The Unholy Grail
Hey guys,
do you remember King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? Quite sure you do, as these characters belong to the most famous medieval legends of the western world, that inspired several books, paintings and movies. I know, chivalry, faith and loyalty sometimes can be horribly boring, but the Round Table was as well a place of betrayals and disappointments for a whole generation of knights. Some of them went mad or died, others grew old and disillusioned, while a bunch of them got lost running after the mother of all delusions: the Holy Grail.
Legends tell many knights left the castle of Camelot in search of that blessed cup coming straight from the Last Supper and gifted with eternal youth and happiness. Enough to say goodbye to your family and king and ride alone toward the horizon, chasing a dream. Why not, after all? We live on dreams, and the sirens chant is more powerful than any human call, because it titillates our need to feel extraordinary persons. It doesn't matter if sirens are cold-hearted creatures, as long as their charming chant lingers in the air.
Generations of sailors and knights got lost and never returned home, wandering the world and the underworld, living or dying, finding their Unholy Grail or coming to the conclusion the only blessed cup you can drink from is freedom and loneliness. Since childhood, we are taught we must be part of a society, we must study and then work, earn money, find a man or a woman and make children that one day will replace us in the same role. But what if we don't feel part of the pack? What if we choose to leave after our own Unholy Grail, instead?
Let's go down for a walk in darkness, as it seems the literary Inferno is a sort of hot spiral running through the bowels of the earth. There, in the XXVI Canto of Dante's Divine Comedy, we can meet Ulysses, punished for setting sails to the West beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the borders of the ancient world. Condemned to walk forever in flames for defying the limits god had imposed on humans, condemned for wanting more than a quiet life. Another man who left the path and got lost. Another seeker of the Unholy Grail.
Are you asking yourselves what this Unholy Grail is? The Grail is the fire burning high, is the phoenix rising again from its ashes. It's illusion, delusion, dream, excess, obsession, madness, genius. It sets fire to our lives, makes everyone of us to push back boundaries and rise our middle finger against tradition, mediocrity, conformism and compliance. And the day you put your hands on the Unholy Grail, you'll discover you don't need it anymore. Because you already have won all the freedom you deserve and you have become the only god of your life. Goodnight children.
wrr009 37Chiara M. - Voice, Text, Playlist, Creative Direction
Silvana T. - Voice on Announcements and Jingles
Paolo C. - Production & Technical Direction, Original Background Music
Theme Song: Western Mantra by Cabaret Voltaire, Three Mantras 12" EP - Rough Trade RT038 - 1980