A Riddle for monkeys...
Looking for monkeys...
" Though this be madness, yet there is method in't" (HAMLET, II.ii.205)
On page 19 of the TDB leaflet, there are (blue) monkeys. The song's title is : KEEP TALKING.
But this title is incomplete. It should say KEEP TALKING, don't be LUNATIC !
The song's about communication and being lunatic is manifested by silence: "there's a silence surrounding me..." . There again, we have an INVERSION: communication vs. silence, talking vs. lunacy.
The figure of the FOOL as the lumatic man is then convoked, because he's "LOST FOR WORDS"...
The LUNATIC is on the GRASS... Got to keep the loonies on the path.... (Brain Damage)
Hamlet played the FOOL (He the best LUNATIC character I know !) while Fortinbras was fighting the Polacks. Wasn't it rather the POLE AXE? ELSINORE is nothing but the anagram of ROSE LINE, a famous meridian... Have you ever noticed the number of ROSE LINEs in Shakespeare's plays?
You play the FOOL when you want to HIDE A SECRET! This will guarantee that people won't be taking things seriously... In the TAROT, the card of the fool doesn't have a number ("...There'll be no safety in numbers). A FOOL is someone who is disoriented. He looks up to find his Way (his Causeway?), to ORIENT HIMSELF, to find the LONG ROAD to the POLE STAR. He's followed by a DOG. The dis-ORION-ted is bothered by a dog?
Read Storm Thorgerson comment on MADNESS! "If the album (The Dark Side of th Moon) is about any one thing, possibly it's madness -- dark side of the moon, irrationality, the other side of one's normal life,"
It is the MOON which have always been associated to irrationality. On page 13, there is a BALLOON (in fact, two...) next to the tree. A Balloon is full of AIR, like a FOOL. And the latin words for a ballon is FOLLIS...
"I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw" (HAMLET, II.ii.376-7).
Back to the monkeys...
Card Number 18 of the TAROT: LA LUNE (THE MOON)
TWO BARKING DOGS. HEAT. WATER. LOBSTER. TWO TOWERS.
The Barker = SIRIUS, Canis Major, the Big Dog.
HEAT, LOBSTER: DOG DAYS, SUMMER SOLSTICE. Day of the LIGHT. Bright day (Heights = maximum declination north > High Hopes?)
WATER (of the NILE) = LIFE for the Egyptians.
In his quest for solving Publius Enigma. someone mentioned a MONIKER website. Again, using the inversion principle I found the anagram MONKIER.
Incidentally, I happened to visit MONKIER.ORG. Guess what you'll find on the home (and only) page?
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.monkier.org
Address: 69.93.160.210
Authoritative answers can be found from:
monkier.org nameserver = ns2.theplanet.com.
monkier.org nameserver = ns1.theplanet.com.
ns1.theplanet.com internet address = 216.234.234.30
ns2.theplanet.com internet address = 12.96.160.115
If the 4 monkeys are for monkeys, then this means we have to follow another path... What do monkeys do? They often MIMIC movements, expressions.. This lead to the notion of MIRROR and inversion. Making ANAGRAMS is a kind of mirroring process.
Are the monkeys an indication that we have to look 4 MOON KEYS? It fits perfectly the theme of LUNACY of the "KEEP TALKING" lyrics.
But 4 MONKEYS can also be for MONK EY(E)S. Monks make vows of silence (WtIO: "I murmured a vow of silence"). They pray (ORATORIUM). They also watch the SKY, the MOON SKYE.
At Ely's Cathedral, we can find a Galilee Porch (>Galileo? astronomy domine?), a LABYRINTH (isn't it a nice metaphor of Publius Enigma?), and the OCTAGON (OTTO = page eight of the booklet...). But there are several OCTAGONS in the world which all relate to the observation of the sky and the movement of the planets/stars.