OR, what to write when one has no access to tv, social media, and cannot keep applying to a second part-time job that they need so very much, or even do work for their current job, like omg, lol
20% online
My cousin once said that the best defense for a spy is to say that they are not a spy or, alternatively, make a lot of spy jokes, which is totally funny considering the ‘spy fam’ I was raised in. So, of course, I am going to begin by titling this entry with a quote from the poor innocent French boy who is murdered in the beginning of the movie Timeline for not being a spy, but in fact, just being French.
It’s not exactly like the whole culture was raised on shows like Spy Kids, Mission Impossible, and Alias, but my family and church took these shows to a whole other level. We literally played games like Mafia and this other weird game in the church where we pretended to be terrorists and hostages as a youth group and dressed in camo fatigues to play some pretty heavy-duty paintball in the wooded property behind the building while studies thumping the bible were centered on how we were on a Mission: Impossible. This is not to say anything of the actual spy literature or espionage secrets that circulated amongst our group—to this day I am not 100% sure the origin of those materials or how exactly they were acquired in the first place. Like, who thought it was a good idea to give a group of teenagers an exposé on the Cuban missile crisis as released by a former CIA operative? Looking back, I am still curious about the rhetorical purpose of the skits we performed on the Russian streets to P.O.D.’s “Youth of a Nation.”
It is obvious that my little rural, small-town community were recruits, and I don’t mean recruits like the movie Recruit because that dude is really old when he is recruited, but more like the tv show Hanna. It is in the very nature of the literature with which our town and children was spammed at a young age on all networks. I even still have a copy of the Time Magazine that was delivered to my library at a young age that began my inquiry into becoming a Clandestine Operative. I also still have a copy of the book Tales of Real Spies, which my aunt gave me, and I never really remember reading much of until recently, and it really is quite some fascinating stuff.
Like, I had never realized before how much my apartment and my friends’ apartments for all intents and purposes really do appear to resemble that old lady’s apartment in that Microdot story, or how some of the other stories in there resemble other people’s lives, and I ask myself: at what point do character Legends die out? Like, if it is a really good character or cover story, do they keep assigning it to people?
Thought for food!
I swear, I am not a spy! Will post another post duplicating this picture with a different ‘word’ entry like ACAB, Abolition, and why I think all institutions are a little fucked up, including the education system, and anyone who works in them and does not acknowledge that has no business being in them (or maybe I won’t continue this thought and just leave it sitting like this).