the pen

Pentrige

In coburg there are the remains of a prison built in 1850 to house Victorian prisoners.   its bluestone walls like that of a medieval castle are partially removed to make way for  housing develoment  ...the prison having being decommissioned in 1997.

My current address is close by.  Its an oppressive part of melbourne.  I don’t like walking past the old jail..   the ruined lives.. the prisoners hanged..  I can even recall the last hanging there in 1967.   It was a controversial affair.

The ghosts of the past haunt the place..  I don’t like walking past it. Call me a wimp.  Go ahead!

I lived in Melbourne in the 1980s for a few years as an undergrad.. .i recall driving by the prison then a few times on my way some place else..  guards armed with rifles were at attention in the turrets on the medieval walls .   It was fierce..  guns pointing both in and out.. intimidating everyone.. inside and out.

People called it ‘the pen’.   enough to make your hair curl.

The message was clear.. forget the enlightenment.!. forget the renaissance…!!  we have a subtext!!.. the real text taken from the book the inquisitors had in spain.. (and elsewhere) --- one is to know that behind these walls.. if you transgress the rules here and get caught.. behind these medieval walls -- things happen.............  that you will never know about ..  i can just about hear machiavelli's laughter rising (or whatever it is he does that sounds like laughter.)

It has been in the press more recently as the prison that Gregory david roberts .. aka shantaram escaped from in 1980.    A talented author to say the least.

Its closed.. the pity is that the ideology has not closed but is alive and well....and transferred to places like villawood detention centre.. and Christmas island .. the Australian answer to Guantanamo and abu graib.

let me make myself perfectly clear.. i am not calling for the overthrow of this or any other regime (at the moment at least)   but i feel perfectly within my rights to call attention to the fact that there is at least one incubus at the round table.  hehehehe..