![[Featured Story logo done on Photoshop by Jim McPherson, Year 2002]](graphicimages/feat-story4.gif)
Greater Vancouver had been
washed out to sea in the Second Great Flood, that of late November 1980.
So had much of the Fraser Valley. What was now called New Vancouver
had once been a small town called Hope. The Fraser River emptied itself
here, just as it had on the southern border of Old Vancouver before
the Deluge.
Wilderwitch, the only name
she acknowledged with any regularity, was sitting on a stone bench in
the gardens of old Hope's now reconverted city hall. It too was called
Hope, though 'Haven' had been added to give it a better ring.
Looking like the fit, albeit
very baby-belly-heavy, off-white, gypsy-type she was, she had been counting
down the days, weeks and months ever since she became pregnant and was
now counting down the hours. Figured it’d still take a few more
of them before she could start kicking back.
Fifty-three might seem a bit
old to be pregnant but it helped when you were a witch. Helped even
more when you were a supranormal witch. Besides, kicking back was one
of the things she did really well.
-- from 'Panharmonium
Ends ', the first chapter of "Decimation
Damnation"
Top of Page
Anheroic
Fantasy Coyotes
- Coyote
#1: Huh? Run that by me again, will you?
(How Cliff Heads morphed
into Coyote Headgames);
- Coyote
#2: What's all this then - Part 1? (Images
of the first batch of Cliff Heads, and a sign-head, from the Autumn
2003 installment of 'pHpubs');
- Coyote
#3: Okay, I get the cliff heads. Y-Coyotes? (Includes
a titularly topical BLOCKQUOTE
from 'The Moloch Manoeuvres',
both versions of it);
- Coyote
#4: To self-publish or not to self-publish? (Currently
Conundrum #1);
- Coyote
#5: I do self-publish, what do I self-publish? (1st
Corollary to Conundrum #1: 'The
Moloch Manoeuvres' versus 'The
War of the Apocalyptics');
- Coyote
#6: How do you spell 'plagiarism'? (What's
fair game to use in 'pH-Webworld', what isn't, -- at least
in my humble);
- Coyote
#7: What's all this then - Part 2? (Images
of the second batch of Cliff Heads);
- Coyote
#8: How to get going on a Today's Topic for 'pHpubs'?
(Advice for those tempted to try doing
something like PHANTACEA on the Web themselves);
- Coyote
#9: Coyotes of a Conundrum is a good name for a FAQ page,
isn't it? (Except 'pH-Webworld'
doesn't have have a FAQ page);
- Coyote
#10: Are two heads better than one? (2nd
Corollary to Conundrum #1: Hiring an editor);
- Coyote
#11: How personal dare you be on the Internet? (A
spooky sighting);
- Coyote
#12: Can a Clump of Contents Content a Coyote? (The
dangers of fay-saying, or not);
|
Introductory
Remarks
Greetings. Welcome, or
welcome back.
The usual 'Hestia Housekeeping'
section is on the other side of the table. (Click here
to find out why I call it such.) On this side of the table, however, is
a new section: what I hope will become the equivalent of a PHANTACEA
on the Web FAQ sheet.
What follows are lynx to
a number of questions I asked and answered myself in the Fall
2003 and Spring 2004 editions
of pHpubs: Web-Publisher's Commentary.
Contact me [jmcp1749@hotmail.com]
and feel free to ask any questions you might have regarding PHANTACEA.
I'll do my best to answer them either directly or right here in ...
Hestia
Housekeeping
Last time up, in the Spring
2004 edition of 'pHpubs', I announced a new version of "The
War of the Apocalyptics", the first novel I began
serializing out here in Cyberia back in 1996. This time up I'm announcing
a new novel entitled "Decimation Damnation".
So what gives?
PHANTACEA fact of the
matter is I always knew that, if I was going to print-publish anything
from the PHANTACEA Mythos,
I'd need to revisit the original, unedited versions of the novels I've
serialized during the course of web-publishing PHANTACEA
on the Web.
The first novel I revisited was 'The
Moloch Manoeuvres'. Which I'd dramatically enlarged in the Spring
of 2002 after being downsized to the unemployment lines. As noted in Coyote
5 of my cliff-head
ruminations, my revisitation resulted in a manuscript that came in at
around 1300 pages, double-spaced and in Times New Roman12-point
type.
