both the angel and the devil have said the same thing.

The devil continues: "Let me help you." 

And the angel says: "I will help you."

At that moment the Warrior understands the difference.

The words may be the same but these two allies are completely different.


And he chooses the angel's hand.

alchemy

 

This is why alchemy exists

 So that everyone will search for his treasure, find it, and then want to be better than he was in his former life.

 Lead will play its role until the world has no further need for lead; 

and then lead will have to turn itself into gold.

That's what alchemists do. 

They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.

 

I could have.

What does this phrase mean? 

At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn't. 

 

Choosing a path means having to miss out on others

 

A rose dreams of enjoying the company of bees, but none appears. 

The sun asks:

“Aren’t you tired of waiting?”

“Yes,” answers the rose, “but if I close my petals, I will wither and die

 

Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. 

Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, 

so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.

All things that are, are ours.
But we must care.
If we do not care, we do not exist.
If we do not exist,
Then there is nothing but oblivion.
And even oblivion must end someday.

Either the gods are there whether you believe in them or not,
Or exist only as a function of the belief.

Nobody is truly dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away

Light

Light thinks it travels faster than anything.
But it's wrong.
No matter how fast light travels,
And how far it goes,
It always finds that darkness has already got there first
And is waiting for it.

 

 it is better to be a diamond with a flaw 

than a pebble without

 

The only thing standing between you and your dreams is reluctance

 

It is a self-deception of philosophers and moralists to imagine that they escape decadence by opposing it.

 That is beyond their will; 

and, however little they acknowledge it, one later discovers that they were among the most powerful promoters of decadence.

 

Good-humor is a philosophic state of mind; 

it seems to say to Nature that we take her no more seriously than she takes us. 

one should always talk of philosophy with a smile.

Atheism

 

Atheism is not a philosophy; 

it is not even a view of the world;

 it is simply an admission of the obvious.

 In fact, 'atheism' is a term that should not even exist.

No one needs to identify himself as a 'non-astrologer' or a 'non-alchemist.' 

We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and cattle. 

Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs

 

If a man has character, he has also his typical experience, which always recurs

 

Those who know that they are profound strive for clarity. 

Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for obscurity.

 For the crowd believes that if it cannot see to the bottom of something it must be profound.

 It is so timid and dislikes going into the water

 

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, 

that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant

 

Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing

 for the known way is an impasse

 

There is no justice in the laws of nature, no term for fairness in the equations of motion. 

The Universe is neither evil, nor good, it simply does not care. 

The stars don't care, or the Sun, or the sky.

 

Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. 

That’s where the most important things come from, 

where you yourself came from,

 and where you will go

 

We do not escape into philosophy, psychology, and art

--we go there to restore our shattered selves into whole ones.

 

Under every deep 

A lower deep opens 

 

Which way I fly is hell; 

myself am hell; 

And in the lowest deep a lower deep, 

Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide, 

To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.

 

The secret of Buddhism is to remove all ideas, all concepts, in order for the truth to have a chance to penetrate, to reveal itself

Solopsism

 

I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; 

I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me.

I think I have no senses. 

I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions

. What is there then that can be taken as true? 

Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain

 

No one should ever ask themselves that: why am I unhappy? 

The question carries within it the virus that will destroy everything.

 If we ask that question, it means we want to find out what makes us happy. 

If what makes us happy is different from what we have now, 

then we must either change once and for all 

or stay as we are, feeling even more unhappy

 

 It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no god. 

It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg

 

You'll be sick or feeling troubled or deeply in love or quietly uncertain or even content for the first time in your life.

It won't matter.

Out of the blue, beyond any cause you can trace, you'll suddenly realize things are not how you perceived them to be at all.

For some reason, you will no longer be the person you believed you once were.

You'll detect slow and subtle shifts going on all around you, more importantly shifts in you.

Worse, you'll realize it's always been shifting, like a shimmer of sorts, a vast shimmer, only dark like a room.

But you won't understand why or how.

 

Love of love written by the broken hearted,

love of life written by the dead.

