BOC: Imaginos, part 2 - WoTT

[Jon Jarrett]

On Mon, 18 Sep 2000, Johnny Firic wrote:

> >Hey,
> >we could do this for years :-)
>
> will it take you that long to figure out that I'm right?  ;-)

        WEel, I'm an arts type by nature so even if I do deccide you're
right it'll take me at least that long to admit it :-)

> the old Rossignol bit? oh, don't tell me THAT is considered 'canonic'!

        Well, you're the only one who is setting a canon, and considering
you set it only because you wanted to restrict the scope of your essay I
shouldn't adhere to it too closely. The "Rossignol bit" is Pearlman-BOC
and refers to Plutonia - it's obviously linked in somehow. Remember,
ultimately, this myth is random-access.

> btw, Secreta, huh? :-)

        If you'd been running screen from a computer with a dodgy
left-hand Ctrl key it could have happened to you too.

> >         Yes, but I prefer to take your reading my way :-) The Desdinova of
> >the now, scarred and tracked from attempts to sorcerously realise
> >immortality, laughing at his crowds of believers for whom he has no
> >answer.
> >
> who's that? the... um, guy who's reading? did you mean something along those
> lines?

        Um, not exactly. I think that if the current BOC really are
supposed to be the incarnation of the last part of the Imaginos saga,
exactly which one is *him* probably never got defined, or varied. Or
perhaps Pearlman envisaged it as himself. I don't think it allows of too
close an interpretation, I think the second and third acts wait definition
by their creators still.

> yes, now I remember. well I suppose you could argue that Haiti is in fact
> the world axis because of the occurence of the word "dream" here and
> "sleeping" in the line "the Empress lay sleeping". but I don't know, the
> Imperatrix obviously refers to E1. That's why I don't think the Haiti thing
> is 'right'.

        Why does "Imperatrix" have to be E.I? I seem to recall there being
an Empress of Haiti once, but even if I'm completely making that up I'm
still pretty sure "Imperatrix" describes one of the alchemical elements,
silver I think, though I'm not sure. I dislike the Elizabeth I
interpretation because for first, I don't think Dee's anything to do with
the story, in which case Elizabeth, whom the notes only mention to explain
who Dee is and that, in my view, to introduce a factual jade mirror to
give weight to the story's, is still less to do with it, and secondly,
because there's no way to explain why she's sleeping. She isn't buried at
Greenwich, she's buried at Westminster which is some way west. And unlike
some British monarchs there's no doubt she's dead.

> >         Could it be "`drake', as in, short for mandrake? All the
> >salamander stuff sounds pretty tonuge of bat and eye of frog to
> >me.
>
> but that's just what it is - Dee was an astrologer, basically a magician.
> _he_ believed in this sort of stuff and it's natural for him to speak in
> such terms.

        Yes, _or any other_ astrologer or mystic, and if you're staging
WotT as a dialogue you have to admit there's at least one other
participant, and that a knowledgeable one. In which case, why must it be
Dee? Why can't it be Imaginos, the only character apart from Susie who is
clearly named in the cycle?

> hm. and perhaps there's a link to "Mirrors":
>
> "a mirror is a negative space"
>
> a-ha! a black hole!

        I'm reluctant to tie in any Buck songs, really. They're all this
Mid-West horror story type of thing which doesn't seem to be anything to
do with the cycle. Yeah, I know, you were joking.

> (I seem to remember from the old Imaginos discussion, at which time I wasn't
> a boc-l-ite, there was a lot of talk about black holes. where did you people
> come up with that???)

        Pass, friend, I'm well post-that-discussion myself. Yours,
                                                                   Jon

--
     Jon Jarrett (01223 741219)       jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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        "There's nothin' more dangerous than a wounded mosquito."