Starting
today, and for twelve weekdays in all, I will blog a novella; “The City’s True
Name”, a dream-quest starring Sogwa, my daughter’s old favorite cat-doll. (We
now have real cats.)
********
The
City’s True Name
A Dream-Quest
by
Nathaniel Hellerstein
(c)
NH 5/26/06
Table
of Contents
Darkness Invisible
1
No, Sogwa 2
The Clock Damon
5
Go To Hellen
9
State Of The Universe 12
A Cat May Look At A King 17
Up To Mischief 20
Don’t Panic 24
A Miracle 26
Surf The Sky 27
Mount Auburn 29
The City That Only Kids
Can See 31
Song
credit: “Reason To Believe”, (c) Tim Hardin, 1988
This
book is dedicated
to
Hannah
as
a Warning
an
Explanation
and
a Promise
Darkness
Invisible
Once
upon a time, a dark cloud eclipsed Heaven and overshadowed Earth. The dark
cloud’s name was Gop the Image. Gop darkened, not the eye, but the mind; Gop
dimmed, not the vision, but the spirit. The sky stayed blue, but the people’s
mood turned black. The people looked to
Heaven for the holy light, but they saw only Gop, who stood in the way.
Gop
broke everything he touched and benighted everything he saw. Ignorance and
confusion reigned under his command, and by his example. Gop offered the world
nothing but fear; nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror; the fear of fear
itself. That was all he gave because that was all he had; for Gop the Image was
a counterfeit of divinity.
I
need not describe Gop to you, for you have often seen his graven image. Nor
need I report his ways and views; for many say they speak for him. Nor need I
mention his aliases and titles. You have already heard plenty of those.
In
fact he was none of those people and none of those things. Gop the Image was
not the One, though Gop said he was; nor was he Cosmic Unity, First Cause,
Lawgiver nor Redeemer. Gop the Image neither created nor ruled the
universe. He was not infinite in wisdom,
nor in compassion, nor even in power, even though he said he was.
But
though Gop was not in truth whom he claimed to be, still some people believed
in him, and that was enough for Gop. He cared not at all for truth, only for
what people believed. He strove to resemble what people desired; for he was Gop
the Image.
Gop
did not know, and he did not know that he did not know. In his pride, he
thought himself never to blame, nor ever mistaken; to him, it was always others
who sinned and failed. He never listened, he never learned, he only acted, and
others paid the price.
Gop
knew no limits. He thought himself above the law; his decrees defied logic,
decency, and reality. Gop the Image sinned against truth; thus he benighted the
world.
In
the night of the world soul, reason slept, and the sleep of reason brought
forth monsters. Horrors beyond imagination came true, and not because horror
was any greater, but because imagination was so much smaller.
The
children of light stumbled, while the children of darkness strode boldly. In
broad daylight, before witnesses, men committed crimes that formerly they would
not have dared to do at midnight in a closet; for the witnesses, blind within,
saw nothing.
All
of that was creepy, so Sogwa the supercat decided to do something about it.
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