Large Fierce Mammal

The Gentlemen

Here’s an uplifting little bit of rhyme for you. Not sure who wrote it, but I find it catchy.

Can’t even shout, can’t even cry.
The Gentlemen are coming by.
Looking in windows, knocking on doors.
They need to take seven
And they might take yours.
Can’t call to mom, can’t say a word.
You’re gonna die screaming but you won’t be heard.

And here’s another one courtesy of Rudyard Kipling, drawn from a much longer work called The Smuggler’s Song.

If you wake at midnight to the sound of horses’ feet,
Don’t go drawin’ back the blinds nor lookin’ in the street.
Them that asks no questions, isn’t told a lie.
Now watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by.

Mrs LFM and I are unrepentant fans of writer and director Joss Whedon who, among his other accomplishments, was the force of Nature that brought Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the TV screen. Episode 10 in the fourth season of the series, titled Hush, saw the town of Sunnydale literally rendered speechless while people began to be murdered by having their hearts ripped out. The villains were a group of sharply dressed and perpetually grinning grotesques with an interesting means of locomotion that exude an air of primal horror that is nothing short of genius. So much so that this specific episode  was the only one in the series to be nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding writing for a drama series, another for outstanding cinematography in a single camera series, and arguably distills the remarkably common fear of clowns into one very neat package. All this because, after he read critical acclaim of the quality of the dialogue he put into the show, Whedon decided to write an entire episode throughout most of which none of the characters could talk. Damn it, that’s the kind of shit that reminds me of me.

So popular were The Gentlemen that they even exist as Legoesque action figures.  Collect the whole set!

What appeals to me about this nasty bit of work was best put into words by the ghost in Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5 –

I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.

So today’s Dark Sentiment is all about silent death and evil things peeking in windows. Depending on your internet connection and computer setup this may take time to load, but it’s worth the dig. Pour yourself a libation, click play, and let me know how your dreams went , assuming you sleep at all.