Eugene weekly., January 05, 2017, Page 15, Image 15

the modern world varies member by member.
They keep cell phones and active social media accounts.
Flipping through Facebook on his phone at Townshend's,
James gets a kick out of seeing that someone moments ago
posted a photo of him in full armor crossing the street this
morning.
Herzog and James hold down day jobs. James says he’s
known as “the knight of the kitchen” behind the
supermarket deli counter where he works.
The Order occasionally ventures out sans armor to see
a movie or play video games.
Holy writ is Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Melville’s
Moby Dick. Ahab’s sui-homicidal cosmic revenge quest
makes perfect sense to them.
“Ahab is the hero of that story,” Studenroth says.
They exalt also the unyielding 14th-century mercenary
poet Gottfried von Berlichingen, known as “Götz of the
Iron Arm” for having commissioned an articulate prosthetic
appendage, designed to grasp both shield and quill pen,
after being limbed by cannonade in the siege of Landshut.
Coming to terms with The Order’s zeal, you have to
wonder if these dudes are dangerous to have around.
The Order says it has no quarrel with modern men,
softened as such men have become after easygoing
lifetimes of too much Pavlovian entertainment.
KNIGHTS ON BROADWAY, ALMOST
THE ORDER SAYS IT HAS
NO QUARREL WITH
MODERN MEN,
SOFTENED AS SUCH MEN
HAVE BECOME AFTER
EASYGOING LIFETIMES
OF TOO MUCH
PAVLOVIAN
ENTERTAINMENT.
When, months ago, drunks in the Whiteaker harassed
members of The Order outside Old Nick’s Pub, The Order
stopped walking long enough for Herzog to ask the unruly
belligerents “How do you think this will end?”
When UO frat jocks cruise downtown for easy prey,
they sometimes mock The Order. It’s enough just to ignore
them, Studenroth says, adding: “They are cowards. They
don’t really want to fight."
Besides, there’s really no honor in sending unarmed
inebriates to hell early, Herzog explains.
The key is to “never flinch,” Studenroth says.
When he says “never flinch,” he’s talking about more
than muscling through the instinct to wince when a
samurai in black armor swings a steel blade in his
direction.
It’s a question of “how much blood you bring” to what
you are doing, Studenroth adds. “I bring all my blood to
this. I will give more blood.”
Never flinch is The Order’s backbone. Without it,
they're just guys with swords.
Think of a thousand deaths, Studenroth says, before
quoting the 18th-century Japanese text, the Hagakure.
“Every day when one’s body and mind are at peace, one
should meditate upon being ripped apart by arrows, rifles,
spears and swords. Being carried away by surging waves.
Being thrown into the midst of a great fire. Being struck by
lightning, being shaken to death by a great earthquake.
Falling from thousand-foot cliffs, dying of disease or
committing seppuku at the death of one’s master. And
every day, without fail, one should consider himself as
dead.”
Mortal ideation is the essence of the samurai way.
This, too, is the substance of The Order of Steel.
WOE TO THE VANQUISHED: SINGLE
COMBAT IGNITES IN THE ORDER OF
STEEL A SENSE OF MEANING THAT IS
OTHERWISE LOST IN THE INTERNET AGE
THE CALM BEFORE THE
STORM OF SWORDS
eugeneweekly.com • January 5, 2017
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