In one of those delightful coincidences, I'm seeing Higgs do a presentation alongside the Blake exhibit up in New Haven tomorrow. Also pleased to know that you're a fellow fan of A Cure for Wellness, a movie whose grotesquery is at once mortifying and fascinating (if, to a slight degree, underdeveloped). Looking forward to Verbinski's new film in January.
The rabbit hole of writing has somehow gotten 30,000 words in a single month, which might be the most I've written on a single theme in a long while. (Even then, there have been digressions into the history of Book Burnings in America, the Science Wars with relation to the rise of Tech Bros and the meaning behind Clarke's Three Laws, and the overstated significance of a shitty mid-tier Wesley Crusher episode of Star Trek.)
Perhaps fittingly considering other relevant things, my way through the bleakest aspects of this chapter (which include getting into the mindsets of several boring monsters) was to outline a Tarot deck. Admittedly extremely nerdy in theme (it's Spider-Man because of course it is), working through the deck sharpened my skills as a critic quite well. I especially liked the description I used for The High Priestess, Absence (which replaces The Devil), and The Alien (which replaces The Moon). Now I just need $7,020 (if I'm lowballing things) or a damn good many years of experience drawing to actually make it happen.
Among the things you talked about in that Reddit AMA, one was the relationship between you and your God, Ganesha. Having personally found my own God as well as having conversations with Spirit Worker friends about the subject, how does Ganesha communicate through you both in the work, the Work, and in the personal life? What fellow guises does Ganesha wear that have resonated with you the most?
I didn't see the Reddit AMA and therefore missed out on the relationship between Grant and Ganesha. I like it very much as Ganesha was very important to me and mine in the early 1990s. Our main god was Pan and, as I age, I discover other gods and goddesses that resonate with me.
Hi Grant! Ive heard you in interviews say that All Star Superman came from a big feeling of Chesed energy. Obviously no one thing lives entirely in one place, but the connection between Supes and Chesed rings very true to me. Do you have any other associations between characters and the sefirot? Im tempted to put Batman into Gevurah, accordingly, but Ive always primarily associated him with Netzach "I am the rock on the eternal shore" vibes.
Re Donovan. Myself and my best best friend got really into him in the late 90s. We followed him on tour in Germany and after a while he knew us by sight and put us on the guest list. We talked to him about magick and the role of music in magick. He was part of the group who went to Morocco with Brian Jones and Brian's then girlfriend Linda who later became Donovan's wife. Together they visited the Master Musicians of Jajouka, in the Rif Mountains. The group is a collective of musicians from the village and has existed for centuries, playing Sufi trance music based on a very old fertility ritual and the character of Bou Jeloud. The ritual has been linked to the Lupercalia in ancient Rome and the god Pan. Anyway, we offered Donovan a copy of "The Triumph of Pan" by Victor Neuburg and he was regularly seen reading it during the tour. Donovan played "Season of the Witch" for us at some of the gigs. Those were the days.
My first encounter with Brendan McCarthy's work was on my trip before I met you in Edinburgh August 2024; I was browsing books at a vendor by the Thames in London when I happened upon a copy of the first issue of Revolver magazine! You and Rian Hughes had a very fun Dare story, but Milligan and McCarthy's Rogan Gosh was just spectacular. There is an image of Ganesha's monolith which has never left my mind. McCarthy has a unique style that feels like listening to George Harrison, like Cronenberg meets Burroughs meets Cameron Stewart and Christ Weston in a strange way. I'm not sure I described that correctly, but the tune is familiar. Side note: didn't Brendan McCarthy do the designs for Zenith? I could be mistaken. Also, I need to check out his issue of SOLO. I own the Darwyn Cooke one which is a masterpiece.
Couldn't agree more on Kirby. New Gods is a triumph. "The Pact" is an all-time DC story. The mythology of Orion has transcended the hampers of comic book secularism, such a compelling archetype of the fallen dragon that is given a second chance at beauty and purpose amidst the merciless churn of Mega-Politik God-Chess. All of these musings went into a poem I wrote about Orion last year. Let me know if you'd like to read.
