O Lord Let Him Fall

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

O Lord Let Him Fall

1.) A story is told of Malaclypse the Elder, during the time of his ministry to the feral pigeons.

2.) In his wanderings Malaclypse encountered a disciple of Greyface.

3.) The grayfaced disciple had gathered a great crowd before him and declared that he would rise above mankind's base and animal nature.

4.) He prayed to the Leviathan and immediately he began to ascend into the heavens.

5.) Seeing this the assembled crowd began to cheer and to pay homage unto the sorcerer and to the Leviathan and to Grayface as the sorcerer ascended beyond their sight.

6.) But Malaclypse was wary,

7.) He departed from the crowd and retrieved his spyglass that he might still observe this apostle of Grayface.

8.) And behold, as the disciple of Greyface rose, frost appeared upon his body and his confidence did visibly falter

9.) Higher still and the disciple of Greyface did panic,

10.) For ice had encased his body and his breathing become laborious.

11.) At last, the life passed from the sorceror, for there was naught to sustain him in the void

12.) and he fell towards the Earth in a ball of fire.

12b) and the sorceror's followers did rejoice, for they took the shooting star to be a sign from the Leviathan and beheld not its source

14.) And as the ash rained down, Malaclypse considered that the sorcerer did fulfill his promise

15.) Not as he intended but in a way in which such a prediction may come actually to pass.

[Placid Dingo]

It reads well, but when you stop to think about it, there's not a lot of depth to the moral. That said, it's short and punchy, and I like the Rationalisty-Atheisty tone.

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

It reads well, but when you stop to think about it, there's not a lot of depth to the moral.

Originally it was supposed to end at verse 12B, but then I realized that after being reduced to ash he wouldn't be an animal anymore.

(BTW, did you get that the reference to the disciple of Greyface praying to the Leviathan was a reference to Thomas Hobbes' arguments (in his book "Leviathan") for strong government to pull mankind from a state of nature into a state of civilization, that Malaclypse's "ministry to the feral pigeons" is a reference to a number of anecdotes about Saint Francis preaching to birds, and that the entire story (including the title) was loosely based on chapter 32 of the apocryphal Book of The Acts of Peter)

[Placid Dingo]

I wasnt familiar with any of those. Should I have encountered some of them in the bible?

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

I wasnt familiar with any of those. Should I have encountered some of them in the bible?

No. The closest thing to a biblical reference was the reference to the Acts of Peter, which I'm pretty sure isn't considered canonical by any Christian denomination. (Well, that and the fact that the "Leviathan" that is made reference to is about a 50/50 mix of the demonic sea monster from the Book of Job (also Isiah) on one hand and a metaphor for an ordered society on the other)

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

On a related note, Hobbes has handed me too good of a metaphor for The Conspiracy to not do more with it. I'm also working on a piece describing a grotesque parody of the frontispiece from Leviathan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_%28book%29#Frontispiece) in the sort of language typical of Ezekiel 1-2, Job 34, and most of the Book of Revelations.

Here's what I have so far:

.) And I beheld a great form rising from the sea
.) And the shape of the beast was like unto Dagon, the Lord of All the Philistines
.) But the make of the beast was like unto a fungus
.) And its rhizomes were composed of human beings, fused together, the anus of the one unto the mouth of the next
.) And these were lashed together with chains of steel and sewn together with wires of gold.
.) And those beneath the sea drowned not, for the blessing of the Lord of Innsmouth sustaineth the philistines
.) The right hand of the great Leviathan holdeth the fasces
.) And in the left hand it holdeth [negative replacement for the Crosier; a sacrificial dagger perhaps? Or some sort of inquisitorial staff of office?]