#book: lux perpetua

[hanzajesthanza]

you gotta be fucking kidding me. for real

[jgthirlwell]

2021 Year In Review

This year once again I invited some friends and colleagues to reflect on 2021

JG Thirlwell

Composer 
Foetus Xordox Manorexia Steroid Maximus Venture Bros Archer

Here are a lot of albums I enjoyed in 2021, in no particular order.

Low Hey What (Sub Pop) Amon Tobin How Do You Live (NoMark) Caterina Barbieri Fantas Variations (Edition Mego) Michael Gordon and Cello Octet Amsterdam 8 (Canteloupe) Gazelle Twin and NYX Deep England (NYX Collective Records) / Gazelle Twin Welcome to the Blumhouse Nocturne OST (Lakeshore) Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders Promises (Luaka Bop) Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble NOW (International Anthem) Murmuüre Murmuüre (Bandcamp) Le Silo 3.27830 (Disc Union) Black Midi Cavalcade (Rough Trade) Red Fang Arrows (Relapse) Gojira Fortitude (Roadrunner) Royal Blood Typhoons (Warners) Alarmist Sequesterer (Small Pond) Melvins Working With God (Ipecac) Danny Elfman Big Mess (ANTI) Gaspard Auge Escapades (Because Music) Noveller Aphantasia (Bandcamp) Cheap Trick Another World (BMG) clipping Visions Of Bodies Being Burned (SubPop) The Bug Fire (Ninja Tune) Pan Daijing Jade (Pan) Blanck Mass Calm With Horses OST (Invada)/ In Ferneaux (Sacred Bones) Converge and Chelsea Wolfe Bloodmoon I (Epitaph) Hiro Kone Silvercoat The Throng (Dais) Space Afrika Honest Labor (Dais) Rob Aiki Aubrey Lowe Candyman OST (Sacred Bones) Andrew WK God Is Partying (Napalm) Jonny Greenwood The Power Of The Dog OST (Invada) The Fraternal Order of the All The Fraternal Order of the All (YouTube) Giant Claw Mirror Guide (Orange Milk) Sourdure De Mort Viva (Les Disques du Festival Permanent) Manchester Orchestra The Million Masks of God (Lomo Vista) Teho Teardo Elipses dans l'Harmonie (Specula) Idles Crawler (Partisan) Suryummy Polynators (Constellation Tatsu) The Armed Ultrapop (Sargent House) VoidDweller Employee (Bandcamp) Daniel Davies Spies (Sacred Bones) Muqata’a Kamil Manqus (Hundebiss Records) Sparks Annette OST (Milan) Caleb Landry Jones Gadzooks Vol 1 (Sacred Bones) Lana Del Rey Blue Banisters (Polydor) Zombi Liquid Crystal EP (Relapse) Ursula Sereghy OK Box (Gin and Platonic) Helm Axis (Dais) Squid Bright Green Field (Warp) Kyoka Is (Is superpowered) (Raster) Bryce Dessner / Ensemble Resonanz Tenebre (Resonanz Raum) All Traps On Earth A Drop of Light (AMS Records) Kemper Norton Troillia (Bandcamp) Real Loud Real Loud (New Focus)

Film and TV

Year of the Dog Bacurau Zola The French Dispatch Pen 15

Live performances

Didn't see too many this year but standouts were Tredici Bacci (three times) Idles Human Impact Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe King Crimson LustSickPuppy Lydia Lunch Tyshawn Sorey

Books

I read a ton of memoirs this year. Standouts were Mark Lanegan Sing Backwards and Weep Duncan Hannah Twentieth Century Boy Bruce Springsteen Born To Run Edward Norton Permanent Record John Lurie The History Of Bones David Crosby Long Time Gone Wayne Kramer The Hard Stuff

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Thurston Moore

Thirty killer recordings I had the pleasure to come across in 2021, all new performances from a galaxy of inspired lights. Keep on shinin’, friends! ---Thurston Moore / Sonic Life

1. Seafoam Walls - XVI (Daydream Library LP) 2. Xopher Davidson - Lux Perpetua (Daydream Library LP) 3. Wobbly - Popular Monitress (Hausu Mountain cassette) 4. Farida Amadou & Pavel Tchikov - Mal De Terre (Trouble In Mind cassette) 5. Luke Stewart - Works For Electric Bass Guitar (Triptickstapes cassette) 6. Ana da Silva & DJ Mooncup - Shouting Out Loud (Noods Radio cassette) 7. Joseph Nechvatal - Selected Sound Works (1981-2021) (Pentiments cassette) 8. Wharton Tiers - Wharton's Expanding Jazz Band (self released digital) 9. Moor Mother - Circuit City (Black Quantum Futurism LP w/ Playbill) 10. Michael R. Bernstein - Blind In Sight (self released cassette) 11. Marshall Trammell & Aaron Turner - Experimental Love I & II (Sige cassette) 12. Jaimie Branch - Fly Or Die Live (International Anthem 2XLP) 13. Twig Harper - Classical Electronics (Radical Documents cassette) 14. Ava Mendoza - New Spells (Relative Pitch cassette) 15. Michael Morley - Electric Guitar (Radical Documents cassette) 16. Gerald Cleaver - Griots - (Positive Elevation LP) 17. Title TK - Metallic TK (self released cassette) 18. Sophie Cooper - Goodbye Gemini (Borley Rectory cassette) 19. Co-ed - s/t (Sludgepeople cassette) 20. Gergesenes - Exorcism of the Gerasene Demoniac (Banner Of Blood cassette) 21. Orphan Fairytale - Titania Moon (Ultra Eczema LP) 22. Joe Morris & Damon Smith - Gusts Against Particles (Open Systems LP) 23. The Bohman Brothers - In Their 70s (Fort Evil Fruit cassette) 24. Natalie Beridze - Mapping Debris (Monika Enterprise cassette) 25. Tasos Stamou & Alan Wilkinson - Whenever (Ikuisuus cassette) 26. Irons - Unto The Kingdom (self released digital) 27. Alan Braufman & Cooper-Moore - Live at WKCR May 22, 1972 (Valley Of Search 12”) 28. Nihilist Spasm Band - Nothing Is Hard To Do (But We Try) (We Are Busy Bodies 7”) 29. Gaahls WYRD - The Humming Mountain (Season Of Mist 10”) 30. White People Killed Them - (Sige LP)

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Tom Recchion

LAFMS

Best of 2021

Music Elephant9 - Arrival Of the New Elders and their whole catalog (Rune Gramophone) Gentle Fire — Explorations (1970 - 1973) (Paradigm Discs PD 35) Allen Ravenstine - Shore Leave & Electron Music (Wave Shaper Media WSM 05.6) Allen Ravenstine - Nautilus & Rue Du Poisson Noir (Wave Shaper Media WSM 07.8) Joni Mitchell - Archive Vol 1 & 2 -plus the whole initiative (I’m waiting on the vinyl for #2) (Rhino) Needlepoint - Walking Up That Valley and their whole catalog David Toop and Ryuichi Sakamoto LIVE (ThirtyThree ThirtyThree Records TTTT0070) David Toop, Akio Suzuki & Lawrence English - “Breathing Spirit Forms” (Room 140 RM4171) Doris Wishman - “The Best Of…” (Modern Harmonic MH-8236) Something Weird Spook Show Spectaular A-Go-Go (Modern Harmonic MH-8205) Psychedelic Sex Kicks -soundtrack (Modern Harmonic MH-8223) CAN - the 2 LIVE albums (MUTE/SPOON) Evind Aarset/Jan Bang - Dream Logic - “Surrender” in particular 2012 (ECM) Thomas Stronon - Mercurial Balm (ECM) Smegma - Name Of the Frame (Molokoplus Records Plus 135) Jefferson Airplane - Acid, Incense and Balloons (RCA 194398442617-RSD) Jimi Hendrix Experience - :Paris 67 (Dagger Records 19439893031) LAFMS - Los Angeles Free Music Society VOD box (Vinyl On Demand VOD171)

Music Rediscoveries/Reappraisals/New Appreciations John Lennon Plastic Ono Band The entire Jefferson Airplane catalog Radu Malfatti/Stephan Wittwer - Und? (FMP 0470)

