Rose's Rambles

Like I said, this is as much to get this opinion off my chest as anything.

( Cut for spoilers )

I'm disabling comments because I'm really only posting this to get it off my chest and, I hope, stop stewing over it, at least until the next ep. I know some of you will agree or disagree with varying levels of conviction and/or vitriol, and that's fine--but I really don't have time to host a discussion, even if it is (as I would hope!) perfectly civil and respectful. Please, even if you do agree with me, don't PM me or comment on another post... I truly am swamped right now.

( Potentially unpopular opinion time. )

... and it isn't polished and may not be totally coherent, but tonight's SPN reminded me of the point I wanted to make. (No SPN spoilers, btw, and it's not actually about SPN at all--that's just the jumping-off spot.)

( On Storytelling and the Quality of Hidden Object Games for PC )

Disclaimer: While the immediate occasion for this post is the kerfluffle about the anon meme--which I hope has died down by now--it's also a response to larger trends that are not unique to fandom.

There's a time and a place to be anonymous. Anonymity can be prudent if retaliation is a real concern--when reporting abuse, for example, or exposing criminal activity or battling entrenched evil like slavery or human trafficking. Sometimes that protection is all that ensures that justice will be done.

But prudence isn't courage.

There's also a time and a place for deeds of courage without renown. Some, perhaps many, of the most courageously virtuous people are known only to God. In some cases, we know what was done but not the names of the people who acted--the men who lie in various Tombs of the Unknown, for example, and the various groups of martyrs known only by where they died for their faith.

But that's a loss of information, and as Tolkien argues in "On Fairy-stories" about folktales, such loss is a bug, not a feature. We would honor such people by name if we could, I think.

There's a widespread misconception that words posted anonymously on the Internet are automatically courageous. I can't help thinking that those who hold such a view aren't familiar with what truly courageous words look like. But at this time every year, my mind goes back to a young man sitting at his desk, quill in hand, listening to "El Deguello"--the Cut-throat Song, the sign of no quarter--playing over and over from somewhere outside, and he dips his pen in his walnut-hull ink and writes:

Commandancy of The Alamo

Bejar, Feby. 24th. 1836

To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World-

Fellow Citizens & compatriots-

I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna - I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man - The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken - I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls - I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch - The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country - Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis.

Lt. Col.comdt.

P. S. The Lord is on our side - When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn - We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves.

Travis

Travis had 150 men when he sent that letter, with "Victory or Death" underlined three times. On the night of March 4, another 40 arrived from Gonzales. Other reinforcements would arrive too late. On March 6, Santa Anna ordered the final assault, and all 189 defenders fell in battle--having killed or injured 600 of the 1,800 Mexican troops.
Last Friday, I stood in line with my parents and a good friend for two hours to see the Travis Letter exhibit at the Alamo. I've seen reports of people waiting in line as long as five hours. The wait gave us time to muse on the blessings of liberty secured by the Alamo defenders and to pay closer attention than usual to the details of the buildings that are still standing--the pockmarks left in the chapel's limestone facade by musketballs, the scars of cannon fire, the line that legend says Travis drew in the courtyard to challenge the men and sort out those with the courage to stay from those too afraid to pay the ultimate price. (Funnily enough, while the names of some who crossed may have been lost to history, the name of the one who didn't survives: Moses Rose.) And it was well worth the wait to get to see some rare artifacts about Travis the man as well as the letter itself--shrouded in a double blackout tent to protect the fragile paper from light damage, the brown ink badly faded, but still a unique chance to see the words as they had come from the hand of the man himself.

In another 177 years, should the Lord tarry, I doubt anyone will remember what's been said by an anonymous person on an Internet fan forum. But I suspect that as long as there's a Texas, there will still be school children learning the words of the Travis Letter.
And maybe that's as it should be.

Back online and feeling very thinky about something highly insightful that Mark Sheppard said at Comic-Con, which--as it isn't a spoiler--I'll quote here:

"Crowley is what happens when people aren't paying attention."

For those of you who don't know SPN, Crowley is (we're told) a demon who was once a Scottish tailor and who somehow clawed his way up the ladder to become head of the Crossroads Demons and Lilith's right hand. He helped Sam and Dean thwart the Apocalypse for the express purpose of staging a coup and becoming King of Hell, which he promptly remodeled into a Screwtape Letters-style bureaucratic nightmare. He's been at the back of much of the nefarious goings-on of the last two seasons, and now he's clearly up to even more dirty tricks, but what they are, no one knows (yet).
Crowley is what happens when people aren't paying attention.

I see a sermon and a political stump speech both in there somewhere, at minimum....

Something I've been pondering this afternoon, picking up a thread from my last meta. Mild spoilers for 7.07.

( Does no Estel at all abide? )