The Fell Clutch of Circumstance

A blog detailing a road trip by two brothers from Seattle to Albuquerque. There will be beer!

Friday, May 22, 2009

About Our Title

Loosely speaking, one might view "the clutch of circumstance" as a play on words given the context of our trip. The circumstance being our trip across the US together, the clutch having vehicular associations.

Those with some literary knowledge (not Mike by the way, who was clueless as to the reference) will recognize the line as coming from William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus. Not exactly the lighthearted type of thing. It helps to know that Henley had TB. The key passage:


In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.


Anyway, I've always liked the poem. It's about responsibility to me. But when discussing this blog recently with a friend, he mentioned that this poem was also one that Timothy McVeigh referenced just before he was put to death by lethal injection. Jesus.

We are traveling through OK city on this trip. Kinda spooky. I want to assure readers out there that we have no other plans in OK city than to stay in a hotel and maybe catch the new Terminator movie. This whole thing shouldn't be interpreted as some kind of metaphor for blowing things up, even though I've been known to do that from time to time.

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