Mid-afternoon. You notice that the ninth day in the book coincides with New Year’s Day and you wonder on the subtleness of the timing in the books in that you as author are in two time settings at once.
Over these many years of writing experimentation I have noted that ‘real’ time is not the same as ‘real’ time, that is, the physics of time as measured on the planet (24 hour day) is not the physics of time in my mind. Twenty-four hour time almost always runs faster than ‘mentally observed’ time. Nine days to the Dead in the books has taken me thirteen months to ‘piece’ write. But there appears something else is going on within my mind itself.
You cannot equate one day of the Dead with, let’s say, forty-two days of the Living which is where you are leaning with this.
No, but somehow there has to be some sort of reference from those days of 700 BCE to 2011 because book six will begin in modern times.
Book six begins at the time of Eisenhower’s last address to Congress and ends with the year in which you complete the book.
So, how long is the First Rebellion of the Dead, the first half of the book took eight days. Does the second half of book four also take eight days of the Dead?
Reasonably, it should. As such, for consistency, the Rebellion through the two books will take thirty-two days. Is there a problem with this? – Amorella.
I guess not. I have not thought about this before. I cannot see how you can know this as a fact.
It is not a fact until it is written.
What if I decide it is nine days not eight in the second half?
I won’t write.
Oh.
Post, while I have a mind for it. – Amorella.
Chapter Seven (first draft)
Scene 1
Early morning, the ninth day. Mario sits comfortable in one of the two chairs in his chamber awaiting the arrival of Thales. ‘What can we do,’ he thinks, ‘once we bring the Dead together?’ Do we march? Where to? From where? We need a stage on which to center our demonstration. Where is a place that will hold all of the Dead? How do we control the demonstration? How are we organized? Suddenly the words “The Dead United” flashed his mind, quickly this modified to: “We Dead United” and then to “We United Dead”.
Thales quietly pulled open the slightly cracked door, saw Mario sitting in rapt contemplation, and grinning said, “Counting chickens before they are hatched?”
Mario oiled in Thales’ humor stoically commented, “Come in. Sit down.” A pause, then with a sarcastic air, “We are already dead ducks.”
Once adjusted, Thales added, “We’re flocked in our Greek quackery. Being dead is the positive part.”
“How do we make our stage? And where?”
“A good question, Mario, for Takis our Shaman. I wonder on the multitudes.”
“It is a question of space as well as organized, civil containment.”
“I agree,” said Thales. “A representative body will do for a focused stage.”
“Twelve cultures. Twelve men.”
“Twelve works for the shamans, but they are but means to an end.”
“And, I agree,” comment Mario. Space and containment, thought Mario, who then said, “Across a stage twelve squires, each filled with a man, with a square of space between each.”
“And a speaker for all,” smiled Thales who felt a momentum of creative enthusiasm rapidly building.
“And the multitudes as a flag of humanity, a giant curtain behind the stage.”
“Each, a pointed finger out across the stage for Zeus, the Supervisor, or whoever, to see and more importantly feel.”
Passionate excitement plainly raised the other’s thought to the probable upraised demonstration of the restless Dead, of real unforeseen power.
Each felt himself floating majestically a hand or two above the chair. The rebellious wonder of it all, a conceptual Demonstration was in the works of two enlivened though dead minds. No one observed the actual floatation but Merlyn who was a few paces directly above Mario and Thales. This will be a demonstration like no other, thought the magician. He shifted his eyes to the floor of Mario’s private house and the board and pieces appeared as flickers. He pondered a collective dancing movement of pieces and squares:
Move 19 W. Knight to Knight 5 Black Pawn to Knight 3
Move 20 W. Pawn to Queen Knight 4 B. Bishop to King Bishop 3
Move 21 W Queen to Queen 2 B. Pawn to Queen Rook 3
***
After twenty-two hundred hours, and as you were getting ready for bed you noted that the sex in the last chapter made the two characters seem more alive, and now in this chapter, it is the sense of power that is bringing them more to life, good cause or not, it is the sense of power.
Yes, a real self-revelation. I was about to shut down my MacBook when it hit me. There is a connection I was not aware of. In some ways, Amorella, this is another example of events, conditions, thoughts, whatever you want to call them, where I see things, that is, I am made consciously aware of things, after the fact. I did not see the connection yet you did and it was written as such. This is all so unbelievable to me, these books. I would have never written them myself, I would have never thought to write them myself, yet like scene 1 of chapter 7, my fingers run the keyboard and there it is.
To you this writing business is a mystification. To you this is more circumstantial evidence of my reality as a separate personality that writes, but also one who ‘understands’ your unconsciousness. I am the reason you call yourself a transcendental existentialist. The books are real, boy, and in that sense I am too.
What comes to mind is Bacon’s famous quotation that “Knowledge is Power”. This is as the fruit in the proverbial garden. power, not sex.
If you are looking for parallels with Genesis then you have a point here. This is part of the books, orndorff. In here power has more to do with the way the world is run than sex. However, in interpersonal behavior sex is also a contender. If you remember I said the seven virtues and seven sins would be incorporated into the story because readers can culturally identify with them. In this case, what you are seeing in scene one of seven is the building of lust in power rather than lust in reference to sex. This is not unknown to you as you remember this was a small part of your lecture/discussion on Paradise Lost. And, remember, the Book of Genesis was a part of your curriculum also. It is all from your own head, old man. That’s is the way it has to be for me write. It is not politics or religion as usual, it is your authenticity. Most anyone who had you for British literature remembers these sorts of things or had them in herorhis notes. This keeps everything legitimate. The irony is that you want nothing, you reject power from the bottom of your miserable heart, you don’t care, you don’t really give a damn for much of anything including yourself. So, as a separate ‘writing’ personality I can exist. These matters will be touched upon from time to time as they have been in the first three books.
Now don’t go thinking you are a puzzle, boy, because if anything you are only a piece. You live long enough and the books will work their way out. Time for bed, boy. – Amorella.
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