 

...and there you have it, another body on the floor surrounded by things that don't mean much to anyone except to the one who can't take any of them along.

 

We all create stories to protect ourselves.

 

The human body has three systems of communication: the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. 

When any of these systems experience a malfunction, it can wreak havoc on the body. 

But no matter how hard we try, there's always a risk of being misunderstood. Or simply unheard.

 When we don't feel heard or validated, it can be very easy to forget that we aren't actually alone and that there is a difference between being alone, and just feeling lonely. 

Sometimes, being alone is the only way we can hear our own hearts trying to communicate what it is that we actually want, what we need, and who we love. 

So we can move through this world with better communication when we actually have something important to say. 

And to be crystal clear when we do.

Traditions

 

 at their best, they help us remember who we are, where we're from, and those who came before us. 

They give us something to pass on to future generations.

 'Cause if you don't know where you're from, it's kind of hard to know where you're going.

 

I want to feel what it's like, 

cause death is only going to happen to you once.

 

Pain makes us feel more alive 

Pain is meant to wake us up. 

People try to hide their pain but they're wrong.

 

The greater the suffering, the more terrible the events, the greater the pleasure 

They want it, it's catharsis. 

Like the ancient Greeks.

 

Hatred is very underestimated emotion.

 

We've all heard the buzz words: streamline, optimize, integrate, adapt. 

Every day, someone comes up with a new strategy or tool or technology to increase our efficiency. 

The idea is to make our lives easier, but the question is, does it? 

To really be efficient, you have to eliminate what doesn't work. 

You have to figure out what's important and hold on tight to the things that matter most.

 

When there's no clear path, all we can do is put one foot in front of the other.

 All we can do is the next right thing, and then the next. 

In the darkness, in the fog, all we can do is feel our way through and try to trust that somehow, we will come out on the other side.

 

They say following the rules saves lives. 

But what happens when life suddenly changes the game entirely? 

What happens when you find yourself walking on totally new ground?

Home

 

 Home means different things to different people. 

Sometimes, home is a person. 

Home can be a feeling. 

Psychiatrists say, for those of us who come from dysfunctional homes, that feeling is chaos. 

We think family means drama. 

So it's no wonder so many of us from broken homes thrive on pain and destruction.

 

If you knew you were dying, what would you do? 

If someone gave you a lifeline, would you take it? 

We've all felt it, a moment where all is lost. 

Whether it's in our jobs, family, love, we fear everything will be taken. We close our eyes, we bite our lips, and the adrenaline floods through our body.

 But despite how hard you try, that last-ditch attempt still may not work.

 

 Bravery isn’t always about running into the fire. 

Sometimes it’s about facing our past. 

And on the hardest days, it’s about facing the future.

 

We spent our childhoods writing our dreams in diaries. 

As adults, those dreams quietly come true every single day.

 Only sometimes, we forget to notice until it’s too late. 

So slow down and take it in. Let yourself feel it. 

Because sometimes, even the most beautiful dreams disappear when the sun comes up.

 

try as we might, some solutions can only be temporary. 

We evaluate. We think in the moment. 

We do our best.

 

In 1952, doctor Virginia Apgar pioneered a scoring system to quickly evaluate a newborn's physical health. 

It's given at 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth and it assesses the baby's appearance, pulse, reflexes, muscle tone, and breathing. 

The baby's medical team gets a score for each category, then adds them to gauge whether the baby needs immediate care. 

Designed to fight infant mortality the idea was simple:    if we knew which babies were in trouble, could we save them? 

Tests and algorithms don't tell the whole story. They're snapshots in time. There's not a roadmap for every uncertainty we meet. 

 

we have to look for inspiration around us and find the strength to keep going.

 

Every disease has its unique course it takes in the body when left untreated. 

The process begins with exposure to a root cause that sends a ripple effect throughout the body.

 The disease then progresses, ultimately resolving in one of three possible outcomes: you get better, you stay chronically ill, or you die. 

Sometimes, despite centuries of medical advancement, the disease wins. 

It takes over our cells one by one, until the damage can no longer be reversed. 

