symbolic 17: doing something
Wrapping up a few threads while I try to find the spark missing from the Book of Lies.
Religious structures are wrapped around those initial moments, the instances where the Sacred pokes through and presents itself to us. These epiphanies are the moments when God (or however you prefer to name the Divine "Greater Than Us" entity) is revealed and we become aware of a super-natural realm which is very separate from our everyday existence (you know, the dull profane space). These epiphanal moments are the ones which we cling to, which we circle back and try to re-imagine again and again. The world moves in cycles not because it is convenient, but because we have imposed our need for purpose on it. If the world is created anew (the cycle beginning again), then we can be part of that initial transformative spark.
We gather about the spots where the flame breaks through because it is warm, because the light disturbs the darkness, because it creates a separation between what is and what is not, thereby creating reality.
The groups mentioned last time who were Doing Something are trying to circle back. They're trying to recreate that first epiphanal moment when they were touched by the thing on which they are focused, they're trying to recapture that first instant of glee and heart-stopping joy which came over them at their introduction. They circle back so long and try so hard to create the Big Bang again that they've become obsessed, they've forgotten about the simplicity of the joy which held them fast in the first place.
They have become trapped by memory. The slavish devotion to the corporate icons of the comic industry, for example, is all about nostalgia, not for a "better and simpler time" but for that moment when we all realized it could be possible to be more than the simple sum of our meat parts. We want to be dazzled again.
Those who are Doing Something are active participants in the ceremony of the epiphany, they are drawing the circle closed, trying to make their own way back to what Mircea Eliade called in illo tempore -- that previous time. They are Doing, but they aren't Making.
The difference? I'm not trying to recreate epiphanies, I'm making new ones. I am God.
writing
This is a reasonably comprehensive list of my published work, both virtual and physical.
THE MISFIT LIBRARY
I am Nine of Thirteen, one of the members of the Misfit Library, a writing collective which puts out a quarterly journal of our respective work. We are scattered across the globe and determined to change the face of the planet one story at a time. The link above will take you to Misfit Central where you can acquire copies of the journal as well as read exclusive online material.
SYMBOLIC
I wrote a column for OPi8.com's Transmit blogs: journals of the new dark underground. SYMBOLIC tracked the novel I was working on, referencing the process and the research materials which mad up the backbone of the work. In addition, SYMBOLIC busied itself with ruminations and considerations on the nature of language and communication. And a wee bit of mythology. The first 100 entries of SYMBOLIC can be found here on this site as well as at OPi8.com.
LITERARY REPRESENTATION
I am represented by Scribe Agency as my literary agents. Please contact these gentleman if you have any queries about my work.