Tuesday 25 July 2017

Autogeddon by Heathcote Williams - petrol - ROCK OL


http://dublincycling.ie/cycling/heathcote-williams-author-autogeddon-rip

Extracts from Autogeddon - by Heathcote Williams.
IN 1885 Karl Benz constructed the first automobile.
It had three wheels, like an invalid car,
And ran on alcohol, like many drivers.
Since then about seventeen million people have been killed by them
In an undeclared war;
And the whole of the rest of the world is in danger of being run over
Due to squabbles about their oil.
...

As adults are glutted by mobility,
Children wanting to play on their own doorsteps
Are hemmed in by parental fears,
Or else fatally immobilised.

The heart of the community, the street,
Is daily rent apart -
Conversation numbed
By a nervy descant of toxic shock.

Streets that were open universities,
Are now the open sewers of the car-cult.

...

OIL.
From the Sanskrit root -il, light, illumination,
And petr, Peter, the rock.
Thus, petrol is―remarkably―light from the rock.


...

Traffic control is, for most people,
Their most intimate, and direct,
Experience of government―
As well as being one of its most seminal justifications:
‘Look, you can’t do without some form of organisation,
I mean, take something basic like roads . . .
You couldn’t just have everyone driving on whichever side of the road they pleased.
Things would be chaos.’

...
Heathcote Williams died aged 75 July 2017.



http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=olive . . . " from Latin . .  from Greek elaia "olive tree, olive," probably from the same Aegean language (perhaps Cretan) as Armenian ewi "oil." "


The part about Oil is cute but seems to be made up. 
Petr is rock, yes, but -il/light/Sanskrit ? Doesn't seem to be true.

Wow. Sanskrit/Hindi looks like great fun! Hard though.

Let's ask the internet experts:


Koh-i-noor 
from Pers. koh کوه "mountain" نور Noor (light)." famous diamond that became part of the British crown jewels after the annexation of Punjab by Great Britain in 1849, from Persian کوہ نور Kh-i-nr, literally, mountain of light[182][183]