When that happens, all you can do is take the loss and move on.

 But when you can change the course of someone's disease, you can change the course of their life. 

Batman-Wolverine

 The Batman-Wolverine fight has been debated and is an interesting one.

Wolverine's claws would cut through Batman's kevlar. Batman could not hurt Wolverine or break his bones.

But. Batman doesn't have to fight direct, his strategy always out manoeuvres his opponent.

I am not sure exactly how Batman would do it, and I would love to see it in a comic, but I believe he would find the strategy to defeat Wolverine

- he beat Superman FFS!

Batman Bane

 

BRUCE thinks putting on the suit, cape and mask makes him a superhero again Alfred warns him about this - putting on the mask won't make you what you were, that time is passed 

So, yes,  Bane easily beats Bruce, because putting on the mask again does NOT make him Batman

 When he is in the pit and embraces the Fear again, hence The Dark Knight Rises It is the Dark Knight, Batman reborn, who returns to Gotham and beats Bane 

Bane says "I broke you" NO you didn't

 You beat Bruce 

You did NOT beat Batman 

You did NOT beat The Dark Knight 

Now you actually face Batman for the first time you feel what everyone else feels, you feel FEAR 

You were not able to climb out of the Pit, neither was Bruce 

BATMAN was 

Even Superman, who spent his entire life on Earth invulnerable and afraid of nothing, learnt what Fear was when he faced Batman

As is revealed, Bane never escapes the pit, he was unable to.

Bruce was unable to.

The only people to ever escape the pit, to make the climb, are Talia and Batman.

When Bruce is in the pit he can't escape, same as nobody else can. Looking to the story of the child of Ras Al Ghul, the only person to escape he takes off the rope, embraces the fear and climbs out. That is when he becomes Batman again.

In the earlier scene, when Alfred is explaining this, it's foreshadowing these events. As Bruce listens the Batsuit rises from the floor as Alfred talks about sometimes the pit sends something back. Bruce is thrown in the pit, but Batman is sent back out. Hence the Dark Knight Rises.

Bane is not fighting Batman, he is fighting Bruce Wayne, and that is who he defeats. In the earlier scene Alfred tells him you can put on your mask again but that won't make you what you were. Putting the suit back on does not make him Batman again. The age, injury and inactivity is bad enough. Band takes full advantage by revealing he knows who Bruce is. No money, no Alfred, no business, Bruce no longer knows who he is. Bane uses all this against him, puts him in despair, and defeats him.

An internal defeat. However - inside Batman is Bruce and Bruce is defeated. Inside Bruce is Batman, and Batman comes back to win, so after an internal defeat, an internal victory. The Dark Knight Rises.

the pic in the comic is iconic - maybe it just couldn't have been captured on film, couldn't have done it justice. It does seem downplayed. But, as I wrote earlier, at the cinema it was dead quiet and everyone gasped in horror when it happened - it was a very powerful cinematic moment. Which is quite different from a piece of artwork you are looking at in a personal moment.

, that the mask is symbolic like the bat mask. However we know from the comics that Bane is fed Venom and needs to be otherwise he loses strength and feels pain. Though in the original story it is fed directly into his brain. Also in the film, his face was damaged in the pit, so it holds his jaw and maxilla in place, and of course feeds the drug to stop the pain.

The original Bruce Wayne, the innocent boy, died with his parents. What grew up was a hollow shell, a psychopath full of rage and hate. That is Bruce. He has 2 masks - the public Bruce Wayne you see in BB, the playboy, and then Batman, which allows him to live out his inner nature, to fulfill it. Under the bat skin is a man. But under the man skin is a Bat. You don't take off the mask to see his real face. As the Joker says in Arkham Asylum "that IS his real face".

Alfred then warns Bruce "you can strap up your leg and put on your mask but that doesn't make you what you were" - Bruce does that but is not Batman, which is why Bane defeats him. When he rises from the pit, as foretold, THEN he is what he was THEN he is Batman again - and THEN he defeats Bane.

