This Vichyssoise of Verbiage Veers Most Verbose

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Also known as Gunpowder Day, November 5th is celebrated in England for the failed attempt by religious terrorists to take out the entirety of British Government that happened on this day in 1605.

The Gunpowder Plot, was a conspiracy that rumbled just beneath the surface of the conservative Protestant culture that came to the forefront of British politics and society with the crowning of King James I in 1603.  Having rented the storage room beneath the House of Lords, a group of Catholics, led by nobleman Robert Catesby, filled the cellar with explosives with the intent to detonate them during an address to be made by James before a joint session of Parliament.

Responding to an anonymous tip, authorities searched the Parliament building in the early hours of the day the address was to take place and discovered Guy (aka Guido) Fawkes, a former mercenary who fought for Spain in the Eighty Years' War, babysitting 36 barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes was arrested, tortured, and was to be executed by the state - a sentence he avoided by jumping off the gallows he was to be hung from, breaking his neck in the fall, killing himself.

Read more about Guy Fawkes in Jacobean and Modern popular culture, go Back... to the Future!, bear witness to a strange connection between disparate pop stars, and learn more about today after the jump:



In the centuries since, Guy Fawkes Night has become a festival celebrating the sovereignty of England, during which effigies of the conspirator are lit ablaze at bonfires as fireworks are set off, mocking the failure of the Gunpowder Plot.  Over time, songs, raucous parties, and masked revels grew around these ceremonies, perhaps as some scholars believe, because, celebrating Halloween was banned under the uber-Protestant James and Guy Fawkes Night, a scant five days later, allowed the repressed masses to let loose.

As the playwrights of the time were the equivalent of Made-For-TV movie writers of our day, a whole genre of "Gunpowder Plays" grew out of this event with dozens upon dozens of scripts being dedicated to either dramatizing the Plot directly, or, metaphorically commenting on the ordeal as not to draw too much attention to the sometimes unflattering depiction of either religious/political group.

In his book, Witches and Jesuits: Shakespeare's Macbeth, author Garry Willis, posits that the text that has been handed down as William Shakespeare's "Scottish Play," which was composed sometime between 1603 and 1607, is indeed one of these "Gunpowder Plays" - based not only on the fact that it celebrates James' Scottish lineage and deals explicitly with regicide, but that the language used, especially in reference to the assassination is reminiscent of the other plays from that genre (a notable line being: "...blow the horrid deed in every eye.")

Although an almost completely obscured and forgotten genre, the Gunpowder Play, received a slight resuscitation in 1982 when the British comics magazine Warrior began to publish writer Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd's dystopian vision, V for Vendetta.  Starring an anti-hero clad in a Guy Fawkes costume (who not so coincidentally also recites whole monologues from Macbeth) that tries to topple an oppressive fascist government and inspire people to rule themselves; V was an indictment of the ultra-conservative Thatcher administration.

As Warrior folded before a conclusion could be published, V for Vendetta remained "unfinished" for years, until DC purchased the property after experiencing success with Moore's run on Swamp Thing and his magnum opus, Watchmen.  DC published their editions of the comics from 1988 - 89, collecting as a "complete" work for the first time in 1990,  and although it received a deal of praise from comics scholars and cognoscenti, the work had mostly a cult following until the film making Wachowski siblings (responsible for The Matrix) shepherded a somewhat faithful adaptation to the screen in 2006.

A moderate success at the time of its release, elements of the film - especially the Guy Fawkes mask that the lead character wears, have become a rallying point and source of inspiration for protesters in recent years, and V, himself has become an icon for civilians who feel powerless against oppressive forces... not to mention, a slutty Halloween costume worn at raucous parties and masked revels...

Interesting how things tend to come full circle, huh? 



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Let's not forget that on this day in 1955, Doctor Emmett Brown created the Flux Capacitor - allowing for all manner of hijinks to take place in the Old West, the sock hop era, and the distant future of 2015!

Strange but True!?!

Musicians Ryan Adams (l.) and Bryan Adams (r.) were both born on this day fifteen years apart!  Coincidence?  Absolutely.

Birthdays: Art Garfunkel, b. 1941; Vivien Leigh, b. 1913; Tatum O'Neal, b. 1963; Roy Rogers (Leonard Franklin Slye), b. 1911; Elke Sommer, b. 1941; Jim Steranko, b. 1938; Ike Turner, b. 1931.