So-Called Dangerous

(The selfish smiling fool and the sullen frowning fool shall both be thought wise)  (1)

Think
Like mountain climbing
or skiing in the alps
Think of it--
I don't.

It was a big fat February
Wet, the ugly pavement cracked
Pause, unsafe.

I thought:
Insect posse will be crushed. (2)
It was a bit of Code Selfish.

There was not much going on
in the minds of the weak.
They were unprepared to be torched
By lighter kleptomaniacs,
So-called dangerous.

There is mad
And there is bad
And there is sad
And there is bad and sad.

Dangerous.

And the meek shall inherit the mirth. (3)

They were big, panoramic
"Same again, sir?"
How can you have the same again?

But they say:
Dangerous. (4)

1. This line, spoken by someone who isn't MES, is a truncated version of the following "Proverb of Hell," from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "The selfish smiling fool, & the sullen frowning fool, shall be both thought wise, that they may be a rod." This is an "infernal" echo of the Biblical proverb (Proverbs 17:28) "Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise..." which also inspired Mark Twain's proverb "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." This may also have been a lampoon of Charles Caleb Colton's "Silence is foolish if we are wise, but wise if we are foolish." There are a whole host of wise man/fool sayings going back to antiquity. 

For a rundown of quotes of, and allusions to, the "Proverbs of Hell," see More Information below. 

^

2. This line also appears in "Free Range."

^

3. A paraphrase of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:5): "The meek shall inherit the earth."  

^

4. Martin has found an account which, if true, which might be the original of this conversation (although it might also be something MES said more than once). According to Peter Kimpton in the Guardian:

Brevity can come in many forms, banal or brilliant. Several years ago I walked into a pub outside Manchester, and spotted the Fall's Mark E Smith. As a fan of that cantankerous and already half-wizened word sorcerer, and seeing him having almost finished a drink, I spontaneously decided to offer him a pint – of "the same again". He fixed me a wobble-eyed grimace, by then somewhere on a broad spectrum of paralytic, and then uttered this gnomic retort: "Eh? Ow can y'ave the same again?"

I was temporarily flummoxed, but then realised, that even in a state of extreme non-sobriety, characteristically obnoxious and ungrateful, Smith had also simultaneously expressed pedantic profundity. It's true, you can try and have another pint, but it won't be exactly the same again. It was only a couple of years later that I heard this very phrase on a Fall record. It still wonder whether it was born in that moment.

Fred points out the likely origin of this idea in Heraclitus, who Plato famously reported to have said "You cannot step into the same river twice." Plato's intention in quoting Heraclitus was polemical, however, and two other existing fragments of Heraclitus are thought more likely to be his actual words (all existing statements by Heraclitus are derived from quotations by other authors): "On those stepping into rivers staying the same, other and other waters flow," and "Into the same rivers we both step and do not step, we are and are not." Whether Heraclitus ever said something closer to Plato's version is doubtful, but in the other two quotes the point is a bit more subtle: stability rests on change, as both human beings and rivers are continually changing, but they maintain a kind of identity in the midst of flux. 

"Pedantic profundity" seems rather close to a contradiction in terms, but I like it; it's not a bad description of what I aim to provide here at The Annotated Fall. In fact, the phrase, whether the author intended this or not, expresses an identity in contradiction much like Heraclitus' fragments do, and one is struck by the audaciousness of the phrase, even as one...blah, blah, blah...

^

So-Called Dangerous: Fall Tracks A-Z

Dan points out that MES has quoted, or alluded to, the "Proverbs of Hell" from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell numerous times:
 

"The selfish smiling fool and the sullen frowning fool shall both be thought wise" (quoted in "So-Called Dangerous," also on Code: Selfish; also, in "Mere Pseud Mag. Ed.": "Beware the sullen smiling fool/And the shallow frowning fool/Both will be thought wise")

"He thinks at dawn / He acts at noon / He stays alone / And in the evening.." (paraphrased version of "Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.", "Two Face!," from Code: Selfish)

"Folly is the cloak of knavery", ("Ed's Babe," 1992, the Code: Selfish era)

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" (adapted for "Lost in Music," which is on the next album, The Infotainment Scan)

Also there are a bunch of references to Blake, including a reference to "Heaven and Hell" in "W.B.."

See also "That Man" and "A Figure Walks" for lines that appear to be nods at this source.

Anyway, it is interesting that so many lines emerged c1992.