Just the Ticket #104.5: Gimme Shelter?
So, as I was working on my review of the Tremors Anthology, a funny--strange, not actually funny--thought went through my head about the inconsistent use of the word "shelter."
A shelter is a structure that keeps bad things out and good people safe. Or, like many nouns or adjectives, shelter can be an idea of safety; a quality of shelter that you attribute to a person, place, or group--that may or may not be a physical shelter--simply by your act of seeking out that person, place, or group.
But what if you brought explosives into a bomb shelter? If they blew up inside of it, would anyone on the outside know what happened? Would it have served its purpose as a shelter under those circumstances, if not as a bomb shelter? And wouldn't that completely upend the usage of the word "shelter?" If "shelter" meant the same thing in all cases, wouldn't that create some post-apocalyptic society where the rich and unabused lived in an impenetrable room while battered women and the homeless would be left out in the cold and dangerous world beyond? Or would it lead to the uncounted deaths of those foolish enough to try to contain such intangible threats as nuclear radiation, explosions, and raging storms in room-sized boxes in the ground?
I blame caffeine, Gallagher, and George Carlin for this absurd line of questioning. Good night. I'm gonna go get some shelter before I fade away, because the front line is everywhere, and there be no shelter here.
Ticketshelter,
Falling out.
A shelter is a structure that keeps bad things out and good people safe. Or, like many nouns or adjectives, shelter can be an idea of safety; a quality of shelter that you attribute to a person, place, or group--that may or may not be a physical shelter--simply by your act of seeking out that person, place, or group.
But what if you brought explosives into a bomb shelter? If they blew up inside of it, would anyone on the outside know what happened? Would it have served its purpose as a shelter under those circumstances, if not as a bomb shelter? And wouldn't that completely upend the usage of the word "shelter?" If "shelter" meant the same thing in all cases, wouldn't that create some post-apocalyptic society where the rich and unabused lived in an impenetrable room while battered women and the homeless would be left out in the cold and dangerous world beyond? Or would it lead to the uncounted deaths of those foolish enough to try to contain such intangible threats as nuclear radiation, explosions, and raging storms in room-sized boxes in the ground?
I blame caffeine, Gallagher, and George Carlin for this absurd line of questioning. Good night. I'm gonna go get some shelter before I fade away, because the front line is everywhere, and there be no shelter here.
Ticketshelter,
Falling out.
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