The Devils was so good! I was locked in with the opening sequence of the bizarre cabaret androgyne, and Oliver Reed is just brilliant. I've been meaning to get into Derek Jarman (specifically his Blue and Jubilee) and now I have some excellent urgency! Man, Len Wein's JLA is so great. Outside of the classic Seven Soldiers and Earth-X arcs, I love those Red Tornado stories, the Snapper Carr issue, and the Santa Claus Christmas story! Thanks for the Haney recs, I love the SGT Rock Batman issue! Must check out the others soon. As for Peyer, Dark Night of the Golden Kingdom is hilarious. Terrifically sublime shots fired at Waid (and hysterical strays at Moore) that highlight the absurdity of Kingdom Come's premise. Peyer is a treasure, but we all knew this! Only 8 pages long and the short stands with the best imaginary stories published by the company. The vaudeville artifice of fanboy fantasy is stripped to the ankles and all we can do is laugh!
Season of the Witch and Sunshine Superman have been GOAT songs for a while. I recently discovered Hurdy-Gurdy Man last month, but Sunny Goodge Street is a new favorite! Also King Midas In Reverse, what a fucking song! Thank you for the recs!
Some rapid-fire Q&A!
1. Which writer do you feel best employed your ideas? Do you think anyone has retroactively hurt your work with their use of your concepts?
2. What makes good fashion? What pushes a specific style or mod to transcend the current trends and become lasting?
3. You cite Dennis Potter, David Rudkin, and Alan Garner as your GOATs! Put me onto their work! What makes them so great, and what are their must reads?
4. From one Beatle-phile to another, favorite record? Favorite songs?
5. I skimmed the AMA on Reddit today and saw you've been diving into Dostoevsky (GOAT! love that dude!). How have you liked his stuff? I love how his philosophy works in relation to that of Nietzsche, and now I've been comparing it to Camus' Absurdism while reading "The Myth of Sisyphus".
This post was such a pleasant surprise! Hope you are doing well! God bless!
TYSM! Your time and discerning eye are super very much appreciated :)))
I recently re-read Sebastian O in preparation for his continued adventures, easily my most highly anticipated new release, from anyone in any media. Will be esp great to see new Steve Yeowell art!
I think unlike most intimidating tomes, like Ulysses, The Cantos, etc, Finnegans Wake is not so much a mountain to climb and conquer, but rather a mystery to encounter.
Trying to read FW for 30 years IS reading FW. Heck, even if you do "finish" it, Joyce just sends you right back to the beginning again! With Jeems Jokes' holographic prose, the whole really is contained in each part.
Also, I think I cracked the code on The Invisibles / Maybe Night thing:
Though I can imagine reasons why you might prefer this not to happen!
Just say the word and I'll happily spike it.
I had one of those weekends where 3 years worth of ideas showed up all at once, all poured into sketches and outlines, so I have plenty to keep me busy!
Listening to your Against Everyone chat with Connor Habib I just heard you mention webs of connection with people you've never met, so "hi".
Like Connor I've also been hanging out with you for decades, learned magick from you by wanking over your "save The Invisibles" sigil, and both enjoyed and had my life enriched by everything you've written.
I was late to the reddit party and missed the chance to ask you a question, but it led me here under the distinct impression "someone" had done "something" to summon people here who would be happy to support their wonderful work of feeding an abundance of stray cats.
That's the kind of thing I can get behind and get my card out for; direct action for the benefit of cats.
If that "someone" did wave a magic wand it worked, and this manifestation of that interested me in the "web of connection" between our fiction suit avatars, so I'm hoping Eminem's "Stan" happens to be playing in the background as you read this.
Pattern recognition can weave meaning out of anything, but in a world where I'm noticing coincidence and synchronicity unfolding in a "could the nature of reality be made any more obvious" way, I felt an urge to share how your fiction suit avatar exists in my reality.
You don't remember the first time we met.
It was in a shop or maybe a garage that's probably closed now on the way back from my mates house in Innellan as I was walking back to Dunoon in 1990 and fancied a bottle of Lucozade light.
Something caught my eye on the comic rack that was in there at the time, maybe only there because of the American naval presence on the Holy Loch, but I had never seen art like it, so a closer look was essential.
