Henry Bemis: Unofficial Saint of 2011

[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?

Sure, why not?

Four words:  Velma from Scooby Doo.

It is well established fact that people who drop their glasses 1 foot from their feet are unable to find them without assistance.  Bemis being able to find a pair in the ruins of a huge city is an absolute impossibility.

[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?

Four words:  Velma from Scooby Doo.

It is well established fact that people who drop their glasses 1 foot from their feet are unable to find them without assistance.  Bemis being able to find a pair in the ruins of a huge city is an absolute impossibility.

Rats...

[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?

Sure, why not?

Four words:  Velma from Scooby Doo.

It is well established fact that people who drop their glasses 1 foot from their feet are unable to find them without assistance.  Bemis being able to find a pair in the ruins of a huge city is an absolute impossibility.

Rats...

Velma (pawing around 3" from her glasses):  "I lost my glasses, I can't see without my glasses!"

Shaggy:  "Like, this is news?  You do this EVERY FUCKING TIME.  Put the fucking things on a lanyard, asshole."

[hooplala]

 

[LMNO]

I love where this thread went.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I love where this thread went.

Sorry, that's been bugging me since 1975.

[Whatever]

I love where this thread went.

Sorry, that's been bugging me since 1975.

I thought it was just me.

[Phox]

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.

I completely agree with this. Except I enjoyed the episode for how absolutely terrible message it had. The good guy loses no matter what.

[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.

I completely agree with this. Except I enjoyed the episode for how absolutely terrible message it had. The good guy loses no matter what.

Thing is, I can watch good men get run down like dogs anytime I want, in real life.  The one appeal The Twilight Zone had for me was the same as Guy Richie flicks...People get what they deserve.

If they don't, I may as well just walk down Congress St to see grim reality.

[Cramulus]

eh they can't all be happy endings

[The Good Reverend Roger]

eh they can't all be happy endings

No, but on The Twilight Zones, the unhappy endings should happen to lousy people.

I agree that Bemis should be a Saint...But the writer should be set on fire and thrown in the Hudson.

[Phox]

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.

I completely agree with this. Except I enjoyed the episode for how absolutely terrible message it had. The good guy loses no matter what.

Thing is, I can watch good men get run down like dogs anytime I want, in real life.  The one appeal The Twilight Zone had for me was the same as Guy Richie flicks...People get what they deserve.

If they don't, I may as well just walk down Congress St to see grim reality.

Good point, Roger. People getting what they deserve is more entertaining.

eh they can't all be happy endings

No, but on The Twilight Zones, the unhappy endings should happen to lousy people.

I agree that Bemis should be a Saint...But the writer should be set on fire and thrown in the Hudson.

And, again, I agree with this.

[Jenne]

I dunno, were I married to Bemis, I'd probably be a shitneck to him too.  He's not the most loveliest of humans, after all.  And his choice in wives points at his poor taste.  Maybe I'm just not entirely convinced that he didn't deserve what he got.  The message wasn't really about reading--it was about choices and how you choose what you do in your life.  The drudgery that was this man's life was STILL his choice--when the drudgeries were taken way without his will, he was still a failure.

[Phox]

I dunno, were I married to Bemis, I'd probably be a shitneck to him too.  He's not the most loveliest of humans, after all.  And his choice in wives points at his poor taste.  Maybe I'm just not entirely convinced that he didn't deserve what he got.  The message wasn't really about reading--it was about choices and how you choose what you do in your life.  The drudgery that was this man's life was STILL his choice--when the drudgeries were taken way without his will, he was still a failure.

Being a failure doe not equate to deserving to be completely isolated, starving, and blind.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I dunno, were I married to Bemis, I'd probably be a shitneck to him too.  He's not the most loveliest of humans, after all.  And his choice in wives points at his poor taste.  Maybe I'm just not entirely convinced that he didn't deserve what he got.  The message wasn't really about reading--it was about choices and how you choose what you do in your life.  The drudgery that was this man's life was STILL his choice--when the drudgeries were taken way without his will, he was still a failure.

Because he dropped his glasses?