Fac ut Vivas

There’d be days like this…

I went to the lab, thinking I could do a lot of work: tie up some loose ends about my research, write a paper, continue work on a website that is due next month, read a book, and of course, think about how to bring myself closer to the goals I’ve set for the year

… Then the power tripped. There was a loud bang before the lights went out to the chorus of dying UPS’s sprawled across the floor, on top of shelves, and under the melles-griot metal brick, with intricate networks of wires, cables and dust to complete the cliche’d picture of a lab.

… These power surges are more or less a feature of the Institute nowadays. Despite all the talks we’ve had with MERALCO, building administrators, electricians, campus personalities, and your joes-in-jeans-scientist-types, we’ve yet to see any resolution to our problem. That’s mostly because nobody is willing to shoulder any kind of blame for the sorry state the building’s transformer is in right now: a "veritable jungle" has already grown into it and interestingly enough, no small animal has ever died while making contact with its potent but rotting terminals.

I’m drifting farther off-topic again.

After doing the customary shutdown of every electronic device (including those annoying UPS’s), I surveyed the lab for tell-tale signs of busted lab equipment. There was none. Whew! In about a month, we’ve lost nearly half a million PhP worth of hardware, priceless man-hours. Thank SOMEBODY up there for minor consolations like this day. I don’t want another expensive charcoal to add to my collection. I pity the underlings who couldn’t proceed with their thesis work due to a bad case of overvoltage (at one point it was 350V — farewell UPS! it was a good life).

With the lights out and the internet connection about to go MIA, I sifted through my archives for something to pass the time and got that DVD which was reserved for films too haunting or serious to make the "chill out, watch a hollywood film" type of cut.

First there was Untergang and the other was Immortel Ad Vitam. The former was too serious for the moment and could further any form of frustration. I was already livid with rage and already sporting that "need to punch someone or something" look.

I chose the latter, a film by Enki Bilal. Released in 2004, it’s a reinterpretation of his own trilogy of graphic novels, (Carnival of The Immortals, The Woman Trap, Cold Equator). The film, according to some critics provide a more coherent picture than the books, but (ahem) but does not capture the spirit of the Novels, Enki’s vision of a weird future that soon will become the playground of the gods: a stage to demonstrate their pettiness (that is also comparable to humans) and awesome powers, and why that shadow of futility must always fall on any human effort to reason with cosmic intelligence (or monomaniacal bents).

… Just in case anybody is expecting a spoiler in this post, I’m afraid I’d disappoint you. I don’t have anything to give. While wondering why the odds stacked against "World Peace" are seemingly insurmountable, I just thought the comments of HORUS (the god of the heavens both in the film and in the novels) on human nature seemed to illuminate some issues.

So thus spake HORUS of HIERAKONOPOLIS (The character whose head in the picture below looks like an avian wreck):

"You see, Nikopol … Thanks to you, I have known many things of earth and the people upon it …
Eleven years is like the blink of an eye, but I will always remember the smells, sounds and sensations…

You humans are utterly inequipped to run this world. Everything you touch rots away… I wanted to make peace with humans, but they’re too small-minded … They will never be rid of their unchecked patriotism, their stubborn faith, their ineptitude for power and their chronological limitations … For your lifespan is your weakest point…. you don’t live long enough to retain or even realize the value of what’s really important.

… We, the GODS,  have made you badly. A terrible thing to admit, but admit it I must"

As for the other film, Die Untergang, which in english translates to "The Downfall", I had these comments in mind when I played it after Immortel Ad Vitam.

By the way, Die Untergang was about the final days of the Third Reich and its most famous son: Adolf Hilter.