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31_days2005-11-01 10:50 pm
ex-kittu9.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2005-11-01 10:50 pm
[November 1] [Equilibrium] In the footsteps of the Carthusian Order
Title: In the footsteps of the Carthusian Order
Theme 1: Things you've never seen
Series: Equilibrium [movie]
Character: Errol Partridge, mentions of Mary O'Brian and John Preston [gen, kinda]
Rating: Teen (for themes)
Notes: the Carthusian Order was a strict Catholic monastic order founded near Grenoble in 1084. Eventually, during the 15th century, the order became receptive to late medieval mysticism, and humanism, the endeavor to attain true humanity.
i.
He marvels at his increasing heart rate in her presence. A man accustomed to discipline, control, and reason, Errol Partridge is shocked into sensitivity once he discontinues the dose.
It often goes like this, someone informs him offhandedly, as if the moment you start to feel you imprint yourself upon beauty. Birds did the same thing, before they became extinct, they say--and Partridge, who has never seen more than a taxidermied corpse, has a fleeting impression of a creature composed of quickness, something doomed upon conception.
ii.
He is amazed by more than the personage of Mary O'Brian, who is beautiful in a way that is both obvious and (in a very contrary description, which bothers him at first) abstruse. He begins to find a new solace in language, savoring each nuanced phrase as it rolls off of the tongue—he has always been a quiet man (most Clerics are) and so his measured pauses are, by and large, unnoticed—he speaks in a way that is a little similar to the manner in which some resistance embers drink wine or cultivate potted plants. With poise, a restrained sadness; he is learning what "transience" means.
iii.
To celebrate his induction into the resistance (as much as it can be celebrated), Mary and a few others gather with him in the Nethers one night, far from the scheduled patrols. They discuss Libria, building each stark and exacting law into a lovely metaphor. Mary is very good at this, but Partridge finds himself faltering ore often than not.
iv.
But slowly, the euphoria seeps away from him: he wakes up, skips his dose, meets Preston and prepares for his duties. Sometimes Partridge finds himself wondering, distractedly, if he and Preston could ever be friends; certainly they maintain a civil partnership (although this is very normal, expected, even), but in the end Partridge knows it couldn't work, although without the affects of the dose he is certain that John Preston would feel with great intensity.
More often, though, Partridge finds himself mourning over the loss of the beautiful world. It feels much like penance.
v.
Partridge is just learning the tenuous and subtle distinctions between love and pity and kindness. He is having trouble controlling himself also as the last of the Prozium leeches itself away from his system. He is plagued by guilt, the instinctive kata embedded in his nervous system, the look Mary threw to him across the room last night. Very soon his make a small misstep—it only, always takes one—and Preston will realise what Preston has always, instinctively, subconsciously known.
vi.
Until he is caught, Partridge determines to sense as deeply as possible, as an addict, even if all he can feel is the tangibility of sorrow.
vii.
There, in the car; his tonality slips and he leaves the city at dusk, to wait.
viii.
It began with Mary and it will end with Yeats and Preston's gun, although Partridge will drive him to it. —Preston is an honorable man, law-abiding even when it turns his life up-side down (oh yes, Partridge has seen the footage of Viviana Preston's immolation and it breaks his heart because Preston can't feel enough to do so himself). At last Partridge comprehends pity, and compassion; Preston pulls the trigger of his firearm and doesn't understand.
Theme 1: Things you've never seen
Series: Equilibrium [movie]
Character: Errol Partridge, mentions of Mary O'Brian and John Preston [gen, kinda]
Rating: Teen (for themes)
Notes: the Carthusian Order was a strict Catholic monastic order founded near Grenoble in 1084. Eventually, during the 15th century, the order became receptive to late medieval mysticism, and humanism, the endeavor to attain true humanity.
i.
He marvels at his increasing heart rate in her presence. A man accustomed to discipline, control, and reason, Errol Partridge is shocked into sensitivity once he discontinues the dose.
It often goes like this, someone informs him offhandedly, as if the moment you start to feel you imprint yourself upon beauty. Birds did the same thing, before they became extinct, they say--and Partridge, who has never seen more than a taxidermied corpse, has a fleeting impression of a creature composed of quickness, something doomed upon conception.
ii.
He is amazed by more than the personage of Mary O'Brian, who is beautiful in a way that is both obvious and (in a very contrary description, which bothers him at first) abstruse. He begins to find a new solace in language, savoring each nuanced phrase as it rolls off of the tongue—he has always been a quiet man (most Clerics are) and so his measured pauses are, by and large, unnoticed—he speaks in a way that is a little similar to the manner in which some resistance embers drink wine or cultivate potted plants. With poise, a restrained sadness; he is learning what "transience" means.
iii.
To celebrate his induction into the resistance (as much as it can be celebrated), Mary and a few others gather with him in the Nethers one night, far from the scheduled patrols. They discuss Libria, building each stark and exacting law into a lovely metaphor. Mary is very good at this, but Partridge finds himself faltering ore often than not.
iv.
But slowly, the euphoria seeps away from him: he wakes up, skips his dose, meets Preston and prepares for his duties. Sometimes Partridge finds himself wondering, distractedly, if he and Preston could ever be friends; certainly they maintain a civil partnership (although this is very normal, expected, even), but in the end Partridge knows it couldn't work, although without the affects of the dose he is certain that John Preston would feel with great intensity.
More often, though, Partridge finds himself mourning over the loss of the beautiful world. It feels much like penance.
v.
Partridge is just learning the tenuous and subtle distinctions between love and pity and kindness. He is having trouble controlling himself also as the last of the Prozium leeches itself away from his system. He is plagued by guilt, the instinctive kata embedded in his nervous system, the look Mary threw to him across the room last night. Very soon his make a small misstep—it only, always takes one—and Preston will realise what Preston has always, instinctively, subconsciously known.
vi.
Until he is caught, Partridge determines to sense as deeply as possible, as an addict, even if all he can feel is the tangibility of sorrow.
vii.
There, in the car; his tonality slips and he leaves the city at dusk, to wait.
viii.
It began with Mary and it will end with Yeats and Preston's gun, although Partridge will drive him to it. —Preston is an honorable man, law-abiding even when it turns his life up-side down (oh yes, Partridge has seen the footage of Viviana Preston's immolation and it breaks his heart because Preston can't feel enough to do so himself). At last Partridge comprehends pity, and compassion; Preston pulls the trigger of his firearm and doesn't understand.