the great and secret show

i finished it today. fucking brilliant book. probably clive barkers best work.

the idea basically is that all life and all existence started in the sea called quiddity. quiddity is the sea of dreams and existence, and it resides in between our reality, the chosm, and a negative reality on the opposite side of quiddity, the metachosm. humans visit quiddity three times in their lives: once when they are born, once when they die, and once when they sleep next to the love of their lives. any more exposure and people would go crazy with desire for more more more.

throughout history several people have tried to breach into quiddity and swim on its shores. to get into quiddity though is no easy task. it requires a power that is known as the art. the art is basically knowledge of quiddity and the island ephemeris, wich floats in quiddity. but simply knowing isnt enough. to fully use the art requires a higher level of evolution so to speak. a man called jaffe who knows of the art allies himself with a scientist called fletcher in order to evolve and become an artist. they discover a substance called the nuncio, wich speeds up evolution.

the jaffe wants to use the art to taint quiddity, but fletcher decides to preserve it and stop the jaffe, and they wage a war across america. the jaffe brings peoples fears to life as grotesque monsters called terrata and uses them as his army, and fletcher brings peoples dreams to life for an army of hallucigenia. anyway, they fight across america, but eventually burn out and reside to a cave for 20 years, trying to gather strength.

years later, 4 girls go swimming in a pool formed near the cave entrance, and the jaffe and fletcher emerge and impregnate them. one girl is infertile and is driven insane, one kills herself cause she senses evil in her child, one gives birth to tommy-ray and jo-beth, and one gives birth to howard. when the children are all grown up, the jaffe and fletcher emerge to try and fight through their children and continue the war. until jo-beth and howard fall in love. tommy-ray aligns with the jaffe, and fletcher tries to get through to howard. i wont give away any more than that, but let me just say that is only the start of things.....

i like the whole idea of there being a giant sea of possibilities and dreams stretching past our reality. the visiting three times in your life thing is awsome as well. cant say i remember my first visit. if i get to the third one before the second visit, then il come back as a ghost and tell you if there is quiddity. if not, il write about it.

catchya homie g's later.