On the rotating rack was Doom Patrol issue 32, issue 34, issue 36 and issue 37 with "pick me" cover art that had them soon in my hands, asking the cashier to "take my money!" for what might have been some sailor's subscription they never picked up from the shop.
Coming from a childhood of rare random issues leftover from the family shop and the mild trauma of "this story continues in..." ( ...an issue you don't have) I don't tend to read comics unless I have the full run, but I noticed Mullah and The Brain was a self-contained story.
I read it.
That was the beginning of our love affair of which you are not aware.
Since I was making good money working three jobs, days, nights and weekends, a trip to Glasgow was well within my still meager reach and I soon found myself in the back of Forbidden Planet with Pete Root.
Regular trips to Glasgow on my day off ensued as routine, spent buying up week after week every issue of Doom Patrol and Animal Man that came in to the back-issues section till I had both collections up to date.
One of the FP staff even got a bit frustrated when I asked them "do you have anything else by Grant Morrison" and that was when I was told the only thing I didn't have was Captain Clyde, which I only got to read online recently.
As I was coming out of FP one of those days with bags of comics straining my arms, I saw a bald headed figure in black walking down from the top of Buchanan Street who I strongly suspected was you, but my train was due so rapid steps in the other direction were urgently necessary unless I wanted to miss the ferry.
Like ships in the night.
Some years later I'm chasing down what I might have missed from Frater G and suddenly... guess who is living in Dunoon?
Yeah, of course it is the perfect area if you want mountains out the back door and Glasgow bustle an hour or twos travel away, so living there is a best of both worlds.
Still I couldn't help but think it was interesting that I was by that point living in Glasgow and Grant Morrison was residing in my old haunting grounds, literally where I first discovered his work.
That's the whole of the story, apart from the time I paid that guy to steal your soiled underwear* out your bin and release a bunch of feral cats out the back of your house.
Thanks for being the public persona avatar in my experiential reality that speaks with the most sense and love within the small group of such avatars I love and respect rather than merely find entertaining.
All that to say that we have shared the same spaces at different times, and those "time snake" bodies we both know are our actual bodies overlap beyond space and time.
Nothing special about that, but I find it kind of cool.
EDIT: Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, my mothers maiden name is Morrison, from Ayrshire.
/cue Twilight Zone music.
*any chance of signing those? I can't bring myself to wash them, or take them off.
Grant - lol strangely neither! The person I was strapped to had the parachute, I mostly just dangled like a dodgy fruit screaming 'Kawabunga' like a tool.
Thank you for the clarification and recommendation. I admit I haven't started reading it yet (for annoying work related reasons that I'm blaming everything for), but will update you when I do. I need more in my life than marking and Baulders Gate, dreaming of being a wizard with all the spells and adamantine scale mail.
Your post this week has left lots to think about. I really enjoyed the poetics and flourish! The philosophy in the comments made me reflect for a few days. I've got my fingers crossed for the TV show. Very hopeful it's what you have flirted at being in production in the recent past. The TV shows I've seen of yours have been brilliantly novel experiences.
I hope you don't mind me asking, I'm writing towards the end of my current work and I've been wondering about the ending. I have just not worried so far and trusted that the ending will come to logical light when it's supposed to. Do you think it's more important to engineer the ending towards the resolution of the original intention, or to allow the characters to decide for themselves?
Thanks for the long and considered reply. Much for me to chew over and consider. My wife and I are currently wading through the early shallow waters of Buddhism and I’m enjoying the process. Like any worthwhile school of thought they suggest you try it and see if it works. It's fun also to see the various magic ideas and principles you have mentioned over the years pop up in a new context.
The idea of the emerging of properties of consciousness from the absolute is one that fascinates me, or in the amazing words of some buddhist guy:
“When this exists, that comes to be. With the arising (uppada) of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be. With the cessation (nirodha) of this, that ceases.”
In the context of my studies, I guess, what arises is probably less extreme states of consciousness than on The Tree of Life, but, As Above, So Below, as someone once said. And, I suppose, the field things are arising from is the interconnected morass of events, things, ideas and emotions rather than the universal, but maybe that’s just a matter of perspective.