Play the scene and listen to Alfred's words. It's a foretelling of events to come "a pit in which men are thrown to suffer", which is what happens to Bruce. "Sometimes a man rises from the darkness", the glass case with the suits rises (it is the suit itself that is Batman, the suit makes the man). "Sometimes the pit sends something back" the case doors open to reveal the suit.

I hold to my own continuing point that Bane never beat Batman, he beat Bruce. When Bruce becomes Batman again after rising from the pit, Dark Knight rises, then Batman goes on to defeat Bane. Batman has never been defeated.

dim and slow, no other sound, no music, is all about effect - and was set up this way by Nolan the director. The culmination is where Bane breaks his back and, as has been commented elsewhere, you could hear the whole cinema gasp in horror. Not as iconic as that image from Knightfall/Broken Bat, but again, maybe didn't need to be. It worked and that was Nolan's point.

I would have liked to see Knightfall done more like the comic. The elements of Bane beating Bruce and breaking his back are here, and used nicely. But a lot of the arc can't be used in this universe - no Jean Paul, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson as in Prodigal. Never made use of John Blake's potential version of Robin.

Yes in the comic, the whole Knightfall and Broken Bat arc, Bane's strategy is to get Batman exhausted rounding up the escapees. Then when he returns to the Cave, his sanctum then ascends up to the Mansion, his home, when he can become Bruce again, he runs into Bane. Which is why he loses. I still hold the theory that, even in costume, he had been stripped down to Bruce, and it is not Batman who loses.

Batman didn't lose, Bruce Wayne lost. Batman can't be beaten by anyone, even Superman.

Bruce Wayne was beaten in this fight. In the second fight, it is Batman who fights and beats Bane. Batman has never been defeated in a hand to hand fight. Even Superman lost to Batman! (see Dark Knight Returns Frank Miller graphic novel)

physically Bane is more than a match for Batman, due to Venom. This is down to Bruce no longer being Batman. When he rises from the pit he is Batman again and goes back to beat Bane. Hence Dark Knight Rises (from the pit)

The mask feeds him both anaesthetic and the Venom steroid, its the source of why he has super strength and can't be hurt, makes him a very dangerous enemy in a hand to hand fight.

And Bane's comment to "Bruce in the Bat Suit" (not Batman, think about it) that "you fight like a younger man, nothing held back", so Bruce was playing Bane's game. Bane went through pain and fights in the pit - of course he did get fucked up. The League then taught him the same Ninjutsu as Batman learnt, hence the comments about "initiated" v "uninitiated".

Bane and Bruce are both Ninjas, trained by the League. Remember Ras's line "Ninjutsu employs explosive powders", Bruce asks "as weapons?" Ras replies "yes, also as distractions". So someone "initiated" would know the tricks and wouldn't be fooled by them. Same as how a ninja/league member/Batman uses "darkness as a ally", what you expect from a "shadow warrior". Again, doesn't work against another "initiate"

The story Alfred tells about the pit sending something back - we are supposed to think that was Bane. In truth Bane was rescued by Ras Al Ghul, he never escaped on his own. What the pit sends back is Batman. In that scene we see the batsuit rising from the ground and the glass opening. Hence the whole film being The Dark Knight Rises.

Bane didn't beat Batman. Bane beat Bruce Wayne. Bruce gets sent down the pit. We think Bane was the only person to get out of the pit but it turns out that was Talia. Bane was never able to escape the pit. Bruce wasn't able to escape the pit. When he shed his fears and the rope he became Batman again. It is Batman who escapes the pit, the only man to ever do so, It is Batman who goes back to Gotham and beats Bane. Bane beat Bruce Wayne. Nobody can beat Batman.

Vincent

 He truly suffered for his art the way almost nobody else did - and just look at what he created for the world by doing so. 

Even in the institute he looked outwards, away from his pain, and created great works for us.

 If you asked Vincent now (however you interpret what that may mean) and ask him about his "suffering" and if he would have wanted to be "cured" I have no doubt he would look at what he created and say "hell no!" 

And perhaps his only true wish would be, if he could go back, would be to do it all again.

