Here are some more excerpts from The Gods Project manual, which I've been reading in preparation for my (possible) upcoming freelance job where (if I get/take the job) I will be interviewing people who claim to have seen "glowing figures" that may or may not be "gods." (For more information, search #gods on this website). Pictures are from the unfolding spring in Fort Tryon Park, which maybe represents another kind of immortality.
"It's true that people sometimes see things because they want to see things. We all have vivid imaginations. We all have dreams. But sometimes what they see might seem like a dream but is actually real. I always think of how Watson or Crick -- I forget which one, but whatever, it doesn't matter for my purposes here -- had a dream about the double helix before they actually discovered it. Seriously, I think about that at least once a week and it never ceases to amaze. There's no reason to think that was a one-time occurrence, either. The unconscious -- both collective and individual -- is far more powerful than we give it credit for, mostly because we haven't figured out a way to quantify it. You can't put it into a spreadsheet or an equation, so there's a sense among certain factions that it doesn't exist."
"The other thing you have to remember is that not everyone is capable of seeing the same things. It's possible that 99.99 percent of the world is effectively 'colorblind' when it comes to seeing these sorts of beings -- and their glow -- but for that .01 percent, I'm sure it's quite a different story."
"It's also possible that these people might only be able to see things under certain very specific conditions. This might be light or temperature or even humidity. There are a lot of variables."
"So to say there's no 'proof' doesn't really mean anything yet. It never hurts to be skeptical, but whenever someone claims these these sorts of things are 'impossible,' I just sort of shrug. I never argue anymore, because that's a waste of time, but I can still shrug."
"In this respect, I would say these 'gods' sort of are like 'aliens' or extra-terrestrial life or whatever you want to call it. Obviously we don't have any proof that such things exist, but the universe is a pretty big place, so who's to say?"
"And not only is the universe incomprehensibly large (and barely understood), but you could say pretty much the same thing about life on earth."
"I also like to put a number on it. For example, let's say that it's theoretically possible to know 100 percent about the different life forms and kinds of matter and whatever else you want to throw into the mix of what's commonly known as 'science'. So if 100 is the maximum, the number that would put us as a species as something as close as possible to 'all knowing,' then where do you think we are today?"
"Are we even at 1 out of 100?"
"Sometimes I think we've even lost some ground. I mean, not when it comes to molecular biology or some of the things they're doing with weapons, but when you look at some of what those ancient civilizations were doing, we still don't understand everything."
"And what about mass extinction? Don't you think it's possible that earlier cultures had a better understanding of nature simply by virtue of the fact that some of the plants and animals they lived with were still around?"
"Maybe they couldn't have explained why something worked -- like chewing a plant or what have you -- at a molecular or genetic level, but they might have been able to say that something did, in fact, help you get better when you got sick."
"And just to be clear, I'm the opposite of a 'tree hugger' or a Luddite, or maybe not exactly the opposite, but you know what I'm saying. I believe in building and cities and other objectively great feats of humanity. I think art is 'essential.' Not all of it, of course, but here and there I come across something that makes me feel a little less 'alone' and I'm like 'I'm glad I'm not the only one.' At the same time, Nature is the greatest artist this planet has ever known by far, so I can't get too worked up about someone's novel or painting or whatever. I'll take an hour in front of a wide river over a book any day of the week. Still, I like to be entertained once in a while, and I'm often awestruck by what science and technology and medicine can do these days. I take antibiotics on occasion and I can't really imagine an existence without them. Ditto with other drugs that are used to treat all sorts of things. It's really pretty miraculous by almost any measure."
"But it doesn't mean that we're still not a 1 out of 100, or that we haven't lost some pretty important things along the way, things that -- if we had maybe been a little more careful -- we might still have."
"I get that societies -- especially younger ones, like you find in the United States -- have a difficult time collectively looking back and saying 'you know what we fucked it up pretty bad and we need to think hard about how we're going to do things better now.' In this country, it's usually just us saying 'we're the best fucking thing that ever happened and the only reason we're not even better is because some assholes tried to stop us from doing what we wanted.' And maybe we have been great in a lot of respects, but it doesn't mean we haven't -- you know -- contributed more to global warming than anyone else, or sold more guns, or done a lot of other stuff that, if we weren't such pigheads, might lead a person with the same kinds of problems to be like 'yeah, it's time to unfuck it up a little'. But that's never been how we've operated."
"Which is very long way of saying that maybe we need to open our eyes, which I know sounds like a political slogan -- and not a very good one, either -- but it's still true."
"And by 'open our eyes' I mean in both directions, meaning the future and the past. And by the past, I don't mean the nineties, I mean we need to think about five or ten thousand years ago just as much as we need to think about five or ten years ago."
"Because there might be clues in the past regarding these so-called 'gods' and where they used to live, and where and why they're coming back, and why only some people can see them. Let's not just write them all off as 'insane,' but let's not just round them up and study them like a bunch of lab rats, either."
"I'm sorry if I couldn't be of more use, because -- like I said -- I haven't seen anything. But that doesn't mean I don't believe in the possibility, and the desire to know more. Let's study it, but in a respectful, sustainable manner. Look for the gods. Unfuck it up."
"Unfuck it up." -- Clio
« Eyewitness Account from Oslo Park (The Gods Project) | Main | More Excerpts from The Gods Manual and More Pictures of Fort Tryon Park »
03/27/2016
ORDER HERE
A RADICAL NEW MYTH ABOUT SEX, FAITH, AND THOSE OF US WHO WILL NEVER DIE
A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an uorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet inspired satire—#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world. With each turn of the page, #gods will leave you increasingly reborn.
Praise for #gods
“#gods is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory—and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature—it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance.” —Mark Doten, author of The Infernal
“Matthew Gallaway’s #gods is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn’t stop writing OMG WTF I <3 THIS SO MUCH in its margins. It’s rare to find a novel that so dazzlingly reinvigorates age-old meditations on faith and f&!*ing, art and eros. Luminous, enterprising, and sublimely cheeky, #gods tells the story, the myth, the dream of the human soul in all its glorious complexity.” —Suzanne Morrison, author of Yoga Bitch
“Matthew Gallaway’s storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry.” —Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
“If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #gods is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming.” —Jacob Bacharach, author of The Bend of the World
'It’s to the credit of Matthew Gallaway’s enchanting, often funny first novel that it doesn’t require a corresponding degree of obsession from readers, but may leave them similarly transported: the book is so well written — there’s hardly a lazy sentence here — and filled with such memorable lead and supporting players that it quickly absorbs you into its worlds.'
-- The New York Times
Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine
Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.
Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past
Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.
Video: The Chaos Detective
The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.