Even allowing for the long-windedness fantasy novels
are notorious for, I'm to understand that translates into two publications.
In some respects, therefore, there's little wonder I've yet to find a
publisher willing to take a chance on publishing such a massive opus by
an essentially unknown author who doesn't have, and doesn't particularly
want, an agent.
Next up on my revisitation schedule was 'The
War of the Apocalyptics'. As also noted in Coyote
5 it has the advantage of being not much more than a third of the
size of Manoeuvres. However, it has the personal disadvantage
of being based entirely on the PHANTACEA comic
books.
So too do WarPoc's
3 or 4 co-novels that in total make up 'The
Launching of the Cosmic Express'. I wrote the comic books in
the Seventies, first novelized the stories contained in them in the Eighties,
revised the novels again in the early Nineties and redacted them anew
in preparation for serialization on the Web beginning
in 1996.
As you might appreciate, I'd rather work on something
new. Well, not altogether new since "Decimation Damnation"
does share certain territory with 'The
Weirdness of Cabalarkon' and sort of starts from where 'Psychodrama'
left off.
However, although featuring the Damnation
Brigade, DecDam is told largely from Wilderwitch's
perspective. As well, the likes of Cerebrus
David Ryne, Raven's Head
and Blind Sundown
do get a lot more print than they did in either of the 'D-Brig -
Year 1' novels I've already serialized out here in Cyberia.
Have a look at its first three
chapters. Then check out the continuation of 'Coueranna's
Curse'.
Finally, down in the topic section, have a look at
Part 1 of the 2004 collection of Character Likenesses. For a change I'm
not relying exclusively on photos taken during various 'Travels
in my Pants'. However, there are a number of them as well.
Feedback
encouraged. And, as always, good reading.
|
Jim
McPherson's Summer 2004 Collection of Character
Likenesses
|
Primeval Lilith,
the Demon Queen of the Night
Here's a BLOCKQUOTE from the 19th chapter
of 'Helios on the
Moon'. The chapter's entitled "Memory of the Demons".
The quote has been abiding on the synopsis
of that chapter for a number of years now.
"Recall,[" Helios told his newfound allies on
Lunar Trigon that day, "]Strife said she was a devil. That she
jettisoned the future Night. I don't think she did. I don't think
there is, or isn't anymore, a future Night.  I
don't think Mnemosyne was possessed by a devil at all. I think whatever
was humanizing her left yesterday. Left a vacuum that first Strife
then, now, Ereba filled."
"Then what was it?" demanded Max [O. J. Maxwell,
the Indescribable
Mr Nome].
"What's the difference?" wondered Kinesis [Romaine
Kinesis, Doc Defiance, the Gypsium
Man].
"Don't know precisely," granted Helios. "But I'll
bet whatever she was, her name's Lilith!"
On Lazam, the Twelfth of Tantalar, Demios
Sarpedon watched as the statue of his wife was being winched onto a
carrier copter. Looking around he spotted a well-kept woman of indeterminate
age, maybe somewhere in her thirties or early forties, on the largest
hump of ground in the near area. Because it was just a shadow of its
former self, the Sraddhites had dubbed it Diminished Dustmound.
 This
woman was dressed like a widow: hooded, veiled, and all in black. Although
it was not raining, due to the normal, even graceful way she moved they
figured she could not be a Dead Thing. Nor, since it was broad daylight
with nary a cloud in the sky, could she be a vampire. The woman had
pale, ghost-white skin but it crinkled and wrinkled, which meant she
was no Utopian either.
Her clothing and the fact she had long,
jet black hair indicated she was not one of the Warrior Priestesses
of Sraddha. They wore brown robes and, man or woman, invariably shaved
their skulls. Even from this distance they agreed she must have been
one of Morgianna or Fisherwoman's War Witches.
That she was here suggested she had come
in on a witch's stepping stone. That she was dressed as if in mourning
might mean she lost a mate, friend or lover in the battle for Dustmound
and ultimately for all of Hadd. That her skin complexion was so pale,
and her hair so dark, they further agreed she was probably one of the
far-ranging, seafaring Pani merchant folk who hailed from Krachla, the
southern tip of the Penile Peninsula, of which Hadd was its shaft. She
was bending over, seemingly intent on sifting through the dirt looking
for something of value.
