View source for Story:Carnival

{{Story
|title=Carnival of Wonders
|story=Carnival
|rundate=March 15th, 2019 - May 13th, 2019 (Part One)
|pic=Carnival.jpg
|complete=no
|overview=In the beginning, man created the gods to help explain the universe and make sense of it. They were born of belief and given power through it. Now the age of reason looms, and as man unlocks the secrets of the universe with science, he stands on the verge of creating a false sun and usurping the gods he created. 

These are the last days of magic and wonder, the end of times for the gods man no longer needs.
|soundtrack={{AS
|song=God's Away on Business - Tom Waits
|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9mhsW5aWJM
|lyrics=I'd sell your heart to the junkman 

Baby, for a buck, for a buck

If you're looking for someone

To pull you out of that ditch

You're out of luck, you're out of luck



Ship is sinking

The ship is sinking

The ship is sinking



There's leak, there's a leak, in the boiler room

The poor, the lame, the blind

Who are the ones that we kept in charge?

Killers, thieves, and lawyers



God's away, God's away

God's away on business

Business

God's away, God's away

God's away on business

Business



Digging up the dead with a shovel and a pick

It's a job, it's a job

Bloody moon rising with a plague and a flood

Join the mob, join the mob

It's all over, it's all over, it's all over
}}{{AS
|song=Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers
|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS2IBMQIjDo
|lyrics=In the afterlife 

You could be headed for the serious strife 

Now you make the scene all day 

But tomorrow there'll be Hell to pay


People listen attentively 

I mean about future calamity 

I used to think the idea was obsolete 

Until I heard the old man stamping his feet.


This is a place where eternally 

Fire is applied to the body 

Teeth are extruded and bones are ground 

Then baked into cakes which are passed around.


Beauty, talent, fame, money, refinement 

Top skill and brain 

But all the things you try to hide 

Will be revealed on the other side.

Now the D and the A and the M 

And the N and the A 

And the T and the I-O-N 

Lose your face, lose your name 

Then get fitted for a suit of flame
}}{{AS
|song=Ghost of Stephen Foster - Squirrel Nut Zippers
|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sxFyu_U2go
|lyrics=Met the Ghost of Stephen Foster at the Hotel Paradise

This is what I told him as I gazed into his eyes:

Rooms were made for carpets,

Towers made for spires,

Ships were made for cannonade fire off from inside them.


Gwine to run all night
Gwine to run all day
Camptown ladies never sang all the doo dah day no, no, no.


Met the Ghost of Stephen Foster at the Hotel Paradise

This is what I told him as I gazed into his eyes:

Ships were made for sinking,

Whiskey made for drinking,

If we were made of cellophane, we'd all get stinking drunk quite faster ha, ha, ha.
}}{{AS
|song=Sticky Jazz - Shriekback
|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DGGtN4frjE
|lyrics=Surya Namaskar like a little lizard in the sun

Take as much as you need;

There's enough for everyone

Living for the night-time

Taking the bandage from the eyes

Hanging with the moth-men:

Everybody's favorite disguise.



All the little background noises

All the little children sing

Fiddle with the wooden Jesus

It's a special kind of thing

All the little background noises

All the little children sing

All the little Greek-boys know

There is a time for everything



DO-DO THE CRUEL IMMERSION

DO-DO THE FLAMING TONGUE

DO-DO THE HOLY MASH-UP

(SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE)

DO-DO THE FIERY FURNACE

DO-DO THE STICKY JAZZ

DO-DO THE HOLY MOTION

(WE WANT WHAT EVERYBODY HAS)
}}{{AS
|song=Captain Cook - Shriekback
|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46mVYMYw5ZM
|lyrics=Captain Cook said:

"We bring the gospel of the one true god.

We bring you medicine and video games.

We bring the language of the English queen.

We bring you alcohol and MTV.

We bring you syphilis and organized crime.

We bring you cinema and chemical war.

We bring the poison of our factory minds.

We bring the terror of the passing of the time."



And the Chief said to Captain Cook, 

"Who are you?"



The Captain said, pointing as his own breast, said, 

"Friend."



And the Chief did not understand.



So the Captain pointed out to sea at our vessel,

And said, 

"Ship."



And still the Chief did not understand.



So the Captain pointed at a musket, and said, 

"Gun."



And the Chief said "Gun," and smiled.



And the word, the word,

The word caught fire in the Chief's mind.

The word caught fire in the Chief's mind

And splintered into a thousand other words

For which he had no meaning.

Words for machines that flew

Into the night behind the stars,

The great cities made of metal and glass,

And new kinds of death.



And the chief's head was spinning

With this new language,

And he could no longer remember his own tongue,

And he began to weep.

He said, 

"I don't,

I don't want to know your language, white man."



And Captain Cook said:

"Nothing you know can be unlearned,

None of your bridges be unburned.

The new words stick in the brain forever,

No one stays stupid while someone's clever.

We're transmitting, you receive.

This is the software - do you believe?"



And the Chief talked to his people,

There as the waves lapped upon the beach.

And the Captain waited,

Knowing that nothing could forestall

The tide of history coming in over the heads

Of these simple and beautiful folk.



And when the Chief turned to Captain Cook

And said,

"We will do battle with you, then, white man,

And you will have to kill us all."



Captain Cook just smiled and said,

"We're not here to fight you, Chief.

No, we're here to transmit a virus.

We're here to transmit a virus called the future.

A virus called the future.

Called the future,

Called the future,

Called the future."



"Civilization is Syphilisation,

And yesterday's reason is today's superstition.

There are new receivers and a new transmission.

We're here to pass on this information:

The language/virus inculcation."



"The Prophets and Madmen sing their songs:

'Nobody right-nobody wrong.'

This is our message--

Pass it on.

Pass it on.

Pass it on... "
}}{{AS
|song=Hymn to the Local Gods - Shriekback
|link=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXPn65X4f9w
|lyrics=Where are the bones and the flowers?

Where are the shrines to the local gods?

They never write now or ring us

Whatever happened to the local gods?

What are their names? Where do they live now?

Where do we go to light a candle to them now?



They held the soul of the city

The streets were bright with the local gods

The days were sweet with their meanings

The nights were vivid with the local gods

The day they left we never saw their going

We woke one morning and the world was less than it had been



In the canals and the wastelands

Up in the spires, under the flyovers

Still you can see, with the right eyes,

The shining presence of the local gods

Stand in the silence you can hear them whisper

Hearing their laughter echo in the steel and stone



So leave a fire in the window

Pour the wine under the underpass

Let's all go down to the river

We'll go swimming with the local gods

They never died we only lost their number

All you can find here worship and more will appear
}}
}}