Fun fact: Major Matt Mason has been in film development for over a decade with Tom Hanks attached and, for my money, the older he gets, the more my interest is piqued.
Space, at best, is the domain of grumpy old men as Apple's lovely For All Mankind demonstrates in its later seasons. In reality, it seems to be the domain of horny billionaires who aspire to be the Martian Adam Kadmon, a mythical man who had naught but a fig loincloth, a sister-wife, and a couple of disagreeable brats. Possibly also a demon ex. I suppose Adam had the distinction of naming everything but then when Babel fell, the names were all presumably changed.
I think it behooves any who plot a great escape to seed a planet to recall that they're in here with the rest of us forever, whether it's the same biosphere, universe, or multiverse. Any distance they can trivialize traversing will be insufficient to get away from those they deem as a burden. The only way to get away from anyone is time and six feet of dirt... and many futurists like our old friends de Chardin and Tipler have posited that time and dust won't hold as barriers. Eventually the universe will need some kind of humane and agreeable consensus, even if we exhaust a billion cycles of Ragnarok and quantum reincarnation just to persuade everyone that each of us is equally real to one another and deserving of dignity.
Or maybe the last man, woman, or nonbinary person alive gets to write the final history -- winner take all but no one left to envy the prize -- and they whisper it on the wind to nobody before being replaced by a different kind of consciousness or none at all.
Regardless, it would probably behoove us all to recognize that we're trapped here together with no expanse of space or time or grave so deep or scattering of shattered bone and ash so irreparable as to guarantee any separation is permanent.
Hey Grant, I was curious about your thoughts on William Blake's works and visions. Do you relate through your work and magical practice to his art and vision? Was Blake an influence?
I re-read all of Seven Soldiers of Victory over winter break, which was a true delight, and I don't think I really realized how closely it knits together with Final Crisis and Multiversity. I was tempted to proclaim them a trilogy, but I guess really everything connects with everything else anyways :)))
This is a bit silly, but I'd like to share a thematically relevant mystic vision I had recently:
THIS OLD HOUSE
I have a long standing recurring dream of an endless mansion, there's some sort of grand party happening, and as I go from room to room it becomes clear that EVERYONE is present somewhere within this labyrinthine tesseract. It's a really groovy scene!
You know when you're frictionlessly circulating through a great house party?
Like the opposite of Chapel Perilous. Perhaps Xanaduum adjacent? The Grail Castle?
My house is just old and giant enough to qualify as a genuine house of mystery, a metaphoric node in an imaginary network of revolving castles, we call it "The Fortress," I've been here 10 years now, twice as long as I've ever lived anywhere.
Traditionally over winter break the kids and their moms go to visit grandparents for a few days and I stay behind to work on home repair projects. I'm just handy enough to take on ambitious projects, but not so handy that they might not end in disaster!
I was working on replacing some cracked tiles on the kitchen floor. I'm pretty good with tile, but the floor is a bit uneven, so it took some doing. As I'm mucking about with the ceramic tile, adhesive, and grout, I have this kind of animistic vision of the floor, which then extends to the whole house. It's all malleable. It's all organic matter. It's all alive!
I then went on to fix a busted bathroom window frame, which easily mended back together, splintered wood and all, almost like it wanted to. More like it was being healed than fixed. A slight but significant distinction!
I'd been frustrated because the thing about big old houses is that shit breaks constantly. The entropy and decay had been getting to me, but those are the very characteristics that make the house alive too. Impermanence!
Like that thing when a house gets abandoned and it literally, physically, falls apart.
Chop wood, carry water. As above, so below.
Embracing the ongoing maintenance of our shared living home. <3<3<3
Hi Grant! Wonderful column as always. At this point you've alluded to what you would do to change up Doctor Who a few times now. I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit? What would your Doctor be like? What would your companions be like? And what would the adventures be like?
Im personally a fan of an older more professor-y Doctor (some would say that type of character needs to be a man, but I think getting a woman in her 40's or 50's works just as well and would shake things up a nice amount). But most importantly I want a TARDIS riddled with companions. Humans, Aliens, Robots, Children, Adults. Give me a cast of characters!
Grant - Happy New Year. I just finished act 3/5. Decided to try my hand at battling a king of a planet, and exploding an invasion fleet while battling with titans. Not really sure how any of this is going to end.
I think, I learned most that, even with the explosions and the consequences, I really could have let Power Rangers do it better. Not that it wasn't done as well as I could have, or that, I think I did it badly (it oculd hav ebeen clearer in places) - but, I miss writing about my life, but in a story. Not fantasy but, seeing the meaning in the mundane.
I seem to live a lot more when I'm not trying to escape into my own world, you know?
Anyway, looking forwards to (my Thursday) as usual. My year of the Snake is coming to a close, hoping the Chinese are right, and the Horse will be a great year.
