Henry Bemis: Unofficial Saint of 2011

[Cramulus]

I declare this poor man the Unofficial Saint of 2011:

Henry Bemis: a man who seeks salvation in the rubble of a ruined world

Henry Bemis, who finally understands the distinction between solitude and loneliness.




"At last I can read my books

I have time enough at last...."



AT LAST it is 2011
our handlers are just finishing the world they have carefully built for us
all our problems are over
& we have time enough at last

[Disco Pickle]

probably my favorite twilight zone of all time.

[Cramulus]

just look at his face! It says it all, doesn't it?

The whole world used to be against him, now it's smoking ash.  He's so fucking happy, he doesn't have a care in the world.


yeah, Bemis needed technology, and that ended up being his downfall. But look at this perfect moment. He's stacked up all the books he wants to read, he has the next few months planned out already. No work, no duties, no nagging wife. He's not concerned about the food or radiation or loneliness, all he has is his passion. Nobody's left to distract him from that. Eris bless him.

[Jenne]

My kids loved this episode.  We started watching The Twilight Zone with them last year or something like that.  So great to listen to my kids talk about the themes in the oldies--they particularly liked Bemis and his trickery.

[Cramulus]

Before I left for vacation this year, I printed out the picture in the OP and hung it up outside my cubicle.

[hooplala]

This is a great idea, but why pin him down to 2011?  This next century is his, baby, HIS!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

probably my favorite twilight zone of all time.

My LEAST favorite.  The Twilight Zone was usually about people getting what they had coming.

The Henry Bemis episode wasn't.  It was about a man who got kicked and kicked and kicked some more, then the world ends, and then he gets kicked again.

I fucking hated it.  It was a downer, that didn't even have any sort of moral message behind it.  Perhaps if Bemis was surrounded by NICE people he ignored in favor of books, but he wasn't.  He was utterly surrounded by shitnecks, and he always tried to be nice.  Then he gets fucked royally in the end.

If I wanted that kind of "entertainment", I'd just go watch them go into and out of the goddamn battered womens' center.

[Cramulus]

some interesting interpretations of the episode at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last#Themes

[The Good Reverend Roger]

some interesting interpretations of the episode at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last#Themes

BAH!

Bemis wasn't antisocial, he was socially inept.  Big difference.

[hooplala]

probably my favorite twilight zone of all time.

My LEAST favorite.  The Twilight Zone was usually about people getting what they had coming.

The Henry Bemis episode wasn't.  It was about a man who got kicked and kicked and kicked some more, then the world ends, and then he gets kicked again.

I fucking hated it.  It was a downer, that didn't even have any sort of moral message behind it.  Perhaps if Bemis was surrounded by NICE people he ignored in favor of books, but he wasn't.  He was utterly surrounded by shitnecks, and he always tried to be nice.  Then he gets fucked royally in the end.

If I wanted that kind of "entertainment", I'd just go watch them go into and out of the goddamn battered womens' center.

I think of it as victory for him... he has time to read all the books he wants now.  So his glasses are broken, so what?  With all the abundant food and books seemingly untouched there must be a pair of glasses which will work for him... he just needs to find them.

[Jenne]

But he represents a big part of why we need to wake up and not let life be so damned miserable all the time--Bemis always had "time"--he did, as we all do, drudgery in life with those who didn't appreciate him--because it was STILL his choice.  I think I mixed up this episode with another of Burgess Meredith's, though, that was about books.  My kids liked the "Time Enough at Last" for different reasons, but they enjoyed the one where reading was verboten even more ("The Obsolete Man").

[Disco Pickle]

It was my mother who got me into the old twilight zone and particularly this episode because I often said "I want to be alone, I just want to read" or some variation on that.  And that was fine, she always encouraged reading, but with this episode she wanted me to take away the "be careful what you wish for, you might get it" aspect of the story, which I think comes across well.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

probably my favorite twilight zone of all time.

My LEAST favorite.  The Twilight Zone was usually about people getting what they had coming.

The Henry Bemis episode wasn't.  It was about a man who got kicked and kicked and kicked some more, then the world ends, and then he gets kicked again.

I fucking hated it.  It was a downer, that didn't even have any sort of moral message behind it.  Perhaps if Bemis was surrounded by NICE people he ignored in favor of books, but he wasn't.  He was utterly surrounded by shitnecks, and he always tried to be nice.  Then he gets fucked royally in the end.

If I wanted that kind of "entertainment", I'd just go watch them go into and out of the goddamn battered womens' center.

I think of it as victory for him... he has time to read all the books he wants now.  So his glasses are broken, so what?  With all the abundant food and books seemingly untouched there must be a pair of glasses which will work for him... he just needs to find them.

By touch?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It was my mother who got me into the old twilight zone and particularly this episode because I often said "I want to be alone, I just want to read" or some variation on that.  And that was fine, she always encouraged reading, but with this episode she wanted me to take away the "be careful what you wish for, you might get it" aspect of the story, which I think comes across well.

There is precisely NOTHING wrong with wanting a couple of hours to read.  In the story, it isn't even about solitude, it's about wanting to be away from abusive fucks while he reads.

At one point, his wife asks him to read to her, and he's fucking thrilled (not the actions of an antisocial man), only to find out that she's defaced the book beyond use.

The only possible morals to this story are:

1.  Wanting to be able to read in peace is a sin, and

2.  The assholes all go out in a blink, and the poor bastard they hounded gets to starve to death while functionally blind.

It's a rotten fucking story, and the asshole that wrote it ought to have been fed to rabid weasels, feet first.

[hooplala]

probably my favorite twilight zone of all time.

My LEAST favorite.  The Twilight Zone was usually about people getting what they had coming.

The Henry Bemis episode wasn't.  It was about a man who got kicked and kicked and kicked some more, then the world ends, and then he gets kicked again.

I fucking hated it.  It was a downer, that didn't even have any sort of moral message behind it.  Perhaps if Bemis was surrounded by NICE people he ignored in favor of books, but he wasn't.  He was utterly surrounded by shitnecks, and he always tried to be nice.  Then he gets fucked royally in the end.

If I wanted that kind of "entertainment", I'd just go watch them go into and out of the goddamn battered womens' center.

I think of it as victory for him... he has time to read all the books he wants now.  So his glasses are broken, so what?  With all the abundant food and books seemingly untouched there must be a pair of glasses which will work for him... he just needs to find them.

By touch?

Sure, why not?