Humphrey

in 1648, parliament forces laid siege to colchester, england. legend has it, that a certain humphrey thompson, was shot off st. mary's church. he became a symbol of the final royalist defeat, culminating in the execution of Charles 1. the legend spread across europe.

I do suspect that "humpty dumpty" is so ingrained as a ‘kids story’, that people just dismiss it. ‘oh, that egg that fell off the wall. yeah, heard it all before!’ i was long tempted to outline the story, but better to expose the heart of the matter, thus. the challenge was to take a well known rhyme, and use it. ‘animal farm’ was in the back of my mind. the rhyme is only the anchor.

humphrey thompson falls and has a dream. he is symbolised as an elusive alien artefact. the jesters loose tongue starts a web of intrigue, reflecting how different people can, through rumour and gossip, think of the same elusive undefined object / idea, in different ways according to their preconceptions. how they use it, and compete with each other over it. the misunderstandings are amusing and frustrating, naive and tragic. ring a bell?

you can read in other factors - new world order, terrorism, hi-tech responses, sleight-of-hand diplomacy, romance and manipulation, greed, honest research, military aggressiveness, imbeciles as leaders, paranoia, double cross, imagined threats and grand deception to perpetrate a priveliged life style. And a thread of tongue-in-cheek frivolity, like the head on a beer!