I did indeed enjoy the first two chapters of Luvkraft. Flashback! It had all the blacklight majesty I remembered. It’s nice to see someone have a go at realising on the page the unmentionable, the indescribable, the unnameable. No doubt my sanity will be in shreds by the close.
I’m not sure if you know (or are interested) but Don ‘The Don’ McGlashan was the subject of a recent feature documentary. Directed by Shirley Horrocks (step mum of Dylan-Mary Marvel-Horrocks), it has enjoyed a positive response. Judging by the trailer there is discussion of ‘The Heater’, not to mention archive footage of the legendary ‘Front Lawn’, local art-pop-theatre legends of note, and, no doubt, Don doing some killer moves with his euphonium.
Thank you for the recommendations! I’m ready to start the Timothy Morton book, I actually finished Apocalypse Illuminated by Richard K. Emmerson earlier this year and it was quite a fascinating read. It goes through a lot of old Biblical manuscripts and art and shows how they influence one another. (I actually really appreciate the how they use old drawings and pottery art instead of the white washed Jesus paintings you see in every degenerates home) Anything with religion and mythology gets moved up on the TBR stack. Since I live in America the only way I can really make sure these idiots know anything is to make sure I’m there to point out their bullshit! Also really glad you had a good experience on Reddit!
Loved the AMA! For my part, I was the one asking about the Smile of the Absent Cat; I do hope that someday soon it sees publication, as I loved the first 5 chapters
Ah cheers, Grant. Gonna get a ‘Friend of Xanaduum’ badge made up - if you know you know 😅
At the risk of being *that Blake guy* (too late) I interviewed the lovely John Higgs back in 2021. Check out my Covid era hair here https://blakesociety.org/product/william-blake-vs-the-world/
For anyone interested, the Blake comic Grant mentions is my work-in-progress magnum opus/albatross graphic novel about William Blake
https://open.substack.com/pub/loshighway
Looking forward to the horror of LUVKRAFT vs. KUTULU 😱
In one of those delightful coincidences, I'm seeing Higgs do a presentation alongside the Blake exhibit up in New Haven tomorrow. Also pleased to know that you're a fellow fan of A Cure for Wellness, a movie whose grotesquery is at once mortifying and fascinating (if, to a slight degree, underdeveloped). Looking forward to Verbinski's new film in January.
The rabbit hole of writing has somehow gotten 30,000 words in a single month, which might be the most I've written on a single theme in a long while. (Even then, there have been digressions into the history of Book Burnings in America, the Science Wars with relation to the rise of Tech Bros and the meaning behind Clarke's Three Laws, and the overstated significance of a shitty mid-tier Wesley Crusher episode of Star Trek.)
Perhaps fittingly considering other relevant things, my way through the bleakest aspects of this chapter (which include getting into the mindsets of several boring monsters) was to outline a Tarot deck. Admittedly extremely nerdy in theme (it's Spider-Man because of course it is), working through the deck sharpened my skills as a critic quite well. I especially liked the description I used for The High Priestess, Absence (which replaces The Devil), and The Alien (which replaces The Moon). Now I just need $7,020 (if I'm lowballing things) or a damn good many years of experience drawing to actually make it happen.
Among the things you talked about in that Reddit AMA, one was the relationship between you and your God, Ganesha. Having personally found my own God as well as having conversations with Spirit Worker friends about the subject, how does Ganesha communicate through you both in the work, the Work, and in the personal life? What fellow guises does Ganesha wear that have resonated with you the most?
I didn't see the Reddit AMA and therefore missed out on the relationship between Grant and Ganesha. I like it very much as Ganesha was very important to me and mine in the early 1990s. Our main god was Pan and, as I age, I discover other gods and goddesses that resonate with me.
Nice to read your creative ramble, as always
Errata: In my answer to Felipe above, that 2006 should, of course, be 1986!!!
Hi Grant! Ive heard you in interviews say that All Star Superman came from a big feeling of Chesed energy. Obviously no one thing lives entirely in one place, but the connection between Supes and Chesed rings very true to me. Do you have any other associations between characters and the sefirot? Im tempted to put Batman into Gevurah, accordingly, but Ive always primarily associated him with Netzach "I am the rock on the eternal shore" vibes.
