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The Invictus games is obviously a noble venture,the good it does for the competitors inspiring.

So is it only me that feels uneasy with it ?

Not sure what it is, maybe the normalising of war injuries, or a kind of tacit approval of conflict. Perhaps I cannot separate the injured competitors from the wars that inflicted their many problems.

The idea that teenage archers should be awarded points, or food, or kudos, for hunting each other across an urban environment, doesn't strike me as particularly noble but it did fill the box offices. I didn't go.





eta:

Henley.

The name Henley niggles in the back of my mind and I ought to know why.

Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do or die, onward.

No, not that. It's somewhere back there though.

Beware the pine-tree's withered branch, beware the awful avalanche?

A bumping pitch and a blinding light, an hour to play and the last man in?

Beyond this place of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade. That's the one.

Henley. Victorian chap who lost a leg in exchange for immortal fame.

Invictus.

Remember no one likes a smart arse.

If I ever write a murder mystery I'll take my title from a line by Henley: "Death goes dogging". It will be a distasteful story.

He lived round the corner from me when I had rooms in Muswell Hill. His Long John Silver impression when drinking in The Green Man was definitive, partly because he was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson and said to be the inspiration for the character and partly because he had the broadest West-Country accent ever heard in London. Aharr, Jim-lad. If you reed his poems in a pirate voice they make so much more sense.







eta: It was, I'm now told, The Hunger Games I was thinking of earlier. Soz.

spot;1495688 wrote: It was, I'm now told, The Hunger Games I was thinking of earlier. Soz.


Might be a good idea to follow links before replying in future then ?

Had no idea at all what all that blithering was about.....my loss obviously........but I do know how to recognise and follow a link

Bruv;1495692 wrote: Had no idea at all what all that blithering was aboutIt's why the games are named Invictus. The designers had a reason for the name. One-legged Henley, the origin of Long John Silver. He wrote a famous poem while he was in hospital, from which I quoted. His dead daughter was Peter Pan's Wendy. He crops up a lot back then.

spot;1495694 wrote: It's why the games are named Invictus. The designers had a reason for the name. One-legged Henley, the origin of Long John Silver. He wrote a famous poem while he was in hospital, from which I quoted. His dead daughter was Peter Pan's Wendy. He crops up a lot back then.


You are an education...........but if I had wanted to know the origin of the name I would have Googled it..........in fact I just did.......Invictus definition. (Thats a link Spot)...Latin Adjective "unconquered, unsubdued, invincible.".....no mention of Wendy, Long John, or Henley, are you pulling my plonker ?



And I thought I was starting a philosophical discussion about valiant warriors and the horrors of war.

Bruv;1495696 wrote: Latin Adjective "unconquered, unsubdued, invincible.".....no mention of Wendy, Long John, or Henley, are you pulling my plonker ?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus

spot;1495697 wrote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus


All I can say.....Opening post..plus..context = wheres your head at ?

Would you be happier if I started a thread where obscure connections win ?

How about this one for 5 points.....HERE......another link.....obscure enough ?

Bruv;1495700 wrote: All I can say.....Opening post..plus..context = wheres your head at ?


If you don't see the association, that's a bit odd. According to The Telegraph: "William Ernest Henley's 1875 poem 'Invictus' has often been recited during times of adversity, and organisers say it captures the spirit of the event."

As for the games themselves, I suggest they'd be a lot more meaningful if the organizers had tried hard to get a recovering Taliban fighter team to compete too.

spot;1495702 wrote: As for the games themselves, I suggest they'd be a lot more meaningful if the organizers had tried hard to get a recovering Taliban fighter team to compete too.


Ah Ha Eureka !!!!!

Now that was On Topic and clever.....purrrrfeck.....I knew you were mucking about.

Believe they have got Afghan 'Good guys' at the games.

There appear to be two aspects to heroism in this context, bravery in the field and the gritty determination needed to overcome adversity after life-changing damage.

The implication of the Invictus Games is that heroism is an attribute of one's allies, and that those one fought are incapable of either form.

Speaking from a position of ignorance I'd have thought taking on the superbly-trained well-equipped British Armed Forces was more heroic than taking on a bunch of ill-educated hill farmers lacking both night-vision and air superiority. Those on the Taliban side who survived the encounter are nevertheless unrepresented at Invictus. I have a horrid suspicion it's going to present a triumphalist interpretation of events.

I hate to say this after all the waffle in this thread up to this point but, I possibly agree with you, at least that last sentence.

Meanwhile.......on pedant watch, the placing of the words 'that' and 'those' in that second sentence should be reversed............in my world...............just saying......suspect you know better.....obviously.

Bruv;1495715 wrote: suspect you know better.....obviously.In the case of "that those"? Undoubtedly. The "that" is the second of a pair.

spot;1495716 wrote: In the case of "that those"? Undoubtedly. The "that" is the second of a pair.


Eventuellement mon ami