One of the bolder Godbadian service men
went up and spoke to her. When he came back he said she had broken a
mirror and was trying to find its pieces so she did not have any more
bad luck. They talked for a few minutes and since she seemed friendly
enough he offered to help. She declined, said it kept her busy. That
she had all eternity. Thereafter, since she was often seen again, Diminished
Dustmound became known as Haunted Dustmound.
Should have called it Demon Mound!
“This,” Saladin Devason,
the Master of Weir, said to Wilderwitch, introducing his dusky companion,
“Is Lilith. She’s a demon queen; make that the Demon Queen
You might have heard of her. She’s the mother of Anti-Patriarch
Cain, Slayer of Abel, amongst many another. You’re going to
bear our child, Witch; whom I might name Abel simply because Lily’s
never had an Abel before.”
 And
who else is this Lilith, at least in terms of
the PHANTACEA Mythos? Well, there's a 'Gold-Mining
for PHANTACEA
Factoids box' on one the synopsis pages prepared for 'The
Weirdness of Cabalarkon' that answers most of that but here
it is in the proverbial nutshell.
It all has to do with the mystical relationship between
Cathonic or skyborn devils and Chthonic or earthborn demons. More precisely,
it has to do with the necessity for at least one Sed-son,
who are always mortal, to be alive on both sides of the Cathonic Dome
simultaneously. The Sed-sons half-father has to be the Moloch
Sedon but the half-mother
is not Pyrame Silverstar.
It's . . .
Top of Page
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Fisherwoman (Scylla
Nereid, Lady Achigan)
- the main entry on Fish is here;
"Haddock-hold on, avian!"
snapped Fisherwoman, an aquatic who generally didn't snap so much as
chomp. Ergo, Fish had just detected some serious whaledreck. "What
the halibut happened there?"
... Fisherwoman, 19, to Sorciere,
17, from 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'
(set in 1938);
”Where’s my baby?”
she kept repeating, screeching all the louder every time.
“She’s still scum-coming,
Witch,” kept responding Fisherwoman, Scylla Nereid, Lady Achigan,
Wilderwitch’s nine years’ older sister in more than just
Flowery Anthea.
... Fisherwoman, 63, to Wilderwitch,
28 (albeit only after emerging from 25 year in Limbo), from 'Decimation
Damnation' (set in 5981 YD {Year of the Dome}, AD 1981);
What else can I tell
you about the ever-fishifying Fish, other than she 'fishifies'?
Or that she has appeared in nearly all of the web-serials thus far presented
in PHANTACEA on the Web? How about,
just in case you've the impression she doesn't have a head, a description?
This BLOCKQUOTE, and the two that
follow, are taken from 'The
Moloch Manoeuvres':
Fish placed her mask, which was
her frog mask, as opposed to one of her shark masks, on top of the table.
She smiled, just to underline the point she was making.
 Eyes
were decidedly dark, with less white in them than most; had, as the
saying went, depth to them. Were only slightly larger than those of
an average human, though. As dank and tangled as it was, the hair was
within the norm as well. Lips were somewhat slim and the teeth were
definitely unusual. Fortunately, she rarely smiled.
Skin colour, which was more green
than anything else, and skin texture, which was scaly, were entirely
outside the norm, however; as were the gills behind her ears, the webbed
toes and fingers and the fingernails themselves. They approximated claws.
Which was not very fishy; probably was characteristic of certain types
of amphibians, though. At least she did not have warts or an overly
protrusile, fly-slurping tongue like a toad or frog.
With a little work she could pass
for fully human, so long as she wore a toque and a few jars of blemish
cream or pancake makeup. Another thing that needed work was the wardrobe.
It consisted of a sleeveless vest that barely covered her breasts and
a pair of shorts that would be better described as briefs. Appeared
to be made of rubber but were more likely blubber carved off a whale
or walrus, -- not that there was enough of the vest and short-shorts
to have hurt either/or when it was being removed.
Something else about Fish is she has a
psychopomp. At least she has one thus far in the 1938 Heliodyssey
serials. Her name, unless it's his name, is Delphi. The image below
is of one of the British Museum's 3 Nereids. Though, as per her description
above, Fish has a head and doesn't dress
as her Grecian ancestors did, this Nereid appears to be standing on something
very similar to Delphi:
 Fisherwoman
suddenly bent double in pain, clutching at her stomach. She materialized
the eyeorb Hush gave her. It was crisped, too hot to handle. She tossed
it in Sangati's lap and materialized her fishhook. It became a writhing
cobra. She vanished it. Found herself hanging from the movie theatre's
chandelier caught up in her own fishnet. Whoosh! She was gone.