Viewings Succession (HBO) Get Back (Disney+) P.S. Burn This Letter Please (Kanopy)
Plan 9 From Outer Space (b/w & colorized) Anytime day or night The Mandalorian (Disney+) The White Lotus (HBO) Blown-Away (Netflix) The Great British Pottery Throw-down (HBO Max) What We Do In The Shadows (EFX) Velvet Underground  the Todd Haynes doc (AppleTV) Jorma Kaukonen Quarantine Concerts from Fur Peace Ranch with on occasion Hot Tuna. Streaming performances every Saturday night. For Free. Stunning and so generous. (YouTube)

Books Joe Potts - “Daily Planet” Hesse Press Butte Free Music Society “Sputterring and Distorted/A Reluctant History Of the BUFMS/Butte County Free Music Society/ Encyclopedia Spastica by Fen Addison with S. Glass That's How Strong My Love Is by David Loehr Organic Music Societies by Lawrence Kumpf Along Comes The Association by Russ Giguere Canyon Of Dreams by Harvey Kubernik The World’s Worst: A Guide To the Portsmouth Sinfonia by Christopher M. Reeves, Aaron Walker, et al. The Lyrics of Syd Barrett by Rob Chapman A New Day Yesterday by Mike Barnes Side By Side by Robert Wyatt & Alfie Benge When Can I Fly/The Sleepers, Tuxedo Moon & Beyond by Michael Belfer Creatures of the Night That We Loved So Well/ TV Horror Hosts of Southern California by James M Fetters The Art of John Schroeder - Private Press Bruce Houston - An Exceptional Artist with an Odd Sense Of Humor - Private Press Bruce Houston - Hospital Drawings - Private Press

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Tim Parkinson

Composer

BOOKS Helen Marten - The Boiled In Between Polly Barton - Fifty Sounds The poetry of Jeff Hilson 3 volumes of Picasso biography by John Richardson James Castle: Memory Palace by John Beardsley

MUSIC Minds in Flux by George Lewis Xanadu by Mildred Couper String Quartet No.5 by Matteo Fargion Natural World by Laurence Crane The amazing live performance by Siwan Rhys and Mark Knoop of Çoğluotobüsişletmesi by Clarence Barlow Gated - Alex Ward (Discus) Electric music - John White (ANTS) Pain Olympics - Crack Cloud (Meat Machine) gwneud a gwneud eto/do and do again - Angharad Davies (all that dust) The Boring Music Show (keithfem.com)

TV/FILM P’tit Quinquin In Between Portrait of a Lady on Fire Vivarium Parasite Roma Bacarau Capernaum

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Felix Kubin

Composer

Some wonderful (re-)encounters and sad farewells.

Francoise Cactus (1964 - 2021) The queen of the Berlin underground. A real anarchist and a very dear friend who died much too young.

Peter Rehberg (1968 - 2021) A great personality with a true passion for independent, experimental music and a cutting sense of humour. His brilliant mind will be missed.

Alvin Lucier (1931 - 2021) One of the most important encounters of my life. I interviewed him in 2004 in New York for my radio play „Paralektronoia“. His idea to focus on the room reflections instead of the original sound source changed my view on music profoundly.

Bernd Schurer Suisse Klangkünstler, psycho-acoustician and film composer who I met 20 years ago. One of the last romanticists who has always lived his life to the extreme.

Victoria Keddie A brilliant video artist, musician, telescopist and curator with a glint of flamboyance in her eye.

Matt Wand Genius quick-change artist, transformer and plunderphonic confusionist. A collaborator of things unreal.

Lucrecia Dalt A sculptor of romantic electronic songs on the edge of the unorganic. Our messenger of alien night life. Outlandish, poetic and courageous.

Doug Shipton Doug, half of Finders Keepers Records and half a cypress tree. His friendship is a constant breeze of fresh air in my mental locker.

Booty Carrell One of my oldest friends. A fantastic (radio) DJ and archaeologist of the obscure paths of world music. Also a great supporter of young musicians. I need to visit him soon.

Knut Aufermann & Sarah Washington The most inventive and (in the best possible sense) megalomaniac radio artists and curators I know. Close friends and wine enthusiasts, too.

Lucile Desamory A supernatural film maker, performer, martial arts fighter and telepathic friend.

Marie Losier My dear Marie! A brilliant film artist who breaks all the rules with a thunderous laughter.

Sven-Åke Johansson A genius performing artist who - at the age of 78 - constantly amazes with inventive, bizarre and cheeky ways of playing his "exploded drum set".

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Teho Teardo

Composer

I dreamt the pandemic would have stopped us all being able to learn. Like a fracture, a refusal to absorb anything further. We didn’t understand it was happening. Unconsciously I guess I’ve been looking for answers in books, films, music. More than ever. Here’s something I think I’ve found:

3 books Claire Keegan - Small things like these Max Porter - The death of Francis Bacon Ernesto De Martino - La fine del mondo

3 music books John Lurie - The History of Bones Gilbert Rouget - La musique et la transe. Esquisse d’une théorie générale des relations de la musique et de la possession Eliane Radigue - Intermediary spaces

3 books I gave as presents Carlo Ginzburg - I Benandanti Chandra Candiani - Questo immenso non sapere Graham Duff - Foreground Music

3 books given to me Claire Keegan - Foster Kae Tempest - On connection Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing - The mushroom at the end of the world

3 albums Lump - Animal Masma Dream World - Play at Night Richard Skelton - Four Workings

3 albums I gave as presents Matt Sweeney & Bonnie Prince Billy - Superwolves Giancarlo Toniutti - Batlahatli David Shea - The Art of Memory

3 albums given to me Luigi Maramotti - Knot Music Xordox - Omniverse Massimo Toniutti - Il museo selvatico (reprint)

3 songs I wish I had written Pino Daniele - Appocundria (Because of my reoccurring dream in which I call a friend in Napoli pretending to speak neapolitan) Robbie Basho - Blue Crystal Fire The Ghost of Sauris (I suppose I wrote it, but I dreamt it was written by someone else, since I couldn’t fine anyone who has written it I guess it came to me as a dream, but I keep thinking it belongs to someone else)

3 songs discovered by chance using Shazam Charlie Megira - The Coochimama Swingers (bookstore in Brooklyn) Lee Scratch Perry - Having a Party (record store in Roma) Blake Mills - Vanishing Twin (taylor in Roma)

3 films L’isola di Arturo (Damiano Damiani) The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion) Todo Modo (Elio Petri)

3 albums I’ve just picked up from a shelf using a random numeric generator Vivenza - Réalités Servomécaniques P16D4 & Swimming Behaviour of the Human Infant - Nicht Niemand Nirgends Nie! Steroid Maximus - Quilombo

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MV Carbon

Composer / Perfromer

2020-2021 Abounding Sound

impaired data declares achievement sensitive souls drown in bereavement maskless spew infiltrates dew hope maneuvers the residue spike proteins, vaccines gouge our arm hinting we are far from harm delusions dissolve contemplation assumptions contaminate the population social media distorts our sense with vapid poses of self pretense grotesque beauty smears the screens comparing bodies, achievements, dreams deep fakes intimidate misinformation procures high rates speculations bubble on exposed lips supply chains coagulate with skewed ships consumerism blasts junk into space   the wheezing earth melts in place landscapes rise like a tainted lung repulsions leech onto songs unsung games of stillness heal stress friendships seek more realness constrained voices contend to shout compassion eradicates fear and doubt rhyme rhythm music meaning dancing kissing crying gleaming abounding sound inspired together shifts life altogether

-MV Carbon

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Steve Moore

composer, Zombi

2021

I don’t know too many people who can honestly say they had a great year. I certainly can’t, but here are some things that helped get me through this mess.

Psycho Goreman It’s funny, violent, gory and even heartwarming at times. Great practical effects and creature design, and the cast was incredible - especially Mimi. Fantastic film, highly recommended.

Marvel’s What If… Full disclosure, most of what I watched this year was with my kids, so that skews things a bit. But having been a fan of the “What If…” comics series as a teen in the late 80’s/early 90’s, I truly appreciated the work they put in on this one. Some episodes are better than others, but the season finale pulls it all together in an incredibly satisfying way. And fun for the whole family!

Keith Mansfield - KPM ‘Vivid Underscores’ This album was originally released in ’77, but it just received a well-deserved reissue from Be With records. Library music is absolutely my jam, and this has been on my want list for years. Evocative underscores that will make your life feel way more exciting. I like to listen to it while cleaning, or driving.