Kevin Carter

 Hi, Time magazine, hi, Pulitzer Prize

Tribal scars in Technicolor
Bang-bang club, AK-47 hour
Kevin Carter

Hi, Time magazine, hi, Pulitzer Prize
Vulture stalked white piped lie forever
Wasted your life in black and white

Kevin Carter

The elephant is so ugly
He sleeps his head, machetes his bed
Kevin Carter, kaffir lover forever
Click, click, click, click, click, click himself under

Kevin Carter

 It makes you wonder what he saw that he DIDN'T photograph. That picture of the girl and the vulture. Did he "waste his life"?  Really? His legacy. No reference here to the pics of the necklacing. 

Winnie Mandela famously said "with our matches and our tyres we will reclaim our country". He was the first person to film a necklacing. He asked would those atrocities have occurred if there was nobody there to film them? He blamed himself. Almost a philosophy. If a tree falls and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Did he make those things happen because he was there waiting to film them? 

A beautiful soul, the soul of an artist, scarred by what he had to work with, and what he saw. Like Vincent, he "took his life as lovers often do" and like Vincent "this world", at least the world he was forced to live in and record, "was never meant for one as beautiful as you".

 Chances are Jesus had dark hair. Think Robert Powell in Jesus Of Nazareth, that's a pretty accurate portrayal. He would also be very athletic, as Demi gods are, eg Hercules, Acchiles, etc. in fact, give his hair a trim and give him a shave, he would look just like Superman.

Texarkana

 

20, 000 miles to an oasis
20, 000 years will I burn
20, 000 chances I've wasted
Waiting for the moment to turn

I would give my life to find it
I would give it all
Catch me if I fall

Walking through the woods, I have faced it
Looking for something to learn
30, 000 thoughts have been wasted
Never in my time to return

I would give my life to find it
I would give it all
Catch me if I fall

All my life
Waiting to find

40, 000 stars in the evening
Look at them fall from the sky
40, 000 reasons for living
40, 000 tears in your eyes

I would give my life to find it
I would give it all
Catch me if I fall

REM Texarkana

 

This is one of those great REM album tracks that only the fans who buy the albums get to hear and repeat. 

Texarkana is the town that overlaps Texas and Arkansas, it's in both States and also, in a way, in neither. It's a great analogy for a state of mind or a time in your life.

 If you see The Town That Dreaded Sundown, this place has another significance.

 This is similar to how Shiny Happy People, which sounds like a hippy free love tune, is actually about the tragedy in Tin Square in China.

Princess Bride - Machine - Disorientated Man - Scream and Scream Again

 

In the book The Disorientated Man, there is a sub plot with a runner who wakes up in a hospital room missing a leg. The only person who comes in the room is a nurse who never speaks. As well as feeding him, she gives him an injection that sends him to sleep. He wakes up with the other leg missing as well. Throughout the book he has a series of operations where he is vivesected piece by piece, arms, tongue, hearing, eyes, and he never knows why. It's very disturbing.

The last operation is worst as they forget to put him to sleep and he feels himself being opened up. They see his reaction and put him under, and he regains consciousness, in silence and darkness, unaware of what state he is now in, just that he is conscious. And what if he lives on as just a brain in a jar forever, conscious, but with no input from the world. Although we do find out in the main story what this is about, reading this disconnected sub plot is a true piece of horror.

Chapter six is where the torture ramps up. Wesley has been tortured for months, every evening. The Count does the torture, the Prince watches, and the albino fixes him up after. First they but his hands, put on oil them and set them alight. Wesley goes away in his mind so does not really suffer. The penultimate night the Count brings The Machine into Wesley's cell and assembles it. Wesley is not bothered. Then, right at the end, the Count says you haven't been fooling me for the last month, I know you have been going somewhere else in your mind. He leaves Wesley with this knowledge. That his method of going away will not work against the machine, the Count knows this. Wesley does not sleep, spends the night in terror. The following evening, the Count arrives and attaches all the suction cups.

