Song

[avevale_intelligencer]

Let our battle cry be sounded,
Kill the myth!
In our quest on science founded,
Kill the myth!
Where beliefs are held untested,
Where pure reason's light is failing,
Where blind fools, their growth arrested,
Crouch before their idols quailing,
Stride we boldly to the vanguard
From Saqqara to Penrith,
Though the ancient gods be angered--
Kill the myth!

Tutankhamun's crawling horror?
That's a myth!
Blighted Sodom and Gomorrah?
It's a myth!
Is the Lost Ark crated somewhere?
Will King Arthur come again?
Did the flying saucers come where
There are circles in the grain?
Let us strip away the mystery
From each mound and megalith,
Burn the legends out of history--
Kill the myth!

Are there tunnels under Giza?
It's a myth!
Portents marked the death of Caesar?
That's a myth!
Every true historian winces
When the hackneyed lies are chorused,
How King Richard killed the princes,
How bold Robin roamed the forest.
For these fables are no truer
Than Skywalker and the Sith.
But we have a certain cure--
Kill the myth!

Some say history would be boring
Without myth.
Facts and figures leave them snoring,
They want myth.
We discard such idle notions,
We abhor such spurious glory,
And, suppressing all emotions,
We remove all trace of story.
Those who would the truth embellish,
Priests and cranks and all their kith,
For such scum our wrath is hellish--
Kill the myth!

And with snark and sneer and snigger
We will battle to the dith (sic)
Till the flood of fact and figure
Kills the myth.

And with insults highly polished
We will cruelly take the pith
Till all legends are abolished--
KILL THE MYTH!!!

(Scansion based on a Chesterton poem. Tune will probably not be found, for the sake of a quiet life.)

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Well, in my historian mode, what really happened is often even weirder and more exciting than the myth.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't know. Whenever I've heard a myth debunked, the truth which is supposed to replace it has always been predictable, dull and sometimes sordid, but I haven't gone into it in any depth so it's possible I've missed the really good ones.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

This is also true in science...

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Now *there* is a challenging rhyming pattern.

But I think I have a filk of it.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

It wasn't easy (particularly as where I have "myth," GKC had "Smith," and I was trying to avoid using the same rhymes as him as much as possible).

I shall look forward to seeing/hearing the filk, but this is not an attempt on my part to have an argument by other means. This song is the rallying anthem of ASHA, of whom you may have heard recently, and while I meant what I said in the comment above, I don't really think science or history works the way Mound (son of Tump) thinks it does.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Oh. I see.

I had to go have a quick listen to Sir Jock of the Sword mark 1 to verify that you were talking about what I thought you might be talking about. (Because I do much of my listening in the car, I haven't heard that particular song very often; it has enough dynamic range that when I have things set to where the loud parts don't blow my ears off I can't hear the quiet parts over the car noise, so I skip it. This is partly because I have an unusually noisy car, and not particularly good hearing; I have this problem with songs on other albums too).

It might be helpful to people coming across this song if you made the ASHA connection (and what ASHA is) clear in the introductory material.

Also, I'm a little puzzled; among other things, wouldn't someone from ASHA not mention science (in the sense of natural philosophy) in Sir Jock of the Sword's times? I mean, if he thinks the rhyme about London Bridge is too modern, wouldn't references to science be likewise? And the term "flying saucer" was coined in the 1940s or so, so wouldn't that be too modern too?

And also why would someone from ASHA have a problem with idols? Those are perfectly period. Likewise cranks and priests. (Depending somewhat on the specific type of crank or priest, but this guy seems to have taken against them all.)

So this song seems to be from the point of view of an emotionless person pursuing a quest founded on science and reason, not against anachronism, but against untested beliefs in idols and ancient gods, with hellish wrath for priests and cranks and the spurious glory of idle notions, a person who sneers and sniggers and uses highly polished insults.

I recall you making these accusations before, but not about ASHA. Hence my confusion.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Well, as I tried (probably too subtly) to suggest in the song, Mound isn't actually from the same time as Twang, and is a bit careless about his context.

But, if it's going to cause confusion, I'd better not bother going on with it. Thanks for pointing that out.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I figured you had him slip a little to let us realize that he was from the future, but if he's really about stamping out anachronism it becomes less believable that he would slip *a lot.*

Or you could propose that the song takes place uptime, "at home" so the anachronisms aren't a problem. In that case a rewrite to direct the character's hostility toward "things that distort future understanding of history" away from perfectly period things like priests and idols and untested ideas would fix any remaining confusion.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure from the song what time Mound is from, because he seems to understand science but not have heard of music notation. I was thinking that Mound might be a time traveller which has gotten lost from his own timestream.

Not that I'm all that bothered, I think it stands by itself. I was reminded of the fabled time-and-motion analyst who went to a symphony concert and reported back on all the 'wasted' effort (too many musicians playing the same tune, repeats wasting time, etc.) completely missing the point, and similar sorts who don't understand any reason for fiction.