Night Lunch - “House Full of Shit” I don’t know anything about this band and have not heard any of their albums, but a friend hipped me to this tune and it’s incredible. Definitely watch the video.

Pino Palladino + Blake Mills - “Ekuté” My favorite 5 and a half minutes of music released this year. I’ve been a fan of Pino since Paul Young covered Hall & Oates’ “Every Time You Go Away” back in ’85, and I love watching him mature and grow as a musician. The entire album, ‘Notes With Attachments,’ is incredible, but this song really does it for me. I’m a big fan of 70’s West African music and these dudes really nail the groove, and add their own special touch.

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John King

Composer

My 2021 Highlights:

music - (in no particular order)

Future Faith - Lime Rickey International

Dirge - Joanna Mattrey

Work for Upright Bass and Amplifier vol.1 (vol.2 releases 2022)- Luke Stewart

That Was Then, This Is Now - Christina Wheeler

Afrofuturism - Michael Wimberly

Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World – [Volumes 1–10] - William Parker

Wild At Heart - Pauline Kim Harris; Chaconne Project

Cairns - Gelsey Bell

Coin Coin Chapter Four: Memphis - Matana Roberts (released 2019, acquired 2021)

i was gifted by a friend the complete live Hendrix/Band of Gypsys at Fillmore East 1969-1970 - "Songs for Groovy Children” - spent a good part of Jan/Feb 2021 with my guitar tuned down a half-step, playing along with, re-learning the tunes, licks, solos from this amazing set of 8 LP’s

Before going into live in-person recording sessions in the fall 2021, I re-discovered and also played along with the tunes/energies of: Sonny Sharrock - Black Woman

Black Unity Trio - Al-Fatihah

Julius Hemphill - Dogon A.D.

movies - The Present - Farah Nablusi (BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated) a beautiful 20min long film, which captures the brutal, unjust inhumanity of Apartheid Israel through  the reality of what a Palestinian family must go through following “a day in their life”. A MUST SEE FILM.

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” - Ahmir “Qwestlove” Thompson more than a live concert film, this is about an era, the time of a “before/after” moment in culture and society. I hope Qwestlove makes a director’s cut that in 24 hours long, with ALL the live concert footage.

books - Against The Loveless World - Susan Abulhawa

You Exist Too Much - Zaina Arafat

The Little Edges (pub. 2015, acquired 2021) - Fred Moten

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Jason Berry

Nubdug Ensemble / Vacuum Tree Head

Favorite musical releases of the past year-or-so:

G Calvin Weston - Hydrogen 77 Frank Zappa - 200 Motels (50th Anniversary Box Set) Jair-Rohm Parker Wells / Robert Musso / G Calvin Weston - Wells Musso Weston Prince - Sign 'O' the Times (Box Set) The Galaxy Electric - Tomorrow Was Better Yesterday The Splatter Trio with Steve Benson - It's a Stool Pigeon Universe (book + CD package) Headboggle - Digital Digital Analog Pat Metheny - Side Eye NYC Pas Musique - Psychedelic Talismans Chris Potter Circuits Trio - Sunrise Reprise Dax Pierson - Nerve Bumps Stereolab - Electrically Possessed (Switched On Vol. 4) Pino Palladino and Blake Mills - Notes With Attachments Chansons du Crépuscule (Elliott Sharp + Hélene Breschand) - Aube Henry Threadgill Zooid - Poof Amanda Chaudhary - Meow Meow Band Xordox - Omniverse Interstellar Grains - Cubed

Recent reading, maybe not all were published this past year: Joy Harjo - Poet Warrior: A Memoir Malcolm Gladwell - Talking to Strangers Yuval Noah Harari - Sapiens Colson Whitehead - Harlem Shuffle Elliott Sharp - IrRational Music Jim Woodring - And Now, Sir - Is This Your Missing Gonad?

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DJ Food

Music: Snow Palms - Land Waves LP (Village Green) Robert Fripp - Music for Quiet Moments (DGM) DJ Format - Devil's Workshop LP Trevor Jackson - Underdog 1993-1998 radio mix (NTS) CAVS - CAVS 12" (PHC) The Nevermen - Treat 'Em Right (Boards of Canada remix) DL (Lex) Vanishing Twin - Ookii Gekkou LP (Fire Records) Jay Glass Dubs - Jungle Shuffle 12" (The Wormhole) Brian Eno - The Lighthouse (Sonos HD) Regal Worm - The Hideous Goblink LP (Quatermass) Ternion Sound - Dovetail (Kursa remix) 12” (Next Level)

Podcasts: Martyn Ware - Electronically Yours Ed Piskor / Jim Rugg - Cartoonist Kayfabe (YouTube) Stephen Coates - The Bureau of Lost Culture We Buy Records (Apple podcasts) Matt Black - Pirate TV (Twitch/FB/YouTube)

Gigs / Events: Vanishing Twin - Pensiero Magico live stream Jan 20th Alice In Wonderland @ The V&A Museum, London Savage Pencil @ OrbitalSpace, London The Light Surgeons 'Atemporal' @ Iklectik, London The The's Comeback Special premier @ Troxy Cinema, London Jonny Trunk's Groovy Record Fayre @ Mildmay Club, London People Like Us - Gone, Gone Beyond @The Pit Theatre, Barbican, London Anicka Yi - Aerobes @ Tate Modern, London

Design / Packaging: Hattie Cooke - The Sleepers LP (Spun Out of Control) King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - live bootlegs series LP (Fuzz Club) Une - Spomenik LP (Spun Out Of Control) Cos - Mix LP (Finders Keepers) The Third Man Records shop in Soho, London Pepe Deluxe - The Phantom Cabinet vol.1 LP (Catskills) The Zen Delay (Ninja Tune / Erica Synths) Kingston University Stylophone Orchestra - Stylophonika (Spun Out Of Control) Brian Eno's turntable

Books / Magazines / Comics: Rain Like Hammers - Brandon Graham (Image) Bedroom Beats & B-Sides - Laurent Fintoni (Velocity Press) Decorum - Jonathan Hickman & Mike Huddleston (Image) Ultramega - James Harren (Skybound/Image) Anatomie Narrative - Samplerman The Black Locomotive - Rian Hughes (Picador) Kane & Able - Shaky Kane & Krent Able (Image) Tales To Enlighten - Matt King & James Edward Clark (Kickstarter) The Out - Dan Abnett & Mark Harrison (2000AD) 99 Balls Pond Road - Julie Drower (Scrudge Books)

Film /TV: Bathtubs Over Broadway (Netflix) Wandavision (Disney+) Sisters With Transistors - Lisa Rovener (BFI) What We Do In The Shadows Season 3 (BBC2) Martha: A Picture Story (Projector Films) Records - Alan Zweig (TVO) Big Mouth (Adult Swim)

[septembersung]

I said I wouldn’t do it, but here I am, posting another chapter of Generations!

Please understand that this draft is, while scanned for typos and basic coherency, a genuine “rough” draft - what a block sketch is to the final painting.

If you’re enjoying these and want more, please also know that I am putty in the hands of praise and feedback.

(Chapter One here.)

Chapter Two

Meadowlark Farm stretched across four sections in central Kansas, more than two thousand acres of plains, rolling hills, riverbanks, stubborn cottonwoods, irregular ponds, and the occasional dense stands of timber. The old family farmhouse stood close to the middle of the property, near what had once been a river but was now a seasonal creek, in a particularly fine grove of cottonwoods. In high summer, the waxy leaves shimmered wildly in the slightest breeze, like a flock of dragonflies or a shoal of fleeing fish.

The house itself rested against a little rise in the land, looking out sedately over the fields, with one basement corner, the original cellar, built into the hill. Two ancient limestone fenceposts still marked the end of the patchy gravel driveway, half taken over by dandelions. Huge clumps of pampas grass marked the rutted drive. The house rested easily in the shade of tall elms and cottonwoods. Part of the original limestone foundation remained, ringing three corners of the original square ground floor. Seen from the side, where the driveway ended in a field of stubby buffalo grass, it looked regular enough, a typical nineteenth and twentieth century farmhouse in peeling white paint. Walking around the curving front porch revealed an extra wing, built on at a diagonal angle, which stuck out like an injured bird testing the wind with its good wing. The attic, a huge airy room above the original second floor, winked back at the sun with many small square windows.