"What was that?" wondered
the presumed Blood Beast Prime as he brushed the barbecued prison pod
onto the floor.
"Flying fish?"
"Looked more like a flying
porpoise."
Fish has three Brainrock talismans:
a gaffing hook (or oversized fishhook), a soul-net (in the form of a fishnet)
and a 'vesica piscis' (a Latin terms that actually means 'fish
bladder'; it is grafted into her bellybutton, presumably has been since
she was born):
Being somewhat more of a twisted
sister than even Hush, Fish called her bottomless bag a 'vesica
piscis', which was actually an artistic device popular in medieval
times whereby a painter drew a shimmering aureole around a figure so
as to signify his or her holiness. Was nothing holy about Fish but the
term meant fish bladder, so her use of it was as apt as she was adept.
Was an ovular jewel implanted in her navel. Which begged for jokes about
guns in the oven, among other things.
Here's my favourite sequence
so far regarding Fish and Delphi. It's from the second part of 'The
Moloch Manoeuvres':
Unbalanced by Memory's dead-weight
Fisherwoman, Scylla Nereid, toppled out of the chair, carrying Memory
with her onto the floor. Whereupon she clutched at her stomach and writhed
about on the carpet almost as if she was giving birth.
Hush giggled giddily, pointed to her bellybutton. Thingee appended to
it was glowing.
Maybe she was, -- giving birth.
Certainly appeared as if Fish was becoming nine months pregnant in the
space of nine seconds. Then it wasn't a matter of maybe. She was giving
birth, or so it seemed, to a grey, fin-winged dolphin. Out of her naval-navel!
As
for what a psychopomp is, here's a quote from Chapter 8 of the new novel:
'Decimation Damnation'.
The speaker is John Sundown. He's talking with Wilderwitch. The conversation
occurs shortly after events
that were also depicted in 'The
Weirdness of Cabalarkon'.
"For example, both Fish and
Solace sometimes rode psychopomps, which it seems you are too, Raven,
to get about between-space. Fish had a few, Delphi comes to mind for
one, and back in the Forties Solace had Aquilla, a half-brained, what
did she call him? A Garuda, that’s it.”
| Psychopomps,
another one being Agenor Heliopolis’s Pegasus, what first
came out of the Olympian Tantalus at least as early as the late
Thirties, could traverse the Weird. They had nothing to do with
the Magnificent Psycho. In the lexicon of the late White Witch,
Superior Sarpedon, the Morrigan, they were related to demons, however,
-- demons being chthonic or earthborn creatures whereas devils were
Cathonic or skyborn, as in extraterrestrial, as Sundown after three
weeks on the Head was now aware. |
“So did Eden,” said
Wilderwitch. “Hers was a nightingale, appropriately enough. Name
of Medici, also appropriately enough, since the Medicis ruled in Florence,
Italy.”
“As in also Nightingale.
I get you."
|
Heliosophos (The Male Entity)
On the 'pH-Webworld'
Features page you'll find
material on what I deem to be my cornerstone
characters, the ones without whom there would be no PHANTACEA
Mythos. Two of them are the time-tumbling Dual
Entities: Heliosophos (Helios called Sophos the Wise) and his female
counterpart, the miraculous Mnemosyne Machine. Machine-Memory can be humanized
by devils. She can thus be considered a three-thing (machine, devil, human).
When she is so humanized she tends to call herself Miracle Memory.
 Since
I began publishing PHANTACEA on the Web in 1996,
I've provided at least a dozen lynx to further information regarding either/or
and/or both. Many of these lynx are accessible from the cornerstone entry
provided above.
 The
thing about Helios is that he dies a lot. In PHANTACEA
fact he was on his 100th lifetime in 'Helios
on the Moon'. And when Helios dies he goes back into the time
stream carrying Machine-Memory with him and she carrying Trans-Time Trigon
with her.
Since she's sometimes referred to as a three-thing and their Trigon is
a three-peaked, hollowed-out Island, when I spotted this bust of a god
or demon (likely at the British Museum) in September 2003, I knew I not
only better take a picture I better put it up out here in my minuscule
portion of Cyberia. And here it is, henceforth
to be known as Herr Hel Trigman.