I appreciate your last reply Grant. I wanted to ask you about the Cosmic Grail. I remember you mentioned it in a very enigmatic way in the pages of the Multiversity Guidebook. I was wondering if you wrapped up that storyline in The Green Lantern or somewhere else? Was this a plot thread that was going to be explored in Multiversity Too? I know Mark Waid mentioned it in his Dark Crisis one-shot that was a guide book to the infinite Multiverse instead of just the 52.
I just finished Joseph Campbell's book on the grail romances. I see you reference a lot of Arthurian legends. Which king Arthur tale influenced your work the most?
Happy New Year Grant! Thought very much of the brave young (and older) people in Iran demonstrating against the vicious theocrats holding their country hostage when you mentioned old fucks grasping onto power.
The Substack notes algorithm lead me to this 1979 interview with the original Ayatollah Assaholia (referring to him by the very fitting nomenclature given to him by The Simpsons - which as Homer says can work for any Ayatollah) - his quote that "music dulls the mind because it involves pleasure and ecstasy" stood out to me as a core tenet of the broken anti-human worldview he represented - https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/07/archives/an-interview-with-khomeini.html
I have not watched Tron Ares yet - every 20-30 years, someone manages to convince Disney that this time Tron will connect with audiences, but it never has. I did see Mamoru Hosada's 2009 film Summer Wars this week for its 4K re-release. I really liked it, and it came to mind when thinking about your reaction to Tron: Ares as it is a humans vs AI story, but one that is really grounded in family and the power of human networks and connections. Described it to some friends with the elevator pitch: War Games (the 80s Broderick movie) collides into the family reunion of a large traditional Japanese family.
My major media obsession over the December-January period has been diving into the Lupin the Third franchise. I think it's probably the closest equivalent that Japan has to Bond, and like both Bond and Batman there's a huge variety of tone and maturity found in the character and his world. Runs the gamut from the Virtuous Thief that Hayao Miyazaki depicted in The Castle of Cagliostro to the kinky and fetishistic world of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine tv-series and its subsequent Takeshi Koike films. There are only two compilation volumes of the original Monkey Punch manga currently available in English, but going through them I thought it was a very cool series with a gorgeous raw sketchiness to the art. The original manga definitely leans more towards the amoral and lecherous version of the character. Lupin also shares with Bond & Batman in that it has one of the great theme tunes
Fun fact: Major Matt Mason has been in film development for over a decade with Tom Hanks attached and, for my money, the older he gets, the more my interest is piqued.
Space, at best, is the domain of grumpy old men as Apple's lovely For All Mankind demonstrates in its later seasons. In reality, it seems to be the domain of horny billionaires who aspire to be the Martian Adam Kadmon, a mythical man who had naught but a fig loincloth, a sister-wife, and a couple of disagreeable brats. Possibly also a demon ex. I suppose Adam had the distinction of naming everything but then when Babel fell, the names were all presumably changed.
I think it behooves any who plot a great escape to seed a planet to recall that they're in here with the rest of us forever, whether it's the same biosphere, universe, or multiverse. Any distance they can trivialize traversing will be insufficient to get away from those they deem as a burden. The only way to get away from anyone is time and six feet of dirt... and many futurists like our old friends de Chardin and Tipler have posited that time and dust won't hold as barriers. Eventually the universe will need some kind of humane and agreeable consensus, even if we exhaust a billion cycles of Ragnarok and quantum reincarnation just to persuade everyone that each of us is equally real to one another and deserving of dignity.
Or maybe the last man, woman, or nonbinary person alive gets to write the final history -- winner take all but no one left to envy the prize -- and they whisper it on the wind to nobody before being replaced by a different kind of consciousness or none at all.
Regardless, it would probably behoove us all to recognize that we're trapped here together with no expanse of space or time or grave so deep or scattering of shattered bone and ash so irreparable as to guarantee any separation is permanent.
Hey Grant, I was curious about your thoughts on William Blake's works and visions. Do you relate through your work and magical practice to his art and vision? Was Blake an influence?
"IIIIAMMMYUUUHUAMIIIII!"
I re-read all of Seven Soldiers of Victory over winter break, which was a true delight, and I don't think I really realized how closely it knits together with Final Crisis and Multiversity. I was tempted to proclaim them a trilogy, but I guess really everything connects with everything else anyways :)))
This is a bit silly, but I'd like to share a thematically relevant mystic vision I had recently:
THIS OLD HOUSE
I have a long standing recurring dream of an endless mansion, there's some sort of grand party happening, and as I go from room to room it becomes clear that EVERYONE is present somewhere within this labyrinthine tesseract. It's a really groovy scene!
You know when you're frictionlessly circulating through a great house party?
Like the opposite of Chapel Perilous. Perhaps Xanaduum adjacent? The Grail Castle?