Back of the house, in the triangle between the west-facing end of the house the northward-thrusting angle of thew the new wing - over a hundred years old and still it remained, in family parlance, "the new wing" - a little kitchen garden grew half-wild. Wide, smooth stepping stones marked the short path from screen door to the little plot.

Beyond the new wing, in the true backyard, children's playground equipment dotted the slope. Mismatched swings hanging from chains and ropes attached to rusting A-frames and weathered wooden beams swung gently in the perpetual Kansas breezes. Slides and monkey bars glinted in the hot sun. Chickenwire separated the play area from an enormous rectangular garden, already overflowing with produce, heavily over-planted, and exuding fragrant herb smells with every gusty breeze. The land ran down a gentle hill towards a dense growth of timber and a long, enormous pond.

Not too near the pond, several mismatched outbuildings hunched in what could not quite be called a cluster. Like a crowd trying to pretend it is not a crowd, each person too embarrassed to stand too close to anyone else, they held a swath of ground to themselves. A huge, two story barn with its paint long gone, worn to a brownish grey. A nearly shiny Morton building, not quite new but startlingly contemporary. A hay shelter, with rusted slanted roof. A skeleton barn, with just a few peeling boards left here and there, it's empty roof frame stretching over antique machinery. And a solid, unremarkable little shed, red boards dulled to maroon, covered in a patched roof of mismatched shingles topped with an enormous handmade antenna. The double front doors stood ajar and a solid-looking padlock hung from the wide-open latch, hanging casually open.

Beyond the swings, the big garden, the outbuildings, and the pond, the land fell sharply away to a creek bed. It was low in this high, dry summer, and nearly still. The banks, crumbled where the grass gave way to clay, ran with little wavering along the crease where hill met plain, until they met the little woods to the east. Cropland stretched out beyond the creek to the north. Near the trees, but enough to be shaded by them except in earliest morning, just on the north side of the river, lay the old family burial ground.

It had not always been meticulously tended, but in Leah's lifetime the oldest headstones had been somewhat restored, the most egregious weeds removed, and this summer, even the grass had been recently mowed.

Anna-Lucia knelt at her mother's headstone. Martha Addison, beloved wife, mother, sister. May 8 2005 - August 15, 2070. RIP Et Lux perpetua luceat eia.

The thick granite headstone with its neatly cut, clear letters stood in line with several others, some so weathered and faded as to be hardly legible. After a moment, hand resting on the sun-hot granite, Anna-Lucia sat down and crossed her legs, shoulders slumped, hands folded in her lap. A few brown rosary beads hung between her fingers, but her mind had drifted into wind and dappled light and the hum of insects and the sound the tall grass made bowing again and again to itself in the gentle, incessant breeze. Time passed but she did not know it. Then -

"Here you are!"

Anna-Lucia started badly as a sun-blind silhouette loomed over and dropped down suddenly, throwing two strong arms around her shoulders.

Dazed from the bright light and her unintentional reverie, it took Anna-Lucia several stunned seconds to process the small hands with many rings, the flyaway, unevenly cut dark blonde curls, the lavender perfume.

"Liza!" she gasped out at last, returning the hug.

In the sixteen months since she had seen her sister, Liza's choppy curls had grown irregularly long. Her wiry arms were sun browned and stronger than ever.

"Oh, I have missed you, little sister," Liza sighed affectionately, giving her one last squeeze and sitting back, stretching out like a cat on the warm prickly grass. It was an old joke between them; Liza, the eldest, was as petite and youthful as their mother had been; Anna-Lucia had her father's bigger bones and had nearly always been mistaken as the oldest.

Trying to shake off the sun-daze and afternoon grogginess, Anna-Lucia found she had no words - just a huge, cheek-splitting grin, and a few irrepresible tears in the corner of her eyes. She gripped Liza's shoulder and squeezed. Liza smiled back, but her eyes were tired and new care lines were etched there.

"You didn't tell me you were coming," Anna-Lucia said at last, when the silence had stretched so long it began almost to feel like another dream.

"No one knew. Not even me, until forty-eight hours ago. I fully expected to miss this year's reunion and be stuck on the beat 'til Christmas."

"Lots to report in Rome?"

"I've hardly been there - they send me all over the EU. That's the great thing about this job. Catholicity is a small operation with big dreams. I'm really the only full-time culture reporter they've got, so I have my pick of assignments. There's enough for three of me and three Giovannis besides."

"I still can't believe they get away that name."

Liza grinned wickedly. "Oh it's caused a few misunderstandings, but the reporter credentials, and the kinds of bylines I'm racking up, set them straight pretty fast."

"I hardly know anything about your job - you've sent three letters, Liza. Three, in a year and a half."

"Sixteen months, thank you very much." Liza hesitated. "It's - changing, over there. Letters aren't as... in vogue as they used to be."

Anna-Lucia looked at her sharply. "You're joking." She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, pushing away the lingering brain fog and reminding herself she was still not certain what privacy remained at home. Take nothing for granted. "I mean, nothing's more fashionable than retro, right? Where would the elite be if not at the height of fashion?"

Liza shrugged, an airy show of unconcern belied by the downturned corners of her mouth, as she reached into her bag, tossed carelessly on the ground next to her. "Whatever fires their rockets, I guess. It's pages, now. Personal pages to orally deliver messages."

Anna-Lucia felt inside, somewhere, that this was more important than she grasped, than her sister let on, but the sun had been slowly cooking her for more than an hour and Liza was pulling out of her carelessly dropped bag a thick wad of cream-colored envelopes addressed in a trailing scrawl she knew very well.

Her heart leapt. "You saw him!"

Liza shook her head, and she was pale under her tan. "These came through the postal service."

Not, Anna-Lucia registered distantly, the post office.

"That's how I found you out here, actually. I got in not twenty minutes ago and went in looking for Dad, and Grandma immediately sent me out here." Her eyes conveyed that Leah had warned her, too, they could not speak completely freely in the house. "These are all addressed to him."

Anna-Lucia stared at her. "Just to Dad? Not even one for me? Or you?"

"I tried to tell you." Liza held out the letters. "Check the dates."  Swiftly, Anna-Lucia tugged the rubber bands off the thick stack and they uncompressed in her hands, spilling over her lap. Each was labeled, F1sh, followed by a string of numbers she recognized as an encoding of month, year, and - something she couldn't decipher. Location, probably.

"A year ago? The most recent one is twelve months old?"

"One's only seven."

"You've read them?"

Liza frowned at her. "I take my job seriously, Anna-Lucia."

"I'm sorry. Stupid question." Mechanically, Anna-Lucia gathered the letters back up and rebound them. "So you've had no news."

Liza just looked at her.

Understanding began to dawn, and Anna-Lucia did not like it. "That's why you came home."

"We need Uncle Kevin's address book."

"No news at all? Seven months and nothing? Not a single person knows where he is or what happened to him?"

"Will you help me find Dad?" Liza pleaded, glancing down at her watch, a slim, chic, old fashioned ladies' analog. "He needed these... yesterday."

Anna-Lucia felt as unmovable as the headstones beside her.

"Please, Anna-Lucia. I don't... I can't tell him alone."

Liza stood and held out a hand. Anna-Lucia grasped it and was hauled to her feet, stiff, half-asleep limbs complaining and uncooperative. She heaved a deep breath, involuntarily, as if she'd been swimming underwater. Their little brother had been missing for at least seven months, and no one had heard a thing.

"Dad's in the new shed."

[crisisevil]

A brief tale of dead languages and resilient teachers - a pynch fic

summary: Latin professor and local idiot Ronan Lynch thinks he's being subtle by leaving romantic poetry in a dead language for science teacher and confused soul Adam Parrish to find. He's not.

notes: I am very much italian, so all of this was written the italian school system in mind, where latin classes are more likely than they have any right to be and every group of students stay in the same class at all hours. I literally wrote this in a madwoman rampage at 3 a.m. after a weird saturday night because of the funny and adorable idea Kayla (lynchniall) shared on the infamous and wonderful screeming discord chat. I hope you enjoy it, it's short and silly but I liked writing it a lot.

    The first time Adam saw Ronan Lynch, he hadn’t really struck him as the romantic, strongly passionate type. But he made for an unusual Latin teacher, for sure, with his buzz cut and loud mouth, lean and tall in a way that made him hard to miss and with deep inquisitive eyes even harder to forget. He mostly saw him talking with Gansey, out of all the other teachers, a pair that looked both absurd and impossibly close, like an invisible line made of history and dead emperors magically tied them together. Or maybe they were just college friends and he was still trying to adjust to the new school, to process the weird impression of being the odd one out that had accompanied him during his own high school years.

