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Annotations
The cover has a composite figure on it which incorporates Shiva (the arms - with a few extra for effect)), Ganesh (the elephant head) and (I believe) the amphibious Nommo. Its trunk appears to turn into a gas mask rather like those of the Cyphermen,
its tusks appear to have been removed for ivory. The red dot in the forehead resembles both the Hindi tradition, the mark on the foreheads of the Nons and Barbelith itself. It carries the pyramid with the eye, which is apparently both a masonic, occult image and is depicted on the dollar bill. In its second hand is the origami figure that has inspired Takashi's time-suit. In the third hand there is a grenade, which appears to be a symbol for the group itself and was depicted on the first issue cover. The fourth hand is open and empty. The fifth hand carries lip-stick and has very obvious nail-varnish - these reflect the character of Lord Fanny, sexual/gender transgression and the issues of the first volume that were specifically concerned with hir. The sixth hand carries the crown of the United Kingdom, which reflects the series' interest in the monarchy and in the Moon Child. The seventh hand carries a typewriter. This suggests Grant's interest in the nature of fictional reality and its contact with 'actual' reality. Note that the eight arms and eight eyes reflect the number of the issue. [TEC] Ganesh's fourth and eighth hands are showing eight fingers between them--another reference to the issue number. [CG] The eye & pyramid symbol is purportedly the symbol of the Illuminati of Bavaria. Whether or not they actually existed is open to question; they seem to have become implicated by the more paranoid as the instigators of a massive global conspiracy involving the Freemasons, Rosicrucians and the Templars. Also, what scant historical knowledge of them has been further muddied by people confusing Robert Anton Wilson's fictitious "Illuminatus" trilogy with fact. From what I can discern they were supposed to have been some sort of proto-Communist secret society, established by Adam Weishaupt in 1776, and dedicated to the overthrow of the main power blocs of the time (the Church and the State), which seems to parallel nicely with the Invisibles, particularly as the highest degree was Rex or King (Mob....?). [further information] [SL]
o [page 1] It seems likely that Thierro (the non) and the driver are the same characters that De Sade recruits at the end of the Arcadia story line: Thierro "is", of course, Thierry, the young prostitute who must "be of no particular age, no particular sex" and who is to "slough" his name and past "as a snake sheds his skin"; the driver is the young girl De Sade picks up in the nightclub in San Francisco, her hair grown longer, her "perversions" broader. It seems fitting that those who began De Sades alchemical work are those who will bring it to its completion. [Frobie] [panel 1] King Mob is standing in the Paris window of Edith's flat. [TEC] On King Mob's e-mail address: Popul - (the) people; Populus - of (the) people; Populi - [to] (the) people Rex Popul could conceivable be translated as King Mob. I like the shortening to RexPop. I think the different addies might be a lettering/editing error, but I like the idea of King Pop being both King and High Priest, of some dark god, no doubt. Or is that simply how GM sees himself? [DMD] [panel 3] The Time Machine, H. G. Wells's science fiction novel, has been
immortalized on film several time.Edith is probably referring to the 1960 version.Also, her comment that everything repeats itself reinforces Takashi's time travel theories (see v 2, #6, p. 20, panels 1-3) [TF] [panel 5] Apparently the queen sends telegrams to anyone who
reaches 100 years old, like Williard Scott does in America. [TF]
o [page 3] [panel 4] DeSade as our liberator from neuroses? Grant seems to share Robert Anton Wilson's somewhat fanciful interpretation of deSade's writings. Surf to http://www.alphane.com/raw.htm for a lesson in reading deSade as a 'revolutionary' (instead of just a perv with a penchant for whipping peasant girls). [Z] Doucement means softly.Apparently The Divine Marquis is a loud guy. [TF]
o [page 5] [panel 2] "Dead from the Waist Down" is the first single from
Catatonia's album "Equally Blessed and Cursed".The
NATO/Balkans and India/Pakistan references are to
conflicts of the day.