Herr Hel Helios (as he, in the latter stages of the 1938 Heliodyssey
serials, when he's in his 11th Lifetime, starts being called after he
sided with Strife,
Donar Lancz
and his Nazi Hermiones)
rarely goes back into the time stream quietly. In fact he's been known
to put up quite the fight, sometimes successfully as well.
On a couple of occasions we've seen Helios don devic power foci before
he gets to duking it out. Since he's named after the same glowing golden
Sun God where the Classical Greeks got both Heliopolises (Sun Cities),
the one in Egypt (the Biblical On), not far from Andy
the Androsphinx's
final resting place, and the one in Lebanon (Baalbek), where the Ionian
Greeks got the Colossus of Rhodes and the Romans their Colosseum, when
I saw all the glowing golden weaponry in the above picture on display
in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, I knew I had another
Herr Hel Trigman on my hands.
If only because I know what's coming up in 'Coueranna's
Curse' I think I'll call them Herr
Hel's Glowing Gonads.
|
| |
4. Graphics:
Footnotes and off-page links:
- Beginning at the top there are two collages
in the rollover effect in the masthead. One
features the Damnation Brigade while the other features some of the
Apocalytics. Information on both collages can be found in the Notes
on Graphics section of the Spring
2004 'pHpubs';
- There are three images in the Lilith
section. The mouse-over behind the first one
reads: "The Queen of the Night (Demon Queen
Lilith), terracotta from Southern Iraq circa 1800 BC, scanned-in from
a postcard purchased at the British Museum in London, England";
a small version of the full postcard is provided below
it;
- The mouse-over behind the second
Lilith image reads: "Woman
wrapped in a thick snake, painting entitled 'Lilith' is by Collier";
sooth said I don't know where I got the image, possibly off the Web,
but I'll be sure to let you know as soon as I figure it out; as highlighted
there's more on Lilith in a Gold-Mining for PHANTACEA
Factoids box on a D-Brig synopis section;
- As promised, here's the full version
of the Queen of the Night postcard; the wings,
owls and dogs remind me somewhat of the truly ancient witch goddess
known to the Classical Greeks as Hecate, of whom there's a blurb a mere
click away;
- There are four images in the Fisherwoman
section. First-Fish's mouse-over reads: "Wall
painting spotted at hostel in Granada, Nicaragua, photo taken by Jim
McPherson, 2003"; another picture I took at that hostel
can be found on the Features page,
reference being to the Trigregos
Sisters; sorry to say I have no idea who did either painting or even
if they're still there; as for why the image reminds me of Fish, well,
there's something of the mermaid-tail to its legs, as well, its eyes
and suggestion of a frog's mouth do bring to mind Fish's step-sister,
Aortic Amphitrite, the Lemurian Quarter Queen of Shenon, Witch Isle;
there will be more on Lemurians and their Mandroid guard-bodies in a
future installment of
'Jim McPherson's collection of Character
Likenesses';
- Second-Fish's
mouse-over reads: "Fish with a banner, taken
at the Royal Victoria and Albert museum in London, England, photo taken
by Jim McPherson, 2004"; other than there's a total of 4
such beasties I can't tell you, mostly because I've lost my notes more
so than my mind (which is full), who did them or where they came from
originally; I'm pretty sure they can be found on the staircase up from
Room 48 (which contains the huge Raphael cartoons) on the ground floor
of the V&A;
- Third-Fish's
mouse-over reads: "One of the 3 Nereids in
the British Museum, this one is standing on a dolphin-like creature
(Delphi?), photo by Jim McPherson, 2003";
- Fourth-Fish's
mouse-over reads: "Caption reads 'Delphi,
Fisherwoman's Psychopomp; photo of a statue of a dolphin with a woman
atop it is from the Ephesian Museum in Selchuk, Turkey; photo by Jim
McPherson, 2003";
- First-Helios's
mouse-over reads: "God or demon, with his
tri-peaked headpiece he's suggestive of Heliosophos's relationship to
Trigon, picture taken by Jim McPherson in 2003";
- Second Helios's
mouse-over reads: "Glowing golden regalia
suggestive of devic power foci used by Heliiosophos when he goes into
action; photo by Jim McPherson; taken at the Royal Victoria and Albert
Museum in London, England, 2004"; he puts on a version of
his regalia during the course of 'The
Volsung Variations';
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