Much love, excited for the weekly column! - ZG
Re Donovan. Myself and my best best friend got really into him in the late 90s. We followed him on tour in Germany and after a while he knew us by sight and put us on the guest list. We talked to him about magick and the role of music in magick. He was part of the group who went to Morocco with Brian Jones and Brian's then girlfriend Linda who later became Donovan's wife. Together they visited the Master Musicians of Jajouka, in the Rif Mountains. The group is a collective of musicians from the village and has existed for centuries, playing Sufi trance music based on a very old fertility ritual and the character of Bou Jeloud. The ritual has been linked to the Lupercalia in ancient Rome and the god Pan. Anyway, we offered Donovan a copy of "The Triumph of Pan" by Victor Neuburg and he was regularly seen reading it during the tour. Donovan played "Season of the Witch" for us at some of the gigs. Those were the days.
Grant! Thank you for the responses!
My first encounter with Brendan McCarthy's work was on my trip before I met you in Edinburgh August 2024; I was browsing books at a vendor by the Thames in London when I happened upon a copy of the first issue of Revolver magazine! You and Rian Hughes had a very fun Dare story, but Milligan and McCarthy's Rogan Gosh was just spectacular. There is an image of Ganesha's monolith which has never left my mind. McCarthy has a unique style that feels like listening to George Harrison, like Cronenberg meets Burroughs meets Cameron Stewart and Christ Weston in a strange way. I'm not sure I described that correctly, but the tune is familiar. Side note: didn't Brendan McCarthy do the designs for Zenith? I could be mistaken. Also, I need to check out his issue of SOLO. I own the Darwyn Cooke one which is a masterpiece.
Couldn't agree more on Kirby. New Gods is a triumph. "The Pact" is an all-time DC story. The mythology of Orion has transcended the hampers of comic book secularism, such a compelling archetype of the fallen dragon that is given a second chance at beauty and purpose amidst the merciless churn of Mega-Politik God-Chess. All of these musings went into a poem I wrote about Orion last year. Let me know if you'd like to read.
The Devils was so good! I was locked in with the opening sequence of the bizarre cabaret androgyne, and Oliver Reed is just brilliant. I've been meaning to get into Derek Jarman (specifically his Blue and Jubilee) and now I have some excellent urgency! Man, Len Wein's JLA is so great. Outside of the classic Seven Soldiers and Earth-X arcs, I love those Red Tornado stories, the Snapper Carr issue, and the Santa Claus Christmas story! Thanks for the Haney recs, I love the SGT Rock Batman issue! Must check out the others soon. As for Peyer, Dark Night of the Golden Kingdom is hilarious. Terrifically sublime shots fired at Waid (and hysterical strays at Moore) that highlight the absurdity of Kingdom Come's premise. Peyer is a treasure, but we all knew this! Only 8 pages long and the short stands with the best imaginary stories published by the company. The vaudeville artifice of fanboy fantasy is stripped to the ankles and all we can do is laugh!
Season of the Witch and Sunshine Superman have been GOAT songs for a while. I recently discovered Hurdy-Gurdy Man last month, but Sunny Goodge Street is a new favorite! Also King Midas In Reverse, what a fucking song! Thank you for the recs!
Some rapid-fire Q&A!
1. Which writer do you feel best employed your ideas? Do you think anyone has retroactively hurt your work with their use of your concepts?
2. What makes good fashion? What pushes a specific style or mod to transcend the current trends and become lasting?
3. You cite Dennis Potter, David Rudkin, and Alan Garner as your GOATs! Put me onto their work! What makes them so great, and what are their must reads?
4. From one Beatle-phile to another, favorite record? Favorite songs?
5. I skimmed the AMA on Reddit today and saw you've been diving into Dostoevsky (GOAT! love that dude!). How have you liked his stuff? I love how his philosophy works in relation to that of Nietzsche, and now I've been comparing it to Camus' Absurdism while reading "The Myth of Sisyphus".
This post was such a pleasant surprise! Hope you are doing well! God bless!