The Count covers his entire body in cups, then says he needs to do the inside. It is not as detailed as it could be, but it does tell us that there are tiny cups that covers the inside of his nostrils, deep into his ears so they cover his eardrums, inside his eyelids, and then above and below his tongue. Though it's not described you just know they have covered his genitals, there is a tiny one like a catheter right up his penis, that they have gone into his anus, maybe right into the colon. It could be possible t hey have gone down his throat into his stomach, into his lungs, into his bladder. The clever point of the scene is it leads you into imagining what covering the inside really means. Wesley's worst fears more than realised.

In humiliation and suffering, and frustration, and anger, and anguish so great it was dizzying, Westley cried like a baby.

Actually it's nothing like Saw. The runner is simply put to sleep for an operation and wakes up with a body part missing, there is no pain, he suffers this process without knowing why it's happening. In Saw they are put in a trap, tortured physically, with a choice that should get them free. With the Saw films you can enjoy the seven film story arc, or watch it for the traps, or how each episode and their characters handle the situation.

And interestingly, Cary Elwes who play Westley also plays Doctor Gordon

It's actually the first film that Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Vincent Price ALL appear in together. Bit of a landmark. Also, if you are an X Files fan, there is a episode called Kill Switch where Mulder is in a virtual reality construct where nurses come in and amputate his limbs one by one. Psychological torture without any physical pain.

Stephen King

 

Stephen King put these metaphors for Christianity in The Green Mile and Shawshank as well as The Stand. In the uncut reprint of the Stand he refers to "revisiting this tale of dark Christianity" so it is very deliberate.

Red is Dismas, the Good Thief, being crucified next to a Jesus, who is personally promised a place in Paradise with him, which the beach scene captures so gloriously. Brooks is the other thief being crucified, who does not receive Eternal life. The cast are also metaphors for the apostles. Red, Brooks, Billy, Floyd, they are all Peter, John, Simon, even Judas. The clever trick is figuring out which one is which.

There is a theory that when Jesus was dead for three days he went down to Hell. While you are there time is fluid, to quote Clive Barker, so three days could feel like three decades. So the whole story is a metaphor for the time Jesus spent in Hell. So yes, the Warden is Satan. And to quote The Accountant in Drive Angry, Satan is just the warden of a very large prison. Stephen Kings writing works on many levels, especially in these early stories before he spent a lot of his conscious time in Roland's world.

Carrie, Salems Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Christine, Cujo, the short stories that make up Night Shift and the four novellas that make up Different Seasons are all before he started getting really stuck into Dark Tower and all his main stream work started referencing the World Moved On in some way. Fire starter, The Dead Zone, It, are all among those great early books that have all become films.

Shawshank Redemption aka Hope Spring Eternal. Apt Pupil aka Summer Of Corruption. The Body aka Fall From Innocence filmed as Stand By Me. All novellas dealing with the horrors of the real world. Only the last novella, the shortest, The Breathing Method aka A Winters Tale, is a true supernatural story, and a story within a story. Also one of the few King stories never to be filmed.

 King publicly stated he is not of any religion, and certainly not Christian. So he can stand back and use these religious stories inside his own fiction. Does Mr King believe in God and Jesus? No, any more than he does Buddha or Vishnu. Then neither does he believe in vampires, telekinesis, haunted cars, reincarnation, aliens, pyro kinesis, telepathy shining, possession, yet his books take normal people and introduce them to these phenomenon.

So just as Carrie discovers her telekinesis and fucks the town, Jack gets possessed and Danny sees ghosts, Johnny comes out of his coma with clairvoyance and Lewis has his dead cat come back all wrong, so can normal men like Andy and Red, with no supernatural happenings during their long stretch, be a metaphor for Jesus and Peter. Or John, or Dismas, depending on what aspect of Red you are focussing on. Or maybe they are all just metaphors for you and me. And if we are all in The Matrix, lying in those pods having this fed to us, it's nice to know we have a way for our minds to interact.

Apt Pupil is the second novella is Different Seasons, Shawshank being the first.  the film is amazing. Ian Mc gives a chilling performance. The third novella in Different Seasons is The Body, the film of that is the classic Stand By Me.

