Being high?
This must be that unnamed “ill, ill, Jacobean revenge play” that figured briefly in Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49.
We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire!
Get thee to Monterey. And be sure to pronounce it “slew”, not “slou”, lest you be confused with a Brit.
I had to read it in HS-- we did a survey of English literature in the last two years of English class, starting with Beowulf and working our way up to present day. I thought it was humorous. I even remember the paper I wrote on it-- I did an additional short chapter in the style of the author.
Oh, god-I had to read this twice this semester. Once for class, and once for a paper I did on the use of allegory in children’s literature.
It is well known and included for the reasons mentioned upthread. That and for its time, it had great narrative drive. As was also mentioned, it was found to be acceptable to the Puritans, so it survived.
I will never read it again, but like a lot of classics, it helps form a frame of reference for other works.
Actually, it was given a name – The Courier’s Tragedy.
Gotta read some more Pynchon one of these days . . .
I saw also that Hippie looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because, as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go. I looked then and saw a man named Candyman coming to him and asked, “Wherefore dost thou cry?” He answered, “Sir, I perceive that if I remain in the City of Squaresville, my trip shall ever be but a total bummer.”
Then said Candyman, “If this be thy condition, why standest thou still?” He answered, “Because I know not whither to go.”
Then Candyman gave him a parchment roll, stuffed with the finest green and sticky herbage, and he said, “Take thou, and smoke.”
Hippie therfore smoked it, and looking up on Candyman very carefully, said, “Whither must I fly?” Then said Candyman, “Do you see yonder wicker-gate?” Hippie said, “No.” Then said the other, “Do you see yonder shining light?” Hippie said, “No, but I do perceive it is a most beautiful and interesting wall, and I could sit here for hours in contemplation of it. Tell me, dear friend, hast thou aught to eat?”
Candyman gave a sigh and gave him an other parchment roll, soaked most thoroughly with Owsley’s Finest, and he said, “Eat of this not, but let it rest upon thy tongue for some little while; and for the nonce restrain thy munchies, for to eat would be a waste, as thou art on the point of losing what thou ate for breakfast.” And it was so. But when Hippie rose from his knees and wiped his mouth, Candyman asked of him again, “Do you see the wicker-gate, and yonder shining light?” And Hippie
and Hippies face shone with celestial light, and his pupils were the size of dimes, and he answered, “Yea verily I do see it, for it shines in the groovalicious glow of the purple ether molasses!”
And Candyman said, “Go out that gate, for it shall set thee on the path to the hole Freakout City! But ware many traps along the way, such as the Slough of Disillusionment, which may trap thee as thou comest to realize that not all the world can see the wisdom of Tuning In and Turning On and Dropping Out. 'Ware also the Valley of the Shadow of More, which shall lead thee into dependence upon a muchness of Bad Shit, and thou shalt want an ever more muchness until an end no man can see; and even more fear thee Yuppiedom Fair, which shall lead thee into the temptation of achievement and dedication, for it usually pays better.”
And Hippie said, “I thank thee, friend Candyman. Say, hast thou ever really looked at thy hands?!”
And he would set forth through the wicket-gate upon the holy path to Freakout City, but he was distrained by the citizens who came forth from the City of Squaresville, and their names were Responsibility, and Domesticity, and Boredom, and Conformity, and Pinkness, and Sheriff Pig, and Mister Tightass-Headspace. And Hippie conceived of the clever ruse of luring them back to his home and slipping some of Owsley’s Finest into their coffee; but Candymand laid his hand upon Hippie’s shoulder and said, "Remember thou the laws and commandments, and in particular Leary’s Law, that thou shalt not alter thy brother’s mind without thy brother’s consent . . . "
Actually, you’re closer to the truth than you know.
I live in Bellevue, just east of Seattle, less than a mile from the Mercer Slough, where they’re going to build a big environmental camp/school/park next year. It’s a lovely place to walk the dog.
…and check my location…
:eek: :smack: That I just noticed is mispelled!!! :o
or should I say, was…
And THAT’S why Pilgrim’s Progress is a classic! See how it’s helped develop your literary skills! 
Very tangential, but amusing: Lois McMaster Bujold’s novella “The Borders of Infinity” (which is the last third of the book with the same title) involves a mass rescue from a POW camp, and is founded on a conceit stolen from Pilgrim’s Progress and regeared from the theological to the literal. 