TYSM! Your time and discerning eye are super very much appreciated :)))
I recently re-read Sebastian O in preparation for his continued adventures, easily my most highly anticipated new release, from anyone in any media. Will be esp great to see new Steve Yeowell art!
I think unlike most intimidating tomes, like Ulysses, The Cantos, etc, Finnegans Wake is not so much a mountain to climb and conquer, but rather a mystery to encounter.
Trying to read FW for 30 years IS reading FW. Heck, even if you do "finish" it, Joyce just sends you right back to the beginning again! With Jeems Jokes' holographic prose, the whole really is contained in each part.
Also, I think I cracked the code on The Invisibles / Maybe Night thing:
https://maybeday.net/night/INVISIBLE_COLLEGE_REUNION-(SAVE-THE-DATE).jpg
Though I can imagine reasons why you might prefer this not to happen!
Just say the word and I'll happily spike it.
I had one of those weekends where 3 years worth of ideas showed up all at once, all poured into sketches and outlines, so I have plenty to keep me busy!
> Will be esp great to see new Steve Yeowell art!
OMG yes please!
Listening to your Against Everyone chat with Connor Habib I just heard you mention webs of connection with people you've never met, so "hi".
Like Connor I've also been hanging out with you for decades, learned magick from you by wanking over your "save The Invisibles" sigil, and both enjoyed and had my life enriched by everything you've written.
I was late to the reddit party and missed the chance to ask you a question, but it led me here under the distinct impression "someone" had done "something" to summon people here who would be happy to support their wonderful work of feeding an abundance of stray cats.
That's the kind of thing I can get behind and get my card out for; direct action for the benefit of cats.
If that "someone" did wave a magic wand it worked, and this manifestation of that interested me in the "web of connection" between our fiction suit avatars, so I'm hoping Eminem's "Stan" happens to be playing in the background as you read this.
Pattern recognition can weave meaning out of anything, but in a world where I'm noticing coincidence and synchronicity unfolding in a "could the nature of reality be made any more obvious" way, I felt an urge to share how your fiction suit avatar exists in my reality.
You don't remember the first time we met.
It was in a shop or maybe a garage that's probably closed now on the way back from my mates house in Innellan as I was walking back to Dunoon in 1990 and fancied a bottle of Lucozade light.
Something caught my eye on the comic rack that was in there at the time, maybe only there because of the American naval presence on the Holy Loch, but I had never seen art like it, so a closer look was essential.
On the rotating rack was Doom Patrol issue 32, issue 34, issue 36 and issue 37 with "pick me" cover art that had them soon in my hands, asking the cashier to "take my money!" for what might have been some sailor's subscription they never picked up from the shop.
Coming from a childhood of rare random issues leftover from the family shop and the mild trauma of "this story continues in..." ( ...an issue you don't have) I don't tend to read comics unless I have the full run, but I noticed Mullah and The Brain was a self-contained story.
I read it.
That was the beginning of our love affair of which you are not aware.
Since I was making good money working three jobs, days, nights and weekends, a trip to Glasgow was well within my still meager reach and I soon found myself in the back of Forbidden Planet with Pete Root.
Regular trips to Glasgow on my day off ensued as routine, spent buying up week after week every issue of Doom Patrol and Animal Man that came in to the back-issues section till I had both collections up to date.
One of the FP staff even got a bit frustrated when I asked them "do you have anything else by Grant Morrison" and that was when I was told the only thing I didn't have was Captain Clyde, which I only got to read online recently.
As I was coming out of FP one of those days with bags of comics straining my arms, I saw a bald headed figure in black walking down from the top of Buchanan Street who I strongly suspected was you, but my train was due so rapid steps in the other direction were urgently necessary unless I wanted to miss the ferry.
Like ships in the night.
Some years later I'm chasing down what I might have missed from Frater G and suddenly... guess who is living in Dunoon?
Yeah, of course it is the perfect area if you want mountains out the back door and Glasgow bustle an hour or twos travel away, so living there is a best of both worlds.
Still I couldn't help but think it was interesting that I was by that point living in Glasgow and Grant Morrison was residing in my old haunting grounds, literally where I first discovered his work.