  So he just tried not to think about them. About Lynch, in particular, with his sharp smile and impossibly handsome face. It got a little harder, though, after the time he noticed the sharp edge of a tattoo peaking from the collar of his button up shirt and felt the strong need to see how far it went down his back.

It was also impossible not to hear him outside class, Adam found out, his voice deep and maybe slightly overexcited as he analysed verses with older students or even explained basic rules for the younger ones. That was the first actual thing he learned about Ronan Lynch: in a crowd of bored and irritable teachers, he was genuinely passionate about his job, in love with what he taught to the point Adam had often caught himself accidentally listening to his lessons from the hall, drawn in by the sheer enthusiasm the other put in every lecture. He liked that detail more than he was ready to admit and it was all downhill from there, with his mind all over the place every time their eyes met. Something that happened every often, with a scheduled appointment every tuesday and friday, when Lynch’s class ended and his began, one after the other, in the same room.

  Sometimes, as he shamefully marinated into his embarrassing adult crush, Adam seemed to notice something different about their brief exchanges, he other man’s gaze lingering on him a bit too much, his expression slightly changing. He immediately dismissed it as his brain playing tricks on him to help him cope with his feelings, since they barely spoke except some obligated courtesies or a brief and funny comment about this or that situation from time to time. Of course, nothing stopped him from actually trying to get to know him or even ask him out, but something about Lynch seemed just too cool and intimidating to leave space for someone like him, no matter how nice he sounded from outside the classroom door. Or maybe it wasn’t.

  It started a month after the beginning of the year. The first time he didn’t even thought about it, when he saw the words written in chalk over the black board.

  ille mi par esse deo videtur,

ille, si fas est, superare divos,

qui sedens adversus identidem te

spectat et audit

dulce ridentem, misero quod omnes

eripit sensus mihi*

  Poetry and literature were part of the scheduled program, Catullus was one of the first authors in every literature book, he had studied him too, back in school. It was nothing out of the ordinary, he thought he was probably analysing the poem, as the complicated geometry of circled and underline words easily suggested, so he didn’t try to link anything to the sly smile Lynch had showed him when they exchanged a quick greeting outside the classroom door.

Same was for the week after, or the one that followed: he was a passionate teacher, maybe that was his favourite author, it made sense.

It got weird after the fourth one, when he entered the class and Catullus’ words were there again, in the same elegant writing, no mark or translation. The words were simply there without a reason, barely a decoration.

  soles occidere et redire possunt:

nobis cum semel occidit breuis lux,

nox est perpetua una dormienda.

da mi basia mille, deinde centum,

dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,

deinde usque altera mille, deinde centu.**

  His Latin was a bit rusty, after all those years, but that was another obvious one. He couldn’t help letting out a nervous chuckle, before he went on with his lecture, a bit more distant than usual, distracted by the peculiar idea of Ronan Lynch writing about love and kisses on the same board that was sitting behind his back. It didn’t feel like a coincidence anymore, it never did again.

  Week after week, he kept finding quotes every time the other left. Sometimes there was just one verse, sometimes a whole poem, without any sign of analysis, like they had been written just for him. Lynch always smiled a different smile when they crossed path before he found them, like a mischievous child that had just gotten away with something.

Did he think Adam hadn’t notice? He was a science teacher, but that didn’t make him incapable of putting two and two together. Maybe he just thought he didn’t understand, which was actually comprehensible, since it had been a while since the last time he actually sat trough a Latin class. But Adam had a history as an extremely diligent student, he just couldn’t forget certain things.

  Still, he never said anything to his face, never mentioned it, the brief expression he showed him during those moments the only proof Ronan was even aware of what he was doing. Maybe he wasn’t meant to find out, he realized. Maybe the other just liked to dance around the idea of pursuing him, without the proper intention to make a move. But Adam wasn’t one to beg, so he didn’t either: that was a battle he intended to win.

  Then, one day, it was too much. He didn’t always recognized immediately the poem, but that was a different thing. Ronan couldn’t know it was his favourite one.

  huc est mens deducta tua, mea Lesbia, culpa

atque ita se officio perdidit ipsa suo***

  It was just a slap in the face. Too beautiful, too misused. He couldn’t ignore it.

He looked at the students, like the answer to that ridiculous situation had been written into their faces. Of course, they didn’t care, those were barely translation exercises for them.

So he gave up, excused himself for a moment and rushed trough the hall, to catch that mess of a Latin teacher before he could go elsewhere.

  “Lynch.” he called, panting after he’d ran through the entire floor and slightly pissed off.

Ronan didn’t flinch, perfectly sound under what he probably thought to be a linguistic armour.

  “Parrish.” he answered, his demeanor calm in a way that made him want to punch him. What a straight-faced fucker. He wasn’t even nervous anymore, just eager to get one step ahead of him.

Adam caught his breath for a moment, then showed him a cocky smile.

  “ut iam nec bene velle queat tibi, si optima fiās,/ nec dasistere amare, omnia si facias.****” he iterated perfectly. Again, he didn’t know many poems by memory, that was just an unfortunate coincidence. “You know, you could just ask me out for coffee, if what I do destroys you so much.”

  Ronan’s smile dropped, his expression shocked in a way that was pure bliss. He didn’t even try denying it or even undermining it.

It was so satisfying that Adam didn’t even think about the implications, about Ronan Lynch showering him in love poems and actually being interested in him.

Big miscalculation, on his part, because he was caught off guard right back.

Ronan shrugged, letting his lips slightly curl on one corner. One of those charming, mischievous smiles of his.

  “I’ll wait for you after class, then.”

        *He seems to me to be equal to a god,

he, if it is permissible, seems to surpass the gods,

who sitting opposite again and again

watches and hears you

sweetly laughing, which rips out all senses

  **Suns may set and rise again;

for us, when once the brief light has set,

an eternal night must be slept.

Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,

then another thousand, then a second hundred,

then yet another thousand, then a hundred

  ***At this point [my] mind is so broken down by your doing, my Lesbia,

that it destroys itself by its own devotion

  ****so that it can no longer wish you well, even if you should become the best,

nor can it stop loving you, no matter what you should do.

[thetemple-smallinstitutions]

FUNERAL RITUAL

Conveyance of the body to the church

The first stage involves the parish priest and other clergy going to the house of the deceased. One cleric carries the cross and another carries a vessel of holy water. Before the coffin is removed from the house it is sprinkled with the holy water. The priest, with his assistants, says the psalm De profundis with the antiphon Si iniquitates. Then the procession sets out for the church. The cross-bearer goes first, followed by members of the clergy carrying lighted candles. The priest walks immediately before the coffin, and the friends of the deceased and others walk behind it.

As they leave the house, the priest intones the antiphon Exsultabunt Domino, and then the psalm Miserere is recited or chanted in alternate verses by the cantors and clergy. On reaching the church the antiphon Exsultabunt is repeated. As the body is placed "in the middle of the church," the responsorial Subvenite is recited.

Historical precedence provides that if the corpse is a layman, the feet are to be turned towards the altar. If the corpse is a priest, then the position is reversed, the head being towards the altar. The earliest reference to this is in Johann Burchard's "Diary". Burchard was the master of ceremonies to Pope Innocent VIII and Pope Alexander VI.

A little-known custom also exists that both before the altar and in the grave, the feet of all Christians should be pointed to the East. This custom is alluded to by Bishop Hildebert at the beginning of the twelfth century,[12] and its symbolism is discussed by Guillaume Durand. "A man ought so to be buried", he says, "that while his head lies to the West his feet are turned to the East…"[13] For clergy, however, the idea seems to be that the bishop (or priest) in death should occupy the same position in the church as during life, facing his people who he taught and blessed in Christ's name.[3] In practice, facing the east is scarcely ever observed.

Ceremony in the church

The second stage is a cycle of prayers, the funeral Mass, and absolution. In the Tridentine Rite, candles are lit around the coffin, and they are allowed to burn throughout this stage. In the post-Vatican II rite there are no candles.

Prayers

The prayers offered are the Office of the Dead. Throughout the prayers, certain omissions are made. For example, each psalm ends with Requiem aeternam instead of the Gloria Patri.