Red  murdered his wife and her father. In the book he tells his back story, how she got pregnant and he moved in with her family and they owned him, her father had him working for no pay to cover his keep and that of the baby. So he killed them both, saw it as his way out. Landed him life in Shawshank.

Maybe that is what heaven is like, being reunited with those who have gone on and are waiting to welcome us. Maybe that is something we all could hope for. I hope.

Green Mile was originally released one chapter at a time, then released as a complete novel, then made into a film. These are remarkable as they are set in prisons of old America, a constructed world of Mr Kings imagination, as unreal as anything he has written yet as stunningly real as any world he has written. He puts you there and makes you believe it. Whereas as Shawshank is his first major work with nothing supernatural in it, Green Mile has that supernatural element.

John Coffey is another incarnation of Kings version of Christ, he even has the initials JC. The gentle man with the power to heal and bring hope who willingly goes to a death he doesn't deserve. We have some great characters in Chief and Del. the other criminals being executed with him. We have the loathsome characters Wild Bill and Percy who get their come uppance. And we have the guards, led by Paul, played brilliantly by Tom Hanks, who is, of course, Pilate.

It's something that the film leads you to consider. We are made to believe that Andy is going to commit suicide in his cell, that he sees that as his way out. Come morning he is gone and we find the hole behind the poster and here that he escaped. Get busy living or get busy dying. So maybe, yes, Red did die and this is his vision of heaven. Andys letter says One way or another, you're out. But it doesn't matter. He's out and he's free and the Pacific is as blue as it's been in his dreams.
Andy wanted him down there as he wanted his friend with him, that much is stated. But Andy also says he needs a man that knows how to get things, which is what Red did in prison. Where Brooks was an important man in prison, and was nothing outside so died, Red can still be an important man down there with Andy. Andy has giving him a purpose, a reason to be.

The makeup was used in the film to make him age of course. In the last scene it isn't applied and he has a healthy tan, been eating good food and getting sea air. He has literally gained back his youth, all the years that were taken from him, regenerated. It's a marvellous image.

It is open as it is up to you to decide if Red is on the bus dreaming that scene or if it is what literally happens. It is totally up to you. What do you want it to be? What do you Hope?
 it is almost never that a film is better than the book, and many people believe Shawshank is that rare example. I can accept that there are people who might say the same about Apt Pupil, and I dare say the same goes for Green Mile. With novellas, as they are so much shorter than a full novel, with a 3 hour film, there is so much that can be translated over and examined in depth.

Red was guilty of killing his wife and her father and fully admits it. Only guilty man in Shawshank. When we see him at the first parole hearing he pretends he has atoned, but he hasn't, so is denied. At the end, he has truly repented, so much that he doesn't care, and gets released. He has his redemption. Unlike Brooke's, who couldn't handle it, he has Andy to go to, and that is his redemption. He did his time and paid his due. He's square with the house, to quote Brutal in Green Mile.
Andy is innocent. He earns his redemption in a different way. The story is told from Reds POV so we see Andy come and go and Red tells us about it. Hope springs eternal.

I would really like to think that they did. The happy ending the Gecko brothers never got in Dusk Til Dawn. Señoritas and Maguritas. I hope those Maguritas taste as good as they did in my dreams. I hope those señoritas taste as good as they did in my dreams. I hope.
Andy brought hope and light to the good men in prison. Prisoners like Red and the others he helped, built the library, made a difference. Evil men like Boggs, well, he put Boggs in a wheelchair, albeit indirectly. no doubt the Sisters never raped any more new inmates after that. Andy made it safe for them
For the decent guards, honest men doing their job, Andy helped them too. The first one he helped set up a fund for his child. The rest he did the taxes for. The evil men he punished. The warden, who was set to be a millionaire by the time he retired, commits suicide, his life over. As for Hadley, he was taken off to be tried and convicted. King has never written a direct story about going to Hell, what it might be like there, but can you imagine what was in store for Hadley when he went back to Shawshank as a convict?