Monsters Inc
10/10/2012 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaYesterday was a glorious sunny day and a perfect excuse for some serpent adventures.
Been spending lots of time at the State Library’s new outdoor reading cafe where you don’t even have to buy a coffee to lurk there. But even better, they provide three trolleys of tasty morsels to peruse. One filled with novels, another with children’s picture books and the third with recent non fiction books. All bright and shiny with that delicious crisp new book fragrance
The inner goblin immediately cast her beady eye on an offering by the delightfully snarky Sartjinder Das. This guy is an ex goblin who is now revealing some of their darkest and dirtiest secrets. This latest revelation is called “Extreme Money” and all about the doings of the swinging dicks and Masters of the Universe playing pokies with other people’s money, losing it all and still claiming their big fat goblin bonuses
Even the chapter titles are little gold nuggets and well worthy of inclusion in the little brown book of nano muses. And this book would make the perfect birthday present for old Uncle Vernon
Returned the next day for another fix of this goblin gossip and the book was nowhere to be found. But no loss. Had already been eying up another fat and juicy tome by Peter Fitzsimmons. Had this book on the wish list ever since listening to an interview about it on Late Night Live at least a year ago. But the horrendous fifty dollar price tag was a complete turn off. Could always borrow it from the library but it is the sort of book that you cannot cart around due to the risk of loss or damage but also because of its size and weight. Pity because it is the sort of book best read by the beach overlooking the Indian Ocean or by the light of the moon in some spooky haunted ancient ruin
And here it was sitting on this trolley just waiting to be read and returned obligation free. A story of spices, shipwrecks, mutiny, murder most foul, assorted perversions and goblin galleons galore. A sort of X rated adult version of “Lord of the Flies”. The outdoor library is open for two months so should be able to bite off a big chunk of this sick spicy saga.
Then the serpent had the idea that if November’s nanowrimo novel is going to be about some seriously evil corporation with tentacles everywhere, then a saga where the first modern corporation plays a central role would be an excellent place to look for inspiration.
Had already paid a visit to the site that used to be the Headquarters of this monstrous Cthulhu Corporation way back in September 2006. What should have been the Holiest of Holiest temple of the first and greatest Elder God of capitalism was a shabby nondescript outpost of the University of Amsterdam with no indication whatsoever of its former glory some 400 years ago. All that remained was an engraving above a door post that simply stated “VOC 1599” (The company logo and date of establishment)
In his house at Amsterdam dead Cthulhu waits dreaming
It’s time to go monster hunting again. It just so happens that some of its most sacred relics are little more than 40 minutes away from the serpent’s Lair. They are located at a shipwrecks museum which is also running a “Fabulous sea monsters” feature for the school holidays. Its sister maritime museum has animated dinosaurs but they can wait a day or so.
Due to other temptations, ended up with just over one hour to visit the ship wrecks museum. The building itself is more than a century old and is a museum piece in itself.
Downstairs is its star attractions - a large chunk of the hull of the ship Batavia that was wrecked off the western Australian coast way back in 1629 and some of the ballast in the form of large blocks to be made into an enormous gate at some Dutch colonial outpost in Indonesia that was its intended destination There is another maritime museum much nearer the site of the actual shipwreck and there is a bit of rivalry between them. The compromise was that one would get the fake gate and the real hull and the other would get the fake bit of ship and the real gate.
But the cannons and the skeleton lying in a makeshift grave were most definitely real as was some of the silver ware and bullion upstairs
The upstairs gallery is also a sort of shrine dedicated to the history of that company. Its banners were hanging from the ceiling, the VOC logo was plastered everywhere looking rather like a very peckish bird with a pointy beak and big beady eyes
There were even pictures of their board of directors’ meetings. The only thing missing were actual shares and receipts for dividends.
The monster tour turned out to be little signs with notices to look out for relics, images on maps, coins, banners and assorted paraphernalia. They did not bring in cute and cuddly Cthulhu, rubber sharks or jellyfish or any other monstrosities. It was all so very subtle not like the screaming marauding dinosaurs up the road. But they neglected to mention that the biggest monster in the museum was the Dutch East India company itself or that its spawn still live on some 200 years after its dissolution on 31st December 1799.
Izzie’s own little monster Megatherion Money Management is a mere tadpole in the presence of such a magnificent and long lived Corporate Giant. But unlike its infamous ancestor, it is at least still in existence and growing. And in November it can be as monolithic, megamaniacal, murderous and monstrous as only this serpent mind can make it. Its evilness and greed is limited only by our imagination.