Mass for the Dead

As in the case of the Office, the Mass for the Dead (Missa de Requiem) is chiefly distinguished from ordinary Masses by certain omissions. Some of these may be due to the fact that this Mass was formerly regarded as supplementary to the Mass of the day. In other cases it preserves the tradition of a more primitive age. The suppression of the Alleluia, Gloria in excelsis, and the Gloria Patri seems to point to a sense of the incongruity of joyful themes in the presence of God's searching and inscrutable judgments. In the early Christian ages, however, it would seem that the Alleluia, especially in the East, was regarded as especially appropriate to funerals, as Christians rejoiced that the deceased was now closer to God than they were themselves.

During the Mass it used to be customary to distribute candles to the congregation. These were lit during the Gospel, during the latter part of the Holy Sacrifice from the Elevation to the Communion, and during the absolution which follows the Mass. As already remarked the association of lights with Christian funerals is very ancient, and liturgists here recognize a symbolical reference to baptism whereby Christians are made the children of Light, as well as a concrete reminder of the oft repeated prayer et lux perpetua luceat eis.

In the ordinary form of the Roman Rite (the Mass of Paul VI) the order of choice for liturgical colors is white, or violet, or black. It is recommended that the coffin be covered by a white pall. In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the funeral Mass is a Requiem. In a Requiem Mass the priest always wears black vestments, and the pall is black. There are also slightly different ceremonies of the Mass and slightly different texts. When the deceased is a baptised child under the age of reason the priest wears white vestments as a symbol of the innocence of the deceased and the attendant belief that the child will immediately be received into heaven without the need to endure purgatory. The liturgical books for the extraordinary form have never prescribed a particular Mass for the funeral of such children, but the custom is that the votive Mass of the Angels is said.

Absolution

The absolution of the dead was removed from the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, and replaced with the Final Commendation and Farewell, when the new Order of Christian Funerals was promulgated following the Second Vatican Council. However, the absolution of the dead remains part of the funeral service of the Tridentine Mass.

The absolution of the dead is a series of prayers for pardon that are said over the body of a deceased Catholic following a Requiem Mass and before burial. The absolution of the dead does not forgive sins or confer the sacramental absolution of the Sacrament of Penance. Rather, it is a series of prayers to God that the person's soul will not have to suffer the temporal punishment in purgatory due for sins which were forgiven during the person's life.

During the absolution, the Libera me, Domine is sung while the priest incenses the coffin and sprinkles it with holy water. The prayer for absolution is said by the priest, and then the In paradisum is sung while the body is carried from the church.

Ceremony by the graveside

After the absolution, the body is carried to the grave. The tomb or burial plot is then blessed, if it has not been blessed previously. A grave newly dug in an already consecrated cemetery is considered blessed, and requires no further consecration. However, a mausoleum erected above ground or even a brick chamber beneath the surface is regarded as needing blessing when used for the first time. This blessing is short and consists only of a single prayer after which the body is again sprinkled with holy water and incensed. Apart from this, the service at the graveside is very brief.

In the Tridentine tradition, the priest intones the antiphon "I am the Resurrection and the Life", after which the coffin is lowered into the grave and the Canticle Benedictus is recited or sung. Then the antiphon is repeated again, the Lord's Prayer is said silently, while the coffin is again sprinkled with holy water. Finally, after one or two brief responses, the following ancient prayer is said:

Grant this mercy, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to Thy servant departed, that he may not receive in punishment the requital of his deeds who in desire did keep Thy will, and as the true faith here united him to the company of the faithful, so may Thy mercy unite him above to the choirs of angels. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.[3]

The final petition made by the priest is "May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace."[3] At that point, the graveside ceremony and the burial is complete.

[thimel]

Leseliste Juli / August 2021

Creation Stories, Riots, Raves and Running a Label, Alan McGee, Pan 2013

The Fran Levowitz Reader, Fran Lebowitz, Vintage Books 1994

Lux Perpetua, Andrzej Sapkowski, dtv 2021

Mogworld, Yahtzee Croshaw, Dark Horse 2018

A Man Lies Dreaming, Lavie Tidhar, JABberwocky 2021

Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, K. J. Parker, Orbit 2019

[garland-on-thy-brow]

favorite female characters meme

Rules: “List ten of your favorite female characters in different fandoms (I’m a rebel) and then tag ten people.”  

@nimium-amatrix-ingenii-sui, thanks for tagging me.

a) I don’t even remotely have ten fandoms, so anything I’ve read will have to count; b) I’m usually bad in explaining why I like this or that character, in many cases won’t even try.

1) Hortensia [fandom: Roman history]. In 42 bce she went to the Forum in the lead of delegation of Roman matrons and with impressive rhetorical mastery told second triumvirate to go fuck itself.

2) Porcia Catonis [fandom: Roman history and Julius Caesar (for me, JC is a room in the history fandom rather than separate fandom, but this time I need character slots)]. I love Porcia, I hate that canon is tragic, we need moar AUs.

3) Filippa Eilhart [fandom: The Witcher book series]. [Or Philippa - I’m not sure what’s the rule for name adaptation, so just keeping the spelling from Polish text.] The eleventh Muse (of international shadow government). Lesbian icon. Absolute fave.

4) Rixa Cartafila de Fonseca [fandom: Sapkowsky’s Hussite Trilogy, though she appears only in the last part, Lux Perpetua]. 

5) In ASOIAF, I can’t really tell who’s my favourite, but I'm interested in Daenerys Targaryen.

6) Hermione Granger [fandom: Harry Potter].

7) Olivia [fandom: Twelfth Night].

8) Papia Mutila [fandom: The Angel of Spartacus, a historical fantasy novel by A. Valentinov]. Granddaughter of Gaius Papius Mutilus (Italic consul during the Social War, together with Silo). Wants Italic independence, makes a deal with Satan, travels in time, and furthermore thinks that Rome must be destroyed.

9) Tenjou Utena [fandom: Revolutionary Girl Utena].

10) Carmilla [fandom: Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu].

Tagging (if you want to): @the-sun-of-rome-is-set, @porciacatonis, @elainesknight, @lifeisyetfair, @catullan, @vanth-charun, @pythionice, and anyone else who wants to do it.

[pamphletstoinspire]

Catholic Physics - Reflections of a Catholic Scientist - Part 50

Story with images:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/catholic-physics-reflections-scientist-part-50-harold-baines/?published=t

The Theology of Science - fiction: IV. End -Times

Armageddon in Revelation, from "Israel my Beloved" website

"Because SF primarily deals with the future, it must inevitably deal with the end of the world, and thus SF overlaps more closely with apocalyptic literature than with any other type of religious writing... [and] focuses on eschatology -- ideas about 'the last days', the end of the world as we know it and the dawning of a radically new era." Gabriel McKee, The Gospel According to Science Fiction

In this post, the fourth of the series, I'm going to focus on works for which the religious attitudes of two SF authors cover the range from atheist to true believer.  And as the quote above suggests, we're talking about end-times -- the Apocalypse, Armageddon, the Ball is Over.  For the SF author, this can mean the end of the world -- earth -- the end of the Universe, or the end of everything (from Creatio ex nihilo to Annihilatio ad nihilum).

There are a host of stories dealing with end - times, ranging from post atomic - war destruction of civilization, destruction of earth by collision with asteroids, alien take-overs of the world, or the final end of the Universe.  Rather than giving a catalog of these, I'm going to discuss two classics that span religious attitudes, from atheist to Catholic faithful. Surveys of SF apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic works are given in the References*.

END TIMES WITHOUT GOD - "CHILDHOOD'S END"

An Overlord, from Infinispace.net

Childhood's End, the classic by Arthur C. Clarke, is a story about a benevolent take over of earth by aliens ("the Overlords") who look like the common image of the devil - horns, wings, tail and all that. The Overlords institute a benevolent dictatorship, eliminating nuclear fission and other explosive missiles, want and crime. “Utopia was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of all Utopias — boredom.”

However, it was not to give mankind Utopia that the Overlords came to Earth.  Rather, they were acting as nannies for a new humankind, and to prevent mankind from destroying itself until that new man emerged. That new, improved species was to be derived from the children of the generation visited by the Overlords. They would be endowed with supernatural psychic powers, and after developing these powers during a maturation period on earth, would join with the Supermind that had desired this change.  They would leave earth in a pillar of fire and as they left, destroy their birthplace:

“There was nothing left of Earth. They had leeched away the last atoms of its substance. It had nourished them, through the fierce moments of their inconceivable metamorphosis, as the food stored in a grain of wheat feeds the infant plant while it climbs towards the Sun.” Childhood's End.

