![aleph symbol with title UNSONG](http://i.imgur.com/d9LvKMc.png")
But woe unto them that were with him, at the valley gate, and at the University of California at Berkeley.
— kingjamesprogramming.tumblr.com
June 20, 1970
San Francisco
LSD became illegal in California in 1966, two years before the real world got so hallucinatory that it became redundant.
Certain elements missed both developments and continued to experiment sporadically with a substance that was becoming increasingly dangerous. It wasn’t just law enforcement. Ever since the cracks had appeared in the sky, there were scattered reports of weird things happening on psychedelics. The reports from peyote users in Mexico almost strained credibility. Even those unpatriotic enough to doubt the Nixon administration’s ever more strident warnings about drug abuse were starting to take notice.
Not the Merry Pranksters, and not Ken Kesey. He lay on the floor of an unfurnished San Francisco apartment, watching the swirling colors gently distort the malleable plane of the ceiling. Beside him, his friend Paul occasionally glanced up from the book he was reading and fulfilled his promised role of trip-sitter. It was pretty boring. Ken had been lying pretty motionless ever since taking the LSD tab, saying little. Still, the formalities needed to be observed.
The colors began to swirl a little brighter. The pulsing fractals started to expand, simultaneously growing out and gathering in.
When he reached the end of the chapter, Paul gave another cursory glance back at Kesey.
His friend was standing upright. No, not standing. Hovering. He was hovering about a foot about the floor. His face was expressionless. His eyes had lost all features, all signs of pupil and iris, and were radiant silver.
Paul screamed.
“DO NOT BE AFRAID,” said Kesey, but it was not his voice.
“What…what’s going…who…what are…help!”
“DO NOT BE AFRAID,” said Kesey, and it was definitely not his voice. “I AM THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. I BRING YOU ETERNITY. ALL THE WALLS WILL FALL AROUND YOU.”
Paul tried to stand. He took a second to catch his breath. Kesey – the thing in Kesey’s body – seemed content to let him. He just stood there, hovering.
“W…who are you?” asked Paul.
“KNEEL,” said the thing in Kesey’s body.
“But…who…what are you?”
“KNEEL,” said the thing in Kesey’s body, somewhat more forcefully.
Quivering from head to toe, Paul knelt.
What even the crap.
Comet king origin story?
That was my first thought as well.
Thamiel (Devil) origin story, more likely.
Indeed. I was already suspicious when he was explaining why being afraid was not called for, but the kneeling bit fits better with my image of Thamiel so far.
‘course, neither image (of Thamiel or the Comet King) is very sharp at this time…
Well, “be not afraid” is the standard open greeting of pretty much all angelic apparitions, given that they look less like “winged humanoid” or “ladies in nightgowns a la the sentimental 19th imaginings” but more “Lovecraftian cosmic horrors” in reality, so in order to prevent humans from screaming and running away, they have to establish their good intentions from the start.
It doesn’t prevent the screaming but it may prevent the running away before hearing the message 🙂
I think Mikko was precise in their phrasing of “why being afraid was not called for.” Instructions not to be afraid are fine and traditional and all… the more concerning part was the bringing eternity (euphemism for “I’m about to kill you”?) and the walls falling around (euphemism for “I’m about to destroy your civilization”?)
Assaulting Hell was probably the last thing the Comet King did, as it ended terribly, so if he helped to found UNSONG in the late eighties/early nineties, there’s a twenty year gap from this moment for him to come of age and get married and all that. But he was born of Heaven and this does not sound like a being born of Heaven.
Two years, on the other hand, sounds like about enough time for Thamiel to transition from metaphor to reality.
the date is 6/16, too, the less often mentioned Number of the Beast
He wasn’t saying kneel because he demanded obedience, he was saying kneel because in bringing the walls down, bits of brick and mortar will be flying dangerously around head height. The command to kneel was obviously for his own safety!
Ah, the Indiana Jones hypothesis!
Exactly. When the possessing (or obsessing, there is a technical distinction) spirit commanded Paul to kneel, that’s a big flashing light that this is not an angelic being – well, yes, technically was angelic but is now fallen.
See Revelation 19:10 and 22: 8-9 where St John is speaking with one of the seven angels which have the seven vials to pour out the seven plagues:
Also see Chesterton, “The Ball and the Cross”:
Oh! this is good.
1. The “Right Hand of God” suggests the sefirah Gevurah, and therefore the archangels Camael or Samael, both of whom are sort of ambiguous figures. According to most of the lore, they are satans in the Jewish sense: loyal servants of God who are tasked with testing humans. Samael in particular might tell you to “KNEEL” and then if you actually did it he’d be all “HAHA! DUMBASS.”
This is also quite different from Thamiel, who is broken and legitimately Bad News. It’d be sort of weird for him to call himself the Right Hand of God, though.
2. On the other, uh, hand, “Right Hand of God” might also suggest Jesus, e.g. Matthew 26:64: “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” I assume from a Christian perspective it’d be perfectly appropriate to kneel before Jesus?
(To clarify: according to the version I’ve read, Thamiel’s deal is that he’s convinced he is God.)
Why would Samael tell you to KNEEL and then laugh and call you a dumbass? Is it because he tricked you into committing idolatry? That’s like, entrapment, man.