That's the whole of the story, apart from the time I paid that guy to steal your soiled underwear* out your bin and release a bunch of feral cats out the back of your house.
Thanks for being the public persona avatar in my experiential reality that speaks with the most sense and love within the small group of such avatars I love and respect rather than merely find entertaining.
All that to say that we have shared the same spaces at different times, and those "time snake" bodies we both know are our actual bodies overlap beyond space and time.
Nothing special about that, but I find it kind of cool.
EDIT: Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention, my mothers maiden name is Morrison, from Ayrshire.
/cue Twilight Zone music.
*any chance of signing those? I can't bring myself to wash them, or take them off.
Grant - lol strangely neither! The person I was strapped to had the parachute, I mostly just dangled like a dodgy fruit screaming 'Kawabunga' like a tool.
Thank you for the clarification and recommendation. I admit I haven't started reading it yet (for annoying work related reasons that I'm blaming everything for), but will update you when I do. I need more in my life than marking and Baulders Gate, dreaming of being a wizard with all the spells and adamantine scale mail.
Your post this week has left lots to think about. I really enjoyed the poetics and flourish! The philosophy in the comments made me reflect for a few days. I've got my fingers crossed for the TV show. Very hopeful it's what you have flirted at being in production in the recent past. The TV shows I've seen of yours have been brilliantly novel experiences.
I hope you don't mind me asking, I'm writing towards the end of my current work and I've been wondering about the ending. I have just not worried so far and trusted that the ending will come to logical light when it's supposed to. Do you think it's more important to engineer the ending towards the resolution of the original intention, or to allow the characters to decide for themselves?
Thanks for the long and considered reply. Much for me to chew over and consider. My wife and I are currently wading through the early shallow waters of Buddhism and I’m enjoying the process. Like any worthwhile school of thought they suggest you try it and see if it works. It's fun also to see the various magic ideas and principles you have mentioned over the years pop up in a new context.
The idea of the emerging of properties of consciousness from the absolute is one that fascinates me, or in the amazing words of some buddhist guy:
“When this exists, that comes to be. With the arising (uppada) of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be. With the cessation (nirodha) of this, that ceases.”
In the context of my studies, I guess, what arises is probably less extreme states of consciousness than on The Tree of Life, but, As Above, So Below, as someone once said. And, I suppose, the field things are arising from is the interconnected morass of events, things, ideas and emotions rather than the universal, but maybe that’s just a matter of perspective.
I did indeed enjoy the first two chapters of Luvkraft. Flashback! It had all the blacklight majesty I remembered. It’s nice to see someone have a go at realising on the page the unmentionable, the indescribable, the unnameable. No doubt my sanity will be in shreds by the close.
I’m not sure if you know (or are interested) but Don ‘The Don’ McGlashan was the subject of a recent feature documentary. Directed by Shirley Horrocks (step mum of Dylan-Mary Marvel-Horrocks), it has enjoyed a positive response. Judging by the trailer there is discussion of ‘The Heater’, not to mention archive footage of the legendary ‘Front Lawn’, local art-pop-theatre legends of note, and, no doubt, Don doing some killer moves with his euphonium.
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/anchor-me-don-mcglashan-story-2025
Anyway, must go, it's Sunday and The Mindless Ones have turned up to judge me…
Let me know about Blake vs. the World. That’s on my wishlist currently along with Eternity’s Sunrise—also about Blake.
Thank you for the recommendations! I’m ready to start the Timothy Morton book, I actually finished Apocalypse Illuminated by Richard K. Emmerson earlier this year and it was quite a fascinating read. It goes through a lot of old Biblical manuscripts and art and shows how they influence one another. (I actually really appreciate the how they use old drawings and pottery art instead of the white washed Jesus paintings you see in every degenerates home) Anything with religion and mythology gets moved up on the TBR stack. Since I live in America the only way I can really make sure these idiots know anything is to make sure I’m there to point out their bullshit! Also really glad you had a good experience on Reddit!
Loved the AMA! For my part, I was the one asking about the Smile of the Absent Cat; I do hope that someday soon it sees publication, as I loved the first 5 chapters