Now, there is nothing of God in this, unless you equate the Supermind, which is composed of the composite minds of many species. to God. The origin and precise nature of the Supermind is not discussed in the story, but then of course if it is a supermind, what can our poor intelligence make of it.  Clarke's bias against theism is revealed early on in the book by the remarks of one of his characters:

“Science is the only religion of mankind.”   and

“Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the nonexistence of Zeus or Thor, but they have few followers now.” Childhood's End

Given Clarke's proposal that psychic powers, supermind and all such stuff, constitute the next step in evolution, one wonders how seriously to take the dicta in the quotes above.  Much more faith is required to believe in supernatural psychic powers than to believe in God and His only begotten Son.  But, as G.K. Chesterton aptly put it:

"It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense." G.K. Chesterton, Fr. Brown in The Oracle of the Dog

and

"You hard - shelled materialists were all balanced on the very edge of belief — of belief in almost anything."G.K. Chesterton, Fr. Brown in The Miracle of Moon Crescent

(Those are the quotes that gave rise to the saying, attributed to Chesterton by mistake:

"When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything." American Chesterton Society.)

Now it seems in the critique above, I have given short shrift to "Childhood's End".  That was not my intention.  Fifty-five years ago when I first read it, I was moved.  Today on re-reading it (after my conversion) I find it unsatisfying and shallow as an aid to appreciate the meaning of end-times.

ATOMIC WAR, APOCALYPSE AND THE CHURCH -- "A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ"

First Edition Dust Jacket, by George Sottung

Beloved of both SF fans and non-SF fans, is the classic "A Canticle for Leibowitz", a book which has sold over a million copies and is still in print.

Preparing for this post, I reread it; the message of the book is still fresh and moving.  Rather than summarize the plot (go to the link above for that), I want to expound on that message. (Better yet, read the free pdf download of the book, or buy it -- you'll want to reread it.)

The story takes places in three historical periods:

Fiat Homo (Let there be Man): The first period is in the 26th century, several hundred years after the "Flame Deluge", an atomic war that destroys civilization and engenders a host of monstrous mutant births. The populace, calling themselves "Simpletons", have risen up against the establishment -- killing scientists, academics, government officials -- and against the learning that led to this catastrophe.  Books are burnt, technological devices destroyed in the rage of the survivors.  An order of monks had been founded some years earlier by a Jewish convert to Catholicism, Leibowitz, who had been an atomic weapons scientist.  The special mission of the monks was to save the remnants of learning; each monk is to be a "booklegger", carrying books in a bindle - stiff to a place of safety.  Leibowitz himself was martyred, burnt with his books.

Fiat Lux (Let there be Light): The second period is 500 years later.  The rebirth of science takes place, partially in the Abbey of St. Leibowitz (he has been canonized by the Pope in New Rome).  A monk of the Leibowitzian order invents a human - powered dynamo to power an arc light, illustrating the new theories of a theoretical genius, a royal bastard (the kingdom is Texarkana).   Tensions between the Church and the state rise again, as in the past.

Fiat Voluntas Tua (Thy Will be Done): The third period is some 600 years later.  Science and technology have risen again: atomic weapons, interstellar travel (with a few colonies), computers, automated roads are here, to the consternation of the Abbot of the St. Leibowitz monastery. State and Church have reached an accommodation, much as today--most of the populace are unbelievers or Catholic in name only.  There is tension between the two superpowers, the Asian Coalition and the Atlantic Confederacy.  The tension grows into an atomic war; even greater destruction is wrought than in the preceding flame deluge, but a contingent of the Order of St. Leibowitz carries civilization and the Church to the stars, to the new colonies.

All the above is bare bones, dry as dust, and conveys little of the power and beauty of the book. I'm going to try to do that with some selected quotes and context. (For a fuller exposition of the plot, again, please refer to the linked article.)

Fiat Homo: Brother Francis falls into the uncovered remains of a fallout shelter, containing relics of Saint Leibowitz, is terrified and prays a litany for salvation from the Flame Deluge:

"A spiritu fomicationis,

Domine, hibera nos.

From the lightning and the tempest,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the scourge of the earthquake,

O Lord, deliver us.

From plague, famine, and war,

O Lord, deliver us.

"From the place of ground zero,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the rain of the cobalt,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the rain of the strontium,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the fall of the cesium,

O Lord, deliver us.

"From the curse of the Fallout,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the begetting of monsters,

O Lord, deliver us.

From the curse of the Misborn,

O Lord, deliver us.

A morte perpetua,

Domine, libera nos.

"Peccatores,

te rogamus, audi nos.

That thou wouldst spare us,

we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst pardon us,

we beseech thee, hear us.

That thou wouldst bring us truly to penance,

te rogamus, audi nos." p. 16 (Bantam Edition).

Fiat Lux Brother Kornhoer has invented a dynamo and electric arc lamp, amazing the great scientist Thon Taddeo (repeat of Galileo or Newton?) who has come to investigate the Leibowitz memorabilia.  A discourse on scientific achievements of the past and the preservation of knowledge by the Church follows.

"Now a Dark Age seemed to be passing. For twelve centuries, a small flameof knowledge had been kept smoldering in the monasteries; only now were there minds ready to be kindled. Long ago, during the last age of reason, certain proud thinkers had claimed that valid knowledge was indestructible--that ideas were deathless and truth immortal. But that was true only in the subtlest sense, the abbot thought, and not superficially true at all. There was objective meaning in the world, to be sure: the nonmoral logos or design of the Creator; but such meanings were God's and not Man's, until they found an imperfect incarnation, a dark reflection, within the mind and speech and culture of a given human society, which might ascribe values to the meanings so that they became valid in a human sense within the culture. For Man was a culture-bearer as well as a soul-bearer, but his cultures were not immortal and they could die with a race or an age, and then human reflections of meaning and human portrayals of truth receded, and truth and meaning resided, unseen, only in the objective logos of Nature and the ineffable Logos of God. [emphasis added] Truth could be crucified; but soon, perhaps, a resurrection." p. 133, ibid.

And so the age of science begins again and again, the Church is the wet - nurse of the new "logos of nature".

Fiat Voluntas Tua The Church has had an interstellar vehicle of its own ready for missionary work to the interstellar colonies and, with nuclear annihilation threatening within a short time, decides to send two Bishops and a group from the Leibowitz Abbey-priests, brothers, sisters, civilians and children - to the Centauran colony. (The Bishops are sent to maintain apostolic succession.) The Abbot, Fr. Zerchi, speaks to the group:'

" 'You will be years in space. The ship will be your monastery. After the patriarchal see is established at the Centaurus Colony, you will establish there a mother house of the Visitationist Friars of the Order of Saint Leibowitz of Tycho. But the ship will remain in your hands, and the Memorabilia. If civilization, or a vestige of it, can maintain itself on Centaurus, you will send missions to the other colony worlds, and perhaps eventually to the colonies of their colonies. Wherever Man goes, you and your successors will go. And with you, the records and remembrances of four thousand years and more. Some of you, or those to come after you, will be mendicants and wanderers, teaching the chronicles of Earth and the canticles of the Crucified to the peoples and the cultures that may grow out of the colony groups. For some may forget. Some may be lost for a time from the Faith. Teach them, and receive into the Order those among them who are called. Pass on to them the continuity. Be for Man the memory of Earth and Origin. Remember this Earth. Never forget her, bu t-- never come back.' Zerchi's voice went hoarse and low. 'If you ever come back, you might meet the Archangel at the east end of Earth, guarding her passes with a sword of flame. I feel it. Space is your home hereafter. It's a lonelier desert than ours. God bless you, and pray for us.' " p. 269, ibid.

Brother Joshua, after much soul-searching decided to accept the invitation to be the Abbott for the Visitationist Friars and be ordained a priest.  He climbs into the spaceship as nuclear bombs are falling to the east, slaps his sandals together, shaking the dust from them [see Matt 10:14] and whispers "sic transit gloria mundi" .

I wish that the sequel, the story of the interstellar mission, had been written...and, were I thirty years younger, I would try to do so myself.

REFERENCES

Wikipedia article on SF Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic SF

The Gospel according to Science Fiction (Chapter 10, "The Last Days [and After]). Gabriel McKee.