[TF] [panel 4] Presumably KM is referring to "The Marriage of Sense and Soul:
Integrating Science and Religion".Wilber writes on
topics of spirituality in the modern age. [TF]
o [page 7] [panel 2] "You should be so lucky, lucky fucky lucky"
Dane is reciting a popular school playground subversion of the lyrics to the Kylie Minogue single "I Should Be So Lucky" (1986 ?) [SL]
o [page 9] [panel 2]
William Reich theorized that sex produced Orgone
energy can be harnassed for a number of uses.
http://www.orgonomy.org/ has a lot to say about
Orgone, including pointers to conferences and other
information. [TF] DeSade's orgone energy pool
is reminiscent of the Chief's 'Think Tank' from the
end of Doom Patrol. [Jack Frost]
o [page 10] [panel 2] If we believe Robin, Nons appear in public sometime in
the next 12 years.See v 2, #6, p. 9, panel 2. [TF]
o [page 11] [panel 5] From http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/necshog.htm:
Magickal traditions from around the world contain formula for creating
magickal creatures as slaves/servants. These creatures can be created
in whatever shape is needed or desired by the magician. These magickal
creatures are called "Tulpas" (trans. "thought-forms") by the Tibetans.
From http://wmuc.umd.edu/OnTheMargin/pastshows/bmfoster/:
Alexandra David-Neel, born in France in 1868, was a most unusual woman
for her time -- or, for that matter, any time. A Buddhist and an authority
on Buddhism, an explorer, an author, and a feminist, she was the first
European woman to explore the forbidden Tibetan city of Lhasa -- a journey
that entailed crossing the Trans-Himalayas in midwinter. Yet she was
not only an adventurer but a dedicated scholar whose writings include
translations of Tibetan texts, studies of Buddhism as well as an autobiography
and a number of novels. [Z]
o [page 13] [panel 5] The lyric is from The Smiths "Heaven Knows
I'm Miserable Now" and the verse goes like this: 'What she asked of
me at the end of the day Caligula would have blushed "You've been in
the house too long," she said, and I naturally fled'. [Goofy] This panel is a flashback to when King Mob first met Edith. He remembers listening to Morrissey and contemplating suicide. [TEC]
o [page 19] [panel 3] Stanislav Grof is a psychiatric (psychedelic)
researcher who believes that the true spirituality begins on the perinatal
level. He thinks that the mechanistic, materialistic model of our society
misses vital dimensions of human being and seriously limits possibilities
of deep, transformative healing. The human psyche is a much larger reality
than the traditional model of academic psychiatry recognizes. Human
consciousness may not begin and end with biological birth and death:
non-ordinary states reveal access to experience impossible in the personalistic
model. Non-ordinary states of consciousness, such as near-death experiences,
shamanism and other altered states, reveal an infinite field of consciousness
in multiple manifestations. "Mystical experience plays the vital role
in human existence and it's important for the full life of which addictions
are only incomplete distortions." [EV] The subject of the email "ceci n'est pas une pipe" refers to the painting "The Treachery of Images" (1952), by Rene Magritte. A relevant quote: "Magritte struggles against bourgeois cultural hegemony, yet he himself lived the life he mocks in his painting. After 1950, Magritte commonly appeared in photographs wearing a nondescript bowler hat like the subjects in his paintings. He lived all of his later life in Brussels in a modest middle class dwelling, opting not to return to the artistic hub of Paris. As an explanation for Magritte's conventional lifestyle coupled with his unconventional paintings, George Melly, with the BBC, wrote, 'He is a secret agent, his object is to bring into disrepute the whole apparatus of bourgeois reality. Like all saboteurs, he avoids detection by dressing and behaving like everybody else.'" [SL] The painting in question consists of an image of a pipe with a comment above it, which translated means "This is not a pipe". The painting operates on several levels - there is the obvious absurdist position of contrasting the pipe with the statement, then there is the further level in which the difference between the IMAGE of the pipe and the THING of a pipe are contrasted. What we are seeing is a representation of a pipe, not a pipe in itself. This is then further complicated by the self-referential nature of the comment itself - THIS is not a pipe - which demonstrates the further abstraction that is involved in transforming the THING pipe into the WORD pipe. [TEC]
o [page 20] [panel 2] Nigredo is the first step of an alchemical work:
seeing what we do not want to know about ourselves.
Beelzebub is either one of Satan's aliases or another
demon or devil depending on your cosmology and
alignment. [TF]
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