Here is Chris's suggestion for a synopsis:
"The Soul Beast is a whole bunch of words that lead up to a single, devastating conclusion: some dude gets his testicles cut off.
F'in A, man. His freakin' balls.
There's also some sex and whipping and murder & stuff. So you should read it. I mean, I did."
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Summary of The Soul Beast
I've written a summary of my novel which I think I will send around to publishers. Does it make you want to read it?
Aurilanus is an adolescent girl of the aristocracy whose birth mother, Criona, was executed during her daughter's childhood on charges of witchcraft. When Aurilanus's curiosity into her mother's death leads her to uncover a religious text once in Criona's possession, Aurilanus decides to keep and read the book, becoming attracted by its ideas. Upon her father's discovery of this, Aurilanus is sent away to a temple where her stepmother spent her formative years. At the temple, Aurilanus uncovers the connections between her mother's past, her father's plans for secession from the empire, and her stepmother's recent murder. As the plot is uncovered, Aurilanus feels an increasing dependency upon the source of the majority of her information, the fearsome, yet seductive, superior of the temple, Seraphina. Seraphina is also the leader of the cult which ensnared Criona, but Seraphina twists information so that Aurilanus is unable to see their responsibility in her mother's death. What is more, Seraphina fosters in Aurilanus mistrust of her father, and through desire and logic, she convinces Aurilanus to join with her. Aurilanus is groomed as the cult's messiah, and as she carries out their murderous agenda, she is able to mitigate her guilt by way of a feeling of impotency in her own fate. It is only through the efforts of unlikely friends that she is given the clarity to see that she has choices, and though this knowledge increases her sense of guilt to a nearly unbearable level, she does finally take responsibility for her actions, and chooses to make reparations rather than continue on her destructive path.
The Soul Beast is a 122,151 word fantasy of epic scope, with a decidedly Gothic feel. While its vistas reach from the snowy mountain peaks of Seraphina's temple, to the harsh desert surrounding the empire's capital, the novel maintains a constricting tension as Aurilanus is lead through its increasingly dark narrative, one which brings the adult Aurilanus finally face-to-face with Seraphina's master and the Devil himself. While its primary theme is on temptation and choice, in its explanations of the religion of the Coronites and the cult of the Chaotics, the novel also explores the foundation of religion, and religion's interface with spirituality.
Aurilanus is an adolescent girl of the aristocracy whose birth mother, Criona, was executed during her daughter's childhood on charges of witchcraft. When Aurilanus's curiosity into her mother's death leads her to uncover a religious text once in Criona's possession, Aurilanus decides to keep and read the book, becoming attracted by its ideas. Upon her father's discovery of this, Aurilanus is sent away to a temple where her stepmother spent her formative years. At the temple, Aurilanus uncovers the connections between her mother's past, her father's plans for secession from the empire, and her stepmother's recent murder. As the plot is uncovered, Aurilanus feels an increasing dependency upon the source of the majority of her information, the fearsome, yet seductive, superior of the temple, Seraphina. Seraphina is also the leader of the cult which ensnared Criona, but Seraphina twists information so that Aurilanus is unable to see their responsibility in her mother's death. What is more, Seraphina fosters in Aurilanus mistrust of her father, and through desire and logic, she convinces Aurilanus to join with her. Aurilanus is groomed as the cult's messiah, and as she carries out their murderous agenda, she is able to mitigate her guilt by way of a feeling of impotency in her own fate. It is only through the efforts of unlikely friends that she is given the clarity to see that she has choices, and though this knowledge increases her sense of guilt to a nearly unbearable level, she does finally take responsibility for her actions, and chooses to make reparations rather than continue on her destructive path.
The Soul Beast is a 122,151 word fantasy of epic scope, with a decidedly Gothic feel. While its vistas reach from the snowy mountain peaks of Seraphina's temple, to the harsh desert surrounding the empire's capital, the novel maintains a constricting tension as Aurilanus is lead through its increasingly dark narrative, one which brings the adult Aurilanus finally face-to-face with Seraphina's master and the Devil himself. While its primary theme is on temptation and choice, in its explanations of the religion of the Coronites and the cult of the Chaotics, the novel also explores the foundation of religion, and religion's interface with spirituality.
