O' Mercutio
Sometimes it is not the look that is barbarous, but the act.
I was looking through (okay spotted on the shelf) a book on Shakespeare today and this image came to mind. Not that I spend a lot of time reading Shakespeare. I've seen a lot of his plays and I am not a huge fan.
I was messing around with some washes and just sort of jotted down this sketch, I hope you like. It's not technically a bunch of barbarians, but the act was barbarous enough. Again, my house my bendable rules.
When you think about it even in civilized society we have enough barbarism to go around. This scene was based on the streetfight Mercutio and Tybalt have in Romeo and Juliet. Tybalt slays Mercutio because he is friends with Montagues. Not that Mercutio doesn't provoke the incident. It still comes down to two idiots trying to kill each other in the street.
Romeo and Juliet always struck me oddly, not because of the love story, but of the feud between the two families. I can hold a grudge if I have to, but I don't hold many. One I know of, but even it has softened with time. I can't recall the last time I was upset enough with anyone (drivers cutting me off and Glenn Beck being exempt from this statement) that I really hated someone enough to want to kill or wish ill upon them.
You hear about it and read about it in the paper. Two friends get mad at each other over something and one shoots, stabs, insert your violent act here, the other. Why? Especially when you're supposed to be friends? Even enemies. I know I have been upset with people, but would you ever go all the way home, get a gun, come back and shoot someone in the face for, what, pissing you off? Insulting your manhood? Making fun of your fashion choices?
The human capacity for violence stuns me at times.
I was talking to a friend the other night about how to help Africa in some small way (or big way we were kind of drunk) and I said, "I don't want to help anyone else in the world until all sides swear not to kill each other or chop off any more of anybody's anythings off." My friend thought I was being crude, but I gotta tell you, I honestly feel that until people resolve to not kill or maim each other I have a problem getting in the middle.
I want peace in the world. Heck, I want peace in my neighborhood, but I think that has to start with a resolution to not be violent.
And please don't mistake me for some kind of pacifist. If someone punches me in the face (and I'm still standing, of course) I will go right at them with all I've got, but I'm not going to start it.
And this rant is not about fighting. It's about people feeling that they can go around hurting others with no consequence. Not just Africa or the Middle East. Here in Chicago more children are killed (usually by other children) for reasons as lame as, "'He was disrepecting me so I opened fire." That is usually followed by something about not meaning to hurt or kill the innocent children that had nothing to do with the problem in the first place.
I know people will want to respond with gun laws and more, but I'm not sure how much that is the answer. I do want more control (no Tim, not complete control. Just sensible control. There is no sensible reason to own an AK-47 in the city of Chicago when a more effective way to get killed during a home invasion is to have the criminal take away your 12 gauge shotgun and blow you away.) over guns, but I wonder if it's something deep inside the human psyche that needs to be cured.
Societal or psychological? I'm not sure, I just draw the images.
Try not kill anyone tonight and I'll see you tomorrow.
Cheers!
I was looking through (okay spotted on the shelf) a book on Shakespeare today and this image came to mind. Not that I spend a lot of time reading Shakespeare. I've seen a lot of his plays and I am not a huge fan.
I was messing around with some washes and just sort of jotted down this sketch, I hope you like. It's not technically a bunch of barbarians, but the act was barbarous enough. Again, my house my bendable rules.
When you think about it even in civilized society we have enough barbarism to go around. This scene was based on the streetfight Mercutio and Tybalt have in Romeo and Juliet. Tybalt slays Mercutio because he is friends with Montagues. Not that Mercutio doesn't provoke the incident. It still comes down to two idiots trying to kill each other in the street.
Romeo and Juliet always struck me oddly, not because of the love story, but of the feud between the two families. I can hold a grudge if I have to, but I don't hold many. One I know of, but even it has softened with time. I can't recall the last time I was upset enough with anyone (drivers cutting me off and Glenn Beck being exempt from this statement) that I really hated someone enough to want to kill or wish ill upon them.
You hear about it and read about it in the paper. Two friends get mad at each other over something and one shoots, stabs, insert your violent act here, the other. Why? Especially when you're supposed to be friends? Even enemies. I know I have been upset with people, but would you ever go all the way home, get a gun, come back and shoot someone in the face for, what, pissing you off? Insulting your manhood? Making fun of your fashion choices?
The human capacity for violence stuns me at times.
I was talking to a friend the other night about how to help Africa in some small way (or big way we were kind of drunk) and I said, "I don't want to help anyone else in the world until all sides swear not to kill each other or chop off any more of anybody's anythings off." My friend thought I was being crude, but I gotta tell you, I honestly feel that until people resolve to not kill or maim each other I have a problem getting in the middle.
I want peace in the world. Heck, I want peace in my neighborhood, but I think that has to start with a resolution to not be violent.
And please don't mistake me for some kind of pacifist. If someone punches me in the face (and I'm still standing, of course) I will go right at them with all I've got, but I'm not going to start it.
And this rant is not about fighting. It's about people feeling that they can go around hurting others with no consequence. Not just Africa or the Middle East. Here in Chicago more children are killed (usually by other children) for reasons as lame as, "'He was disrepecting me so I opened fire." That is usually followed by something about not meaning to hurt or kill the innocent children that had nothing to do with the problem in the first place.
I know people will want to respond with gun laws and more, but I'm not sure how much that is the answer. I do want more control (no Tim, not complete control. Just sensible control. There is no sensible reason to own an AK-47 in the city of Chicago when a more effective way to get killed during a home invasion is to have the criminal take away your 12 gauge shotgun and blow you away.) over guns, but I wonder if it's something deep inside the human psyche that needs to be cured.
Societal or psychological? I'm not sure, I just draw the images.
Try not kill anyone tonight and I'll see you tomorrow.
Cheers!
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