"Faceless Colossi" and "Khaemwaset", 1

While thinking about what to write for my daily assignment today, I read a Facebook message from someone who is following this blow, in which she expressed interest in learning why the blog is called "Faceless Colossi" and why I picked the nickname Khaemwaset. (Ah, sir, if you read this, check out facelesscolossi.blogspot.com)

Now now. As some of my readers may know, I have a rather extensive interest in ancient societies: Their respective cultures, histories, artistic creations are all sources of true wonder to me. In my poems, for instance, I really like referencing ancient events(biblical, folk or legendary, doesn't really matter) and people(kings, heroes, prophets..). The name Khaemwaset is such a reference. "Colossi", as you most probably understood, is the plural of the word "Colossus", gigantic human statues built by Ancient Egyptians. (The Colossus of Rhodes, sadly, almost certainly never existed.My apologies, Greece.) I will explain why I added the adjective "Faceless" shortly; but all things in good order. Let's go.

I've always had an irrational fascination with the concept of a colossus. A huge, potentially everlasting statue of the "vigilant man" is almost a defiance of Time which will claim us all; but more importantly, it is a gigantic lament to the undeniable, undefiable human mortality. Depicting the mortal man so very hugely, it is almost like the Egyptians wanted to prove that though generations of men and women will come and go, the Human Being will always remain on Earth.

Another thing I want to point out is that most Egyptian colossi are erected near temples and other sacred areas, sometimes sitting, sometimes standing; but always calm, commanding and very protective. I cannot help but think what they were intended to protect, to safekeep. Which one of us can know what secrets have been discovered by, and lost after the departure of the makers of the colossi? So maybe the colossi did really succeed in their duty.

But the sands of time and of the desert reclaimed the faces of most of the colossi: They have no eyes, no noses, no mouths, no wrinkles, no sneers, no smiles... It makes me wonder what each colossal face looked like.

I think the facelessness of the colossi take them away from being just simply huge respresentations of some specific people but enhance their symbolism of Man and its tenacity and longevity in general. Each one of our faces can be put in a colossus' body, each of us stand vigilant and proud and protect mysteries of some sorts in our own right.

But in the end, time and the desert will erase all our faces. The body, though, will remain, with its mighty posture and timeless presence.

All our ancestors are Faceless Colossi. We shall all become; and actually are in the process of becoming, Faceless Colossi as well.

Hence the name Faceless Colossi. It wasn't really aimed to be exotic, intellectually ambiguous or riddling at all. The name was meant to reflect..us.




PS: I pretty much filled three notebook pages now, so I will tell you of Khaemwaset in a future entry, most probably in the next one. Down below are some links to Egyptian colossi photos.

http://uk.memphistours.com/Egypt/files/large/120498125_Colossi%20of%20Memnon,%20Luxor,%20Egypt.jpg

http://www.myartprints.com/kunst/egyptian/colossi_memnon_statues_amenho_hi.jpg

(Both belong to the twin colossi of Memnon, there aren't too many colossi left, frankly.)

http://www.oceanlight.com/stock-photo/ramesseum-image-02586-607539.jpg

("Headless" colossi. ^^ )

An Abundance of Brackets

Dear Sir,

You cannot even imagine how horribly tired I feel right now; physically, mentally and emotionally (that last one sounded very teenage-y -which is quite accurate when you think about it- and girly -which is quite sexist, biased and stupid when you think about it).

Before I go on, I must clarify that I am fully in control of my excessive ( ) usage. I like drifting off topic in writings; and the brackets -or whatever they are called- present a perfect method and excuse for that purpose. I doubt you really will ponder on my use of ( and ) anyways I don't really expect you to read this in detail; but my blog readers may find it interesting. So readers, do not run to the ) as soon as you see a ( of mine, there might be nice stuff inside. There might even be funny stuff inside. Brackets do give me comedic inspiration at times. Brackets are good. Funny is good.

And yup, I don't really need ( ) to drift off and droll on.

Now, why am I tired, that was the topic. Since I already have filled my first page(which is significantly smaller than the A4 size), I'll answer the question in three to-the-point, methodical parts.

1) I am tired emotionally because it's autumn; because while the barber did quite a fine job I do miss my mane; and because I felt a bit lonely today and because I probably really need a girlfriend. (Hit me up, girls!) (Wait, am I really that desperate?) (Ssh, I told them I say funny things in brackets!)

(Still, pitiful. They didn't really have to hear ab---

Sorry, my alter ego Brackets apparently got the control for a tad. No, girls, don't hit me up, I'm totally waiting for The One (ugh.). Now now, because my second page is almost already full as well [I know, I know, it's weird. The notebook I use right now has a left border line that's almost three fingers' width into the page, so the writing space is beautifully little. Mhm, I'm not using standard brackets anymore, it's too dangerous.] I'll leave #3, "Physically" to another night [the reason I actually started this piece was to tell mainly about it, though. Sigh.] and list some key concepts for #2, "Mentally": School, homework, number of sleep hours<8, SAT stress AND YES THE BLOODY PAGE IS FULL!

Hello again,

A correction first: My teacher apparently -did- collect writings that weren't in notebooks but were typed or handwritten on seperate sheets of paper last Friday. Many people in class received their writings back with comments like "6 pages?" "4 pages?" "? pages", which gives me hope. My teacher says he's also been point-reading some of them and will continue to do so on a random, occasional basis.

I'll keep on with the blog.

This week, though, we turned in the notebooks as well; and something tells me I'm not getting my tensomething pages of writing back soon. No worries. I'm sharing a poem tonight--most people who're likely to read this blog are also familiar with the poems I write; but this is one was shared with the rest of the world only once, in an auditorium with classmates and a few teachers in it; and should be new to all of you. (And now I started talking to imaginary readers, bonanza.)

THE TRAGEDY OF PORNSTARS

The tragedy of pornstars
is not at all that they sell their bodies
-we all subtly sell our bodies
our sweat and our souls, our principles
for the raw desires of this world-
It is that once the viewer reaches his orgasm
and the testesterone's subdued, movies are quickly closed
and not ever watched until the end,
the work and the sacrifice of the pornstar
never fully appreciated by the satiated men.




Have a good night, friends.

Welcome, traveller.

I'd like to talk about why I am creating "Faceless Colossi" first.

I like reading and writing. I love myself some rainsong, hot beverage and a good book like most of my friends do. I like creating compilations of words that will hopefully be counted as poems, short stories or literary essays by those who read them. I must admit I also like it very much when someone puts a variation of the adjective "good" before "poem" or "story" or "essay" when he or she (preferably she, to be fully frank) is talking about a work of mine.

Is this the main reason why I'm starting this blog? No.

I am taking an Advanced Writing course this year; and my teacher requires each student to do two pages of writing every single day. In his opinion, it "heats up certain parts of the brain". Possibly because he deemed that benefit enough on its own, he so far showed no intention of collecting, reading and commenting on what we write. I don't really blame him, though. Actually reading fourteen pages a week for each of the twenty-one students in his class should definitely be harder than assigning such quantity of writing and just doing a weekly page count every Friday.

So after some deliberation on how can I make fivehundredsomething pages I am going to be writing on random stuff in varying forms(though they'll mostly be short essays reminiscent of your usual blog post); I decided to share it with others on the internet. I came to that decision pretty easily because I had wanted to write a blog in the past; but I haven't had the incentive for continuous, persistent writing.

Now I have a whip on my back, yay.

I was going to tell you why I picked the blog name "Faceless Colossi" and the nickname "Khaemwaset"; but I have one line left before I'm done with today's two pages, so that story will wait for another night.

Please enjoy! The faceless colossi greet you!