Monday, April 13, 2009
A Few Thoughts on Ragnarok.
In the Norse prophecy of Ragnarok, the gods and all of humankind expire, the world drowns in fire and ice, and even the sun and moon will have been swallowed by Fenris. However, after the fires cool, the sun's daughter will take her mother's place and, born from Lif (Life) and Leifthrasir (Life-Yearner) two humans who hid away in a cave, new life will repopulate the Earth. (See the “Lay of Vafthrudnir”, and its summary in the “Gylfaginning”).
In Wagner's Gotterdammerung, he places Ragnarok in the context of the saga of Sigurd and the early Germanic people. In the opera, humanity doesn't die, but only the gods and all influence of the gods on earth, including Siegfried (Sigurd), whom he styles as the last of the Volsungs. This is significantly different from the legend, and, in fact, Wagner's vision before he began writing the opera, but it does still in corporate the idea of the rebirth in a modified form. Now, the gods dieing allows for men to live in a world free from their influence. And this allows the men to become gods themselves. In the absence of deities, they are now held self-accountable, man is finally responsible for his fate and there is much rejoicing. Think of this in the context of the world at the time. Nietzsche says God is dead (see, The Gay Science), and he tells us to mourn it (requiem aeternam deo), but Wagner says, delight, for only now can you reach your full potential.
Wagner, uses Ragnarok as a social allegory rather than a religious one. However, other writers are fascinated by it just the way it is. Among these are Tolkien, whose Middle Earth (Midgard) books actually take place on our earth in the distant past, with Ragnarok happening long after the events of his novels, yet still before modern times. Tolkien's overall timeline can be better examined in C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, which shows God has this sort of rebirth happen time and again throughout the cosmos. The final book of that series, That Hideous Strength, takes place on Earth and references Numenor, Tolkien's Atlantis. (Incidentally, Lewis mentions that Merlin is that continent's last survivor, leading me to suspect, that, perhaps, Merlin and Gandalf were, at least at one time meant to be one in the same. Though Tolkien's essay on the Istari in Unfinished Tales doesn't mention Numenor in the context of Gandalf, so perhaps he changed his mind, or I am reading to much into it, or else it is simply meant to be vague.) The point being we see that Tolkien interprets Ragnarok not as a prophecy but as something that has already happened, and that we are the descendants of Lif and Leifthrasir (Noah and his wife).
In Wagner's Gotterdammerung, he places Ragnarok in the context of the saga of Sigurd and the early Germanic people. In the opera, humanity doesn't die, but only the gods and all influence of the gods on earth, including Siegfried (Sigurd), whom he styles as the last of the Volsungs. This is significantly different from the legend, and, in fact, Wagner's vision before he began writing the opera, but it does still in corporate the idea of the rebirth in a modified form. Now, the gods dieing allows for men to live in a world free from their influence. And this allows the men to become gods themselves. In the absence of deities, they are now held self-accountable, man is finally responsible for his fate and there is much rejoicing. Think of this in the context of the world at the time. Nietzsche says God is dead (see, The Gay Science), and he tells us to mourn it (requiem aeternam deo), but Wagner says, delight, for only now can you reach your full potential.
Wagner, uses Ragnarok as a social allegory rather than a religious one. However, other writers are fascinated by it just the way it is. Among these are Tolkien, whose Middle Earth (Midgard) books actually take place on our earth in the distant past, with Ragnarok happening long after the events of his novels, yet still before modern times. Tolkien's overall timeline can be better examined in C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, which shows God has this sort of rebirth happen time and again throughout the cosmos. The final book of that series, That Hideous Strength, takes place on Earth and references Numenor, Tolkien's Atlantis. (Incidentally, Lewis mentions that Merlin is that continent's last survivor, leading me to suspect, that, perhaps, Merlin and Gandalf were, at least at one time meant to be one in the same. Though Tolkien's essay on the Istari in Unfinished Tales doesn't mention Numenor in the context of Gandalf, so perhaps he changed his mind, or I am reading to much into it, or else it is simply meant to be vague.) The point being we see that Tolkien interprets Ragnarok not as a prophecy but as something that has already happened, and that we are the descendants of Lif and Leifthrasir (Noah and his wife).
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