Izzie is so going to steal Jan Pieterszoon Coen one of the VOC board directors. He was apparently a bit of a head hunter himself and notched up quite a body count in the pursuit of profit for his shareholders
Been spending lots of time at the State Library’s new outdoor reading cafe where you don’t even have to buy a coffee to lurk there. But even better, they provide three trolleys of tasty morsels to peruse. One filled with novels, another with children’s picture books and the third with recent non fiction books. All bright and shiny with that delicious crisp new book fragrance
The inner goblin immediately cast her beady eye on an offering by the delightfully snarky Sartjinder Das. This guy is an ex goblin who is now revealing some of their darkest and dirtiest secrets. This latest revelation is called “Extreme Money” and all about the doings of the swinging dicks and Masters of the Universe playing pokies with other people’s money, losing it all and still claiming their big fat goblin bonuses
Even the chapter titles are little gold nuggets and well worthy of inclusion in the little brown book of nano muses. And this book would make the perfect birthday present for old Uncle Vernon
Returned the next day for another fix of this goblin gossip and the book was nowhere to be found. But no loss. Had already been eying up another fat and juicy tome by Peter Fitzsimmons. Had this book on the wish list ever since listening to an interview about it on Late Night Live at least a year ago. But the horrendous fifty dollar price tag was a complete turn off. Could always borrow it from the library but it is the sort of book that you cannot cart around due to the risk of loss or damage but also because of its size and weight. Pity because it is the sort of book best read by the beach overlooking the Indian Ocean or by the light of the moon in some spooky haunted ancient ruin
And here it was sitting on this trolley just waiting to be read and returned obligation free. A story of spices, shipwrecks, mutiny, murder most foul, assorted perversions and goblin galleons galore. A sort of X rated adult version of “Lord of the Flies”. The outdoor library is open for two months so should be able to bite off a big chunk of this sick spicy saga.
Then the serpent had the idea that if November’s nanowrimo novel is going to be about some seriously evil corporation with tentacles everywhere, then a saga where the first modern corporation plays a central role would be an excellent place to look for inspiration.
Had already paid a visit to the site that used to be the Headquarters of this monstrous Cthulhu Corporation way back in September 2006. What should have been the Holiest of Holiest temple of the first and greatest Elder God of capitalism was a shabby nondescript outpost of the University of Amsterdam with no indication whatsoever of its former glory some 400 years ago. All that remained was an engraving above a door post that simply stated “VOC 1599” (The company logo and date of establishment)
In his house at Amsterdam dead Cthulhu waits dreaming
It’s time to go monster hunting again. It just so happens that some of its most sacred relics are little more than 40 minutes away from the serpent’s Lair. They are located at a shipwrecks museum which is also running a “Fabulous sea monsters” feature for the school holidays. Its sister maritime museum has animated dinosaurs but they can wait a day or so.
Due to other temptations, ended up with just over one hour to visit the ship wrecks museum. The building itself is more than a century old and is a museum piece in itself.
Downstairs is its star attractions - a large chunk of the hull of the ship Batavia that was wrecked off the western Australian coast way back in 1629 and some of the ballast in the form of large blocks to be made into an enormous gate at some Dutch colonial outpost in Indonesia that was its intended destination There is another maritime museum much nearer the site of the actual shipwreck and there is a bit of rivalry between them. The compromise was that one would get the fake gate and the real hull and the other would get the fake bit of ship and the real gate.
But the cannons and the skeleton lying in a makeshift grave were most definitely real as was some of the silver ware and bullion upstairs
The upstairs gallery is also a sort of shrine dedicated to the history of that company. Its banners were hanging from the ceiling, the VOC logo was plastered everywhere looking rather like a very peckish bird with a pointy beak and big beady eyes
There were even pictures of their board of directors’ meetings. The only thing missing were actual shares and receipts for dividends.
The monster tour turned out to be little signs with notices to look out for relics, images on maps, coins, banners and assorted paraphernalia. They did not bring in cute and cuddly Cthulhu, rubber sharks or jellyfish or any other monstrosities. It was all so very subtle not like the screaming marauding dinosaurs up the road. But they neglected to mention that the biggest monster in the museum was the Dutch East India company itself or that its spawn still live on some 200 years after its dissolution on 31st December 1799.
Izzie’s own little monster Megatherion Money Management is a mere tadpole in the presence of such a magnificent and long lived Corporate Giant. But unlike its infamous ancestor, it is at least still in existence and growing. And in November it can be as monolithic, megamaniacal, murderous and monstrous as only this serpent mind can make it. Its evilness and greed is limited only by our imagination.
Izzie is so going to steal Jan Pieterszoon Coen one of the VOC board directors. He was apparently a bit of a head hunter himself and notched up quite a body count in the pursuit of profit for his shareholders
