The Origins of Pem: Part 2
18/04/06 03:53 PM
Since Lowman’s original description of Pem, I’ve had a couple of questions about how to use ‘Pem’ in a specific example. It is quite a hard thing to explain; you really can just use Pem whenever.
So, back to Lowman; he’s experienced it first-hand:
“It must have been, like, ?95, ?96. GCSE maths. I sat next to a guy called Chris Stone. Nice lad. Just a normal school afternoon. And all of a sudden, Stoney flips out. Total Pem Attack. I?d never seen anything like it in my life. You never think it?s gonna happen to you, y?know? One moment we?re quietly pressing co-sine and log buttons on those over-elaborate Pentagon-style super computer Casio calculators you have when you?re 15, the next?Jesus?Stoney just transformed into this slavering, frenzied beastman. He was flailing and jerking around, his face all screwed up and twisted, grabbing at me and tearing and slashing the pages of my workbook with his pen, and all the while screaming in that stangulated, inhuman voice ?PEMMMM! PEMMMM!? It was like it wasn?t even Stoney anymore, y?know? Like he was possessed or something. Possessed by Pem.
They say that when someone has one of these Pem Attacks that it?s all they can think about, it?s just like pem pem pem pem pem, they just get stuck on that frequency or whatever and it?s too much, y?know, too much pem, they just freak out?Nobody is programmed to ?get? Pem, to understand it, but for those 30 seconds of the attack these people really do get it, it?s like a revelation, or being touched by the hand of God or whatever? they short circuit, I guess. And then as quickly as it started, it was over… Stoney didn?t even seem to know what had happened. I mean, he knew something had happened, but he didn?t know what, and I never spoke to him about it. What could I say? It?s not the sort of thing you wanna talk about. I kind of suppressed the memory of it for a long time, but I started having nightmares a few years ago, flashbacks, and I?m having councelling now to deal with it? sometimes late at night, I can still hear the screams… “PEMMMMM! PEMMMMM!”. I don?t think you ever really get over seeing something like that. I?ve tried to educate myself about it, to understand what happened? I?ve met a lot of people who are really fascinated by it, like they?ve said they?d ?love to have a Pem Attack?- can you believe that? – ?cos they see it as this chance to finally understand Pem or whatever. One guy said to me ?Oh, you?re so lucky to have seen a Pem Attack up close?, but I don?t feel lucky at all. Every day I wish I could just forget it.
I still can?t do trigonometry without breaking down.”
commenting closed for this article
