Annotations : Woman Of Mass Destruction

So, the first couple of pieces are up and digging for something to write about while we wait for next weekend, when we get the next chapter, I thought again about the annotations I used to put together. These are a sort of a DVD extra, alternate ending kind of deal; I've redacted a couple of spoilers here and there so we don't ruin the whole arc plot inthe first couple of weeks, but otherwise, this is exactly as it was at the time. I don't necessarily agree with half the ideas in here now, and I'm not sure where most of the plot threads were leading, but they're an interesting glimpse into the mind of the writer a day or so after the chapter itself was finished. What's most interesting to me is the stuff that I only pulled out on reading the finished chapter, the stuff I included in the writing without even realising it was there....

Obviously, MB think’s he’s Galactus at the start here, with FM as his Silver Surfer. He’s part Spider Jerusalem, part HST in this episode, raving and staggering like a king hell acid fiend. The dress, qat and Allah references all place us somewhere in the Arab states.
Pictures Of Lilly – The Who. A young man obsessing over a dead woman – Foreshadowing later moments, or telling us something now about FM? Also, John C Lilly was a contemporary of Leary who wrote the classic texts on isolation tanks and ketamine use. He also wrote a lot on the possible communication between human and dolphin, which may also turn up in later stories. Ketamine is often used as a battlefield tranquiliser, especially in developing nations, so its purchase here is in keeping with current usage.
Poppy field – opiates are still a major source of income in the Afghan mountain towns.
Dotar – an Afghan stringed instrument usually played at weddings. Afghan folk/classical music has no tradition of mourning/funerary music, so the use here suggests that the things in the station have taken part in a marriage of sorts, though clearly less than happy.
Dari – again, the predominant language in the Afghan mountains.
I am travel weary… This paraphrases a poem by Jami, a 13th century Sufi mystic poet. Basically, a traveller arrives in a teeming city and wonders how he’ll recognise himself in the morning. He ties a pumpkin to his ankle, but when he wakes, a beggar has stolen it and tied it to their own leg. The wanderer exclaims, if I’m me, who are you, and if you’re me, then who am I? Much Sufi poetry deals with the impermanence of identity, with the idea that we’re all part of the deity, so arbitrary distinctions such as you, me, us and them are illusory. We are all part of the greater being, like the thing in the station. That could mean that FM and MB are part of a greater whole, or that FM kills god, depending on your point of view here.
The Beloved is all that lives… A line from the multi-volume epic poem written by Rumi, another Sufi poet from the 15th century, widely regarded as the Persian Qu’ran (it does have a name, but I can neither recall nor pronounce it…). Again, the lover is revealed as simply an extension of the divine, with all love truly owing to the creator. But is FM referring to the man or herself here?
The scene of MB writing FM’s true name in the sand – This is another steal from the Jami poem referenced above. A young man writes his lover’s name in the sand again and again, an epic novel which no-one will ever read. The name is as unreal and brief as the lover and the love. The only thing which truly exists is the sand and the wind. This also ties into xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, as well as further foreshadowing a possible death.
The Marrakesh Express – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. The classic song about travelling to the Middle East in search of heavy medicine and enlightenment – Is that what we’ve found here? Also, as with The Who track, this firmly places MB in the late 60s, early 70s.
The latex mask – Just to suggest that the FM who was scarred by the man is NOT the FM who kills him, and also riffing on the old Mission Impossible series, where the super secret agents wore rubber masks to do their dastardly deeds in the name of Nixon’s government.
I’ve also got a back-story for the thing in the station, but whether we’ll ever get to it…

And that's it for now. Check back later and I might get round to introducing our special guest artist / composer. Or not.

Cheers,

Karl

(Originally Published 16/04/09)