It may or may not be relevant that in the Vertigo Lucifer comics (which are quite different to the TV show) Lucifer was originally Samael. Not sure how well-founded that is but IIRC it was Neil Gaiman who first wrote that and he usually seems to know his stuff…
This really had better have some connection to the rest of the plot at some point.
No, I just randomly write things with no importance whatsoever. Next week it’s going to be ten thousand words about airplane landing gear.
My sarcasm detector doesn’t work very well, but it still caught that.
The really excellent thing is that you could write ten thousand words on airplane landing gear, and it might actually be supremely important.
Also, nothing in your statement says that it wouldn’t be kabbalistic as all get out.
If Mr Alexander is on the spectrum and since those people are notoriously non sarcastic then it is entirely possibly that those 10,000 words are already written
Now you’re just being silly. “No, I just randomly write things with no importance whatsoever” is clearly sarcastic. If someone meant that seriously the wording would have been more like “no, this has little to do with the main plot, that’s why it’s an interlude, silly. I’m just adding depth and backstory and whatnot.”
Also, 10k words is A LOT. Chapter 5 was 11k (just checked) and was a long chapter.
Is this is a “alicorn princess” sort of promise? 😛
I look forward to it!
I now fully expect to have airplane landing gear feature heavily sometime in the next week or so.
Ah, I see: you plan to top Eco’s Kabbalic explanation of cars in Foucault’s Pendulum with one of airplanes!
And if you think we couldn’t make a connection between airplane landing gear and the rest of the story, NormalAnomaly, you underestimate your fellow-readers 🙂
Fixed wing, or helicopter?
So basically you’re just Neal Stevenson?
You realize that now you have to actually write a ten thousand word interlude about airplane landing gear and somehow make it fit into the story.
I suppose you’ve already got a copy of Aircraft Landing Gear Design: Principles and Practices, then.
Can you offer advice on the optional mechanics of cereal-eating?
By the way, we still haven’t seen the essay on airplane landing gear 🙁
I mean, I believe it will, just also it had better. Comet King origin story could be it.
Do not try to guess the intent of the author for his ways are devious and subtle*
* “devious and subtle”? Where have I heard that turn of phrase? Oh, yeah here:
slatestarcodex.com/2015/08/17/the-goddess-of-everything-else-2
This is over a month late, but I can’t help it:
We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,
Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate
He he he
Amusing
You’ve been saving that up all along, haven’t you.
I can’t wait for your explanation of Tet Zayin, istead of yud vuv for indicating 16 when we get up to the 16th Interlude
I really hope that it’s going to involve a dick joke. Please, in the name of Comet King and Thamiel, let it involve a dick joke.
Prediction: The Right Hand of God is called Neil.
Oh I hope you’re right. That’d be amazing.
Oh ffs I misspelled my own damn name, and there’s no edit button.
You must follow in the path of Uriel and hack the server. Or not. If you wait long enough, someone whose browser has bad kerning will call you Glem 🙂
Isn’t that their name, though? Says it right there!
Or Neal as in Cassady — this could be his origin story in the Unsong world.
I believe Cassady was dead before the timelines would have diverged.
I can’t help it, I have to comment… Hindsight proved this to be a good prediction. And a good pun on Scott’s part… 😀
Low key “Universal Love, Said the Cactus Person” reference?!
You know you’re engrossed in a book when you don’t notice that your friend has turned into a levitating, silver-eyed Right Hand of God until the end of the chapter.
This whole interlude sounded like something out of the Laundry series.
Oh. Now I have a crazy fan theory – this is a world similar to one described in the Laundry series, only where CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN already happened… with a biblical twist!
Case Nightmare Fuscia.
You cannot resist the Wave of the Fuschia.
Stop it, I’m already suffering from Fuchsia Shock.
Coincidentally, doesn’t Jesus appear to another man named Paul? While we’re on the subject of the Comet King possibly being the Messiah.
(This is not a coincidence, because … well, you know.)
I absolutely love that King James programming tumblr
Agreed completely. They’re so perfect, especially the one on Chapter 1.
Short and sweet. Once again I want more. Good stuff.
“He was hovering about a foot about the floor.” should be “He was hovering about a foot above the floor.”
Am I the only one vaguely hoping that the Comet King will turn out to be a good-omens style adam-entity?
Heaven born doesn’t rule out hell-conceived.
This shows exactly what I enjoy about your world-building in UNSONG. No matter how much I think I’m getting the hang of this setting, there is another element brought in the surprises, yet fits. I’m actually slightly scared to speculate where this entry leads, and that’s kinda cool.
I also love how this interlude is a shock not just from its contents, brevity, and abrupt ending, but also on a meta level. Given the pattern of ever more time between interludes, seeing a new one was a mild shock to begin with. That set the stage for its content quite effectively.
I’m now desperate to see what happened with Charles Manson…
Paul?
Didn’t they already say the Right Hand of God is Gabriel? The ritual from chapter 8 had the phrase ““On my right hand, Gabriel,” said Clara in the east.”
So, Ken Kesey is the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The book was published in 1962, before the timelines diverged. This must be important, but I don’t see how.
Well, we do have at least some evidence of divergences before then… 🙂
When your name is Paul, then it’s the forms, not the formalities, that must be obeyed. (Though granted, “forms” means “formalities” in that context. Still.)