*One very fine apocalyptic SF novel by Nancy Kress, "After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall", was published after these references; it deals with destruction of civilization by aliens and the attempted recovery.

From a series of articles written by: Bob Kurland - a Catholic Scientist

[targonian-a-blog]

REQUIEM.

because literally no one asked below the cut, i have written out a transcript of the requiem’s lyrics, a rough translation by yours truly (one that is probably a bit inaccurate), and a brief summary of how each part fits in with the exile arc of taric’s life. 

1 . REQUIEM.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet.  Requiem aeternam dona ets, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.  Kyrie eleison.  Christe eleison.  Kyrie eleison.

(grant them eternal rest, my lord may perpetual light shine on them. you, my god, are praised in Sion and unto thee, the vow shall be performed in Jerusalem. heed my call, and all flesh shall come to thee.  have mercy on us, christ, have mercy on us have mercy upon us.)

this could represent taric’s realization that he let his allies die, and that he hopes their slaughter does not turn them away from their promised peaceful afterlife. not only that, but taric is coming to terms with the fact that this is most likely all his fault. he just wants them to be at peace. 

2 . DIES IRAE

Dies irae, dies illa  Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David cum Sibylla. Quantus tremor est futurus Quando judex est venturus Cuncta stricte discussurus. 

(day of wrath, that day the earth will disolve into ashes, as David and the Sibyl bear witness. what tremor shall be made when the judge ventures forth to examine all.)

recalling the events of the day taric’s life as he knew it ended is rather difficult, though i feel as though this is a pretty good general description. note the part where the world dissolves / turns to ash. 

3 . TUBA MIRUM

Tuba mirum spargens sonum Per sepulcra regionum Coget omnes ante thronum. Mors slopebit et natora Cum resurget creatura Judicanti responsura.Liber scriptus proferetur In quo totum continetur, Unde mundus judicetur. Judex ergo cum sedebit Quidquid latet apparebit, Nil inultum remanebit. Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, Quem patronum togaturus, Cum vix justus sit securus?

(a trumpet, spreading marvelous sound through the graves of all lands, will drive mankind before the throne. death and nature shall be astonished when all creation rises again to answer to the Judge. a book, written in, will be brought forth in which is contained everything that is, out of which the world shall be judged. when therefore the Judge takes His seat whatever is hidden will reveal itself. nothing will remain unavenged. what then shall I say, wretch that I am, what advocate entreat to speak for me, when even the righteous may hardly be secure?)

taric’s exile. demacian justice. i don’t feel like i need to say more. 

4 . REX TREMENDAE

Rex tremendae majestatis, Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Salve me, fons pietatis. 

(mighty king, your majesty he who saves the redeemed save me, o save me, your greatness.)

as taric’s world fell apart around him and he set out for targon, he did all that he could do - he prayed that he would return to his former glory, and avenge his allies. 

5 . RECORDARE

Recordare, Jesu pie, Quod sum causa tuae viae, Ne me perdas ilia die.  Quaerens me sedisti lassus, Redemisti crucem passus, Tamus labor non sit cassus.  Juste judex ultionis Donum fac remissionis Ante diem rationis.  lngemisco tamquam reus, Culpa rubet vultus meus, Supplicanti parce, Deus.  Qui Mariam absolvisti Et latronem exaudisti, Mihi quoque spem dedisti. Preces meae non sum dignae, Sed tu bonus fac benigne, Ne perenni cremet igne.  Inter oves locurn praesta, Et ab haedis me sequestra, Statuens in parle dextra. 

(remember, blessed one, that i am the cause of your path, do not forsake me on that day.  seeking me wearily, you took your place, you redeemed me, suffering death on the cross.  do not let your sacrifice be in vain.  just and avenging judge, grant redemption before the day of reckoning.  i utter the cry of a repentant man.  guilt reddens my face.  spare me with your mercy, oh god.  you who has redeemed all others and called out to the lowly, you have given me hope.  my prayers are not worthy, but your mercy and goodness decree that i will not burn in everlasting fire.  place me among your sheep and separate me from the goats, setting me on your right hand.)

i see this as a sort of internal conversation between taric and the protector, during the time that he was being imbued with its powers. taric begs for forgiveness, and repents for his actions that lead to the death of many innocent men. the protector - the force that taric has been praying to - has begun to set him upon the path of redemption and salvation.  

6 . CONFUTATIS

Confutatis maledictis Flammis acribus addictis, Voca me cum benedictis.  Oro supplex et acclinis, Cor contritum quasi cinis, Gere curam mei finis.

(when the guilty have been purged and given over to the flames, call me with the blessed. i pray in supplication on my knees, my heart heavy with guilt, safeguard my fate.)

taric sees what the world will come to without his intervention; one where the void has taken over, and slaughtered the people of the land. seeing this, he vows to fulfill his duty as the protector, even if he is not entirely sure of what his duties are. the protector’s powers have brought a dead man back to the brink, yet they can take away that gift just as easily; when his duty is done, taric will succumb to the fate that the gods have put off.  when the void’s corruption has been purged, he shall be called to the mountain to die; his fate has been sealed. 

7 . LACRYMOSA

Lacrimosa dies ilia Qua resurget ex favilla Judicandus homo reus.  Huic ergo parce, Deus, Pie Jesu Domine, Dona eis requiem.

(my tears mourn the day when they rose from the dust, adjudicating mankind. spare them, god,  oh merciful ruler, grant them rest.)

similar to passage 2, this could be a description of the day the void slaughtered his men. once again, he is seeking redemption for his actions, and a peaceful rest for the deceased. this continues on through several parts. 

8 . DOMINE JESU

Domine, Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae, libera animas omniurn fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni, et de prof undo lacu: libera cas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum, sed signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam, quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus. 

(lord jesus christ, merciful king, protect the souls of the deceased from the infernal flames and ravines of hell. remove them from the jaws of the lion. do not let them succumb to the darkness, or be corrupted by the void.  let st. Michael lead them into the light that you had once promised to your spawn.)

see above passages. 

9 . HOSTIAS

Hostias et preces, tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus: tu suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam facimus: fac eas, Domine, de morte Iransire ad vitam, quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus.

(they offer their sacrifice to you, of both prayer and praise. receive it for those souls who we commemorate today. Allow them, my lord, to cross from death into the life which you had once promised to man and his seed.)

see above passages. 

10 . SANCTUS

Sanctus. Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth! Pleni suni coeli et terra gloria tua.  Osanna in excelsis.

(holy, holy, holy, my lord, god of sabaoth. heaven and earth are full of your light. hosanna in the highest.)

for this verse and the next, i feel as though taric would be coming to terms with his newfound goals and aspirations; he can redeem this world, and protect others from the cruel grasp of fate - he can bring forth light into the void’s corruption. 

11 . BENEDICTUS

Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Osanna in excelsis. 

(blessed are the harbingers of his word hosanna in the highest.)

see above passage. 

12 . AGNUS DEI

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem.  Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem sempiternam. Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis mis in aeternum, quia pius es.  Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis, cum sanetis tuis in aeternum, quia plus es.

(lamb of god, who banishes the shadows, grant them rest.  lamb of god, who banishes the sinners, grant them everlasting rest and eternal light, alongside your saints forever, as you are merciful. grant them eternal peace alongside your saints  and your mercy, forever.)

for one last time, taric wishes for his allies’ safe passage into the afterlife. perhaps, at this point, the savior he is talking about is himself; he now has the power and the motivation to truly avenge the fallen. 

[hanzajesthanza]

that last chapter though

[hanzajesthanza]

if you introduce a cool girl character in the last book or in the second-to-last book, right before the story ends… you better believe. i will love that cool girl

[hanzajesthanza]

contextless spoilers for the hussite trilogy (one spoiler per book)

[hanzajesthanza]

alright then

can we just

[hanzajesthanza]

this is how lady of the lake chapter 9 went, right?

[hanzajesthanza]

if i thought the witcher was painfully realistic. i was wrong. it is a very clear fairytale that comforts and soothes. even in its realistic take on the genre, it inspires, even in its tragedy, it comforts.

evil is defeated epically in a final battle in the darkness, the valiant heroes fall together, the lovers die united, and all pass into legend and are remembered for ever and ever. and the spirit of our hero returns now and again to save and deliver us from evil… they become legend and in that legend they are immortal…