You wouldn't think that there many individuals who are permitted the actually leave the village. Cobb in Arrival is one, he mustn’t keep his new masters waiting! Fotheringay, Nadia and the Colonel, of The Chimes of Big Ben, who are three others who having been brought here and are now permitted to leave. You wouldn't think it really, not with all they know of the village. But don't forget so far those individuals who have been permitted to leave the village, are those who are embroiled in its administration. As the out going No.2 of Free For All, he actually pilots the helicopter himself! And No.2 of both The Chimes of Big Ben and A B and C were brought back for a further term of office, so they had to have had left the village in the first place to have been brought back. For as No.2 puts it in Once Upon A Time, "You can say what you like" No.2 begins "You brought me back here. I told you the last time, you were using the wrong approach." And of course don't forget that No.6 himself was allowed to leave the village in Many Happy Returns, and was brought back. The ways and means count for little, it’s the fact of having been able to leave and be brought back that counts.
But that's not to say that all the No.2's left the village, because in most cases they had to pay for their failures, as in the case of No.2 in Living In Harmony. And No.2 of Hammer Into Anvil, well there was only one place for him. The psychiatric ward of the hospital! And the retiring No.2 of It’s Your Funeral, well the helicopter he was aboard turned back to the village didn't it, either by the retired No.2's own will, or by remote control operated from the control room. You will recall No.2 escape attempt of Arrival, the helicopter having been flown back to the village by remote control. And then there are those who come here of their own free will and are never permitted to leave, the professor's wife for one, and Mrs.Butterowrth-No2's maid Martha for another. And then there are those who died in the village as did the Professor and No.12, and No.73 and the man whose body was washed up on the shore in Dance of the Dead. And don't forget No.8 who vacated the cottage then inhabited by the new No.8-Nadia.
Death is an escape, the Rook recognised that fact, and many have escaped the village through death, perhaps the ultimate escape of all!
Ø
After No.6's intrusion into the Professor's home, and the discovery that all is not as it might first appear in the said household, No.6 demonstrates that he, like the Professor, no longer needs his notes on the tape recorder, by tossing it back to No.2. The Professor's wife asks No.2 "What does he want?"
"What some of us want ultimately.... to escape."
So it seems that for a moment No.2 has dropped his guard, in admitting what he has just said "To escape." So if deep down why did he accept to be brought back to the village for a further time in office? Probably because of his public belief in both the General and the process of Speedlearn, although secretly he is opposed to both. For in his notes he desperately tries to warn the good citizens of the village, to tell them that Speedlearn is an abomination, and that the General must be destroyed! Although the creation of the General is down to the Professor, he has been forced to embrace the concept of Speedlearn and as a teacher it is his job to create the course work, and No.2's job to see that the whole Speedlearn experiment goes through successfully. The Professor's wife is there simply to talk her husband into carrying on with his work, this to try and help keep him alive. Both are necessary, the one for the other, even essential. And the doctor, he's there to see that the Professor does keep on working through the use of drugs.
Mind you is "WHY?" really as insoluble for man or machine as No.6 seems to imagine? Obviously the General had to be destroyed, hence the actual destruction scene of the General for effect. After all it would not have been the same had the question WHY? been fed into the machine and out comes..... WHY NOT? for example. You see with the General you have to give the basic facts, and with WHY? there are no basic facts. So really there can be no answer. WHY NOT? for instance is not an answer, but a question and a human response at that. You can answer a question with a question, but that is really no answer at all, certainly not the one were looking for!
Anyway now with this latest failure No.2 is free of the village at last, his current term of office having been brought to sudden and dramatic end. Yet is he free? can such a No. 2 ever be allowed to simply leave the village after such a disastrous failure, and with all the knowledge inside his head regarding the village? Highly unlikely I should have thought!
WHY? What would you answer with, if it’s not insoluble for man or machine?
Be seeing you
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