My house is just old and giant enough to qualify as a genuine house of mystery, a metaphoric node in an imaginary network of revolving castles, we call it "The Fortress," I've been here 10 years now, twice as long as I've ever lived anywhere.
Traditionally over winter break the kids and their moms go to visit grandparents for a few days and I stay behind to work on home repair projects. I'm just handy enough to take on ambitious projects, but not so handy that they might not end in disaster!
I was working on replacing some cracked tiles on the kitchen floor. I'm pretty good with tile, but the floor is a bit uneven, so it took some doing. As I'm mucking about with the ceramic tile, adhesive, and grout, I have this kind of animistic vision of the floor, which then extends to the whole house. It's all malleable. It's all organic matter. It's all alive!
I then went on to fix a busted bathroom window frame, which easily mended back together, splintered wood and all, almost like it wanted to. More like it was being healed than fixed. A slight but significant distinction!
I'd been frustrated because the thing about big old houses is that shit breaks constantly. The entropy and decay had been getting to me, but those are the very characteristics that make the house alive too. Impermanence!
Like that thing when a house gets abandoned and it literally, physically, falls apart.
Chop wood, carry water. As above, so below.
Embracing the ongoing maintenance of our shared living home. <3<3<3
Hi Grant! Wonderful column as always. At this point you've alluded to what you would do to change up Doctor Who a few times now. I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit? What would your Doctor be like? What would your companions be like? And what would the adventures be like?
Im personally a fan of an older more professor-y Doctor (some would say that type of character needs to be a man, but I think getting a woman in her 40's or 50's works just as well and would shake things up a nice amount). But most importantly I want a TARDIS riddled with companions. Humans, Aliens, Robots, Children, Adults. Give me a cast of characters!
Grant - Happy New Year. I just finished act 3/5. Decided to try my hand at battling a king of a planet, and exploding an invasion fleet while battling with titans. Not really sure how any of this is going to end.
I think, I learned most that, even with the explosions and the consequences, I really could have let Power Rangers do it better. Not that it wasn't done as well as I could have, or that, I think I did it badly (it oculd hav ebeen clearer in places) - but, I miss writing about my life, but in a story. Not fantasy but, seeing the meaning in the mundane.
I seem to live a lot more when I'm not trying to escape into my own world, you know?
Anyway, looking forwards to (my Thursday) as usual. My year of the Snake is coming to a close, hoping the Chinese are right, and the Horse will be a great year.
I appreciate your last reply Grant. I wanted to ask you about the Cosmic Grail. I remember you mentioned it in a very enigmatic way in the pages of the Multiversity Guidebook. I was wondering if you wrapped up that storyline in The Green Lantern or somewhere else? Was this a plot thread that was going to be explored in Multiversity Too? I know Mark Waid mentioned it in his Dark Crisis one-shot that was a guide book to the infinite Multiverse instead of just the 52.
I just finished Joseph Campbell's book on the grail romances. I see you reference a lot of Arthurian legends. Which king Arthur tale influenced your work the most?
Happy New Year Grant! Thought very much of the brave young (and older) people in Iran demonstrating against the vicious theocrats holding their country hostage when you mentioned old fucks grasping onto power.
The Substack notes algorithm lead me to this 1979 interview with the original Ayatollah Assaholia (referring to him by the very fitting nomenclature given to him by The Simpsons - which as Homer says can work for any Ayatollah) - his quote that "music dulls the mind because it involves pleasure and ecstasy" stood out to me as a core tenet of the broken anti-human worldview he represented - https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/07/archives/an-interview-with-khomeini.html
I have not watched Tron Ares yet - every 20-30 years, someone manages to convince Disney that this time Tron will connect with audiences, but it never has. I did see Mamoru Hosada's 2009 film Summer Wars this week for its 4K re-release. I really liked it, and it came to mind when thinking about your reaction to Tron: Ares as it is a humans vs AI story, but one that is really grounded in family and the power of human networks and connections. Described it to some friends with the elevator pitch: War Games (the 80s Broderick movie) collides into the family reunion of a large traditional Japanese family.
My major media obsession over the December-January period has been diving into the Lupin the Third franchise. I think it's probably the closest equivalent that Japan has to Bond, and like both Bond and Batman there's a huge variety of tone and maturity found in the character and his world. Runs the gamut from the Virtuous Thief that Hayao Miyazaki depicted in The Castle of Cagliostro to the kinky and fetishistic world of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine tv-series and its subsequent Takeshi Koike films. There are only two compilation volumes of the original Monkey Punch manga currently available in English, but going through them I thought it was a very cool series with a gorgeous raw sketchiness to the art. The original manga definitely leans more towards the amoral and lecherous version of the character. Lupin also shares with Bond & Batman in that it has one of the great theme tunes
https://youtu.be/pBTBksrfsgI?si=AlOEw4UGxtpMs0R