Brain Wiggles

From doktorsleepless

Doktor Sleepless #8 Brain Wiggles

Posted by Spiraltwist on August 28, 2008 at 1:14pm

The book is out - hopefully everyone is in the process of picking up a copy. Warren has started a thread on Whitechapel, but I wanted to start one here because, frankly, there are more notes and more brains focused on the book.

And since I am very lazy this morning, I'm going to copy and paste what I posted on Whitechapel yesterday. I'll add more to the mix here, versus there, as my brain sorts through the issue.

I'd have the let the Nurse kill Sing.

Cold, I know, but she's a wild card in his plans. No one will believe her right now, but the future is another matter (thinking of Stoker here). What can I say - shrugs - I don't like loose ends.

St. Teresa's eyes as a confirmed bio-weapon is nice, but I think there is more to it.

The city is going to burn itself down. Towards the end, there will be very little Doktor Sleepless should have to actually do....there will be people seeing angels, a disgruntled part of the populace that can now do what it wants (and with out being ID'd for the most part) and the majority of the population are so helpless, caught up in only themselves, they won't even know what hit them, let alone do shit about it.

A seer, huh? A seer has to receive visions/what not. If thier perception of reality has been altered 100% then anything presented to them could be a vision. Unless the eye damage picks up some other connection in their clatter via the grey masks (nice touch, providing Sing a way to make money - kinda like, if they get it, they will come (hate baseball, btw)). No mention of Celia's clatter (if she's still wearing the lenses? - can't remember, need to look that up) doing anything funny, yet. Since clatter can't be turned off by anything conventional (Sing herself is another matter), what better way to give the seers the appropriate visions? At the end of the world, people are going to want answers. They will turn to anyone who might have one, no matter how they might receive them.

Best line: "I walked into this room and saw my parents neural electricity sucked through a door into space by the true owners of the earth". Wanna get religious? Call it their souls. Want a more scientific bent? - energy is energy, and everything has to eat. The food chain is nothing more than an energy chain. Either way, we are food for something else, and humanity can't handle that thought. We are supposed to be the dominant species, we prey on others, not the reverse. Killing the world to deprive something of breakfast tasty human flakes is an excellent answer. That's not madness, it's brilliant!.

Image of his parents being eaten - Awesome!

@m1k3y And St Teresa's Eyes confirmed as a permanently mind-altering, bio-weapon. And a SEER maker? Wow. So will have another addition to the stage next.. um, season? SEERS wandering around the clubs? I wonder if the Shrieky Girls will like that? And what happens if on they combine?

Seer/Shieky Girl combo would be really spooky! Think of it: all receiving the visions as once, announcing what they see to a waiting populace? In unison. With the same gestures. You get the idea.

.........Unless there is something in the Shriekyware that prevents St. Teresa's Eyes from working (which would make them immune, but no offer a cure to others....)?

Still mulling through the issue. This is the random crap that fell from the brain cells right now.

There are a couple of argurments on WC that Doktor Sleepless might be lying about how his parents died. With all the foreshadowing in the previous issues (especially the tentacles), I want to believe he is telling the truth. This time.

What does everyone else think?

Reply by Mike Hills on August 28, 2008 at 5:56pm

I hope the Seers and Shrieky Girls stay separate for a while, just so it enriches the world for a while

ok, and a dance-off would be nice ;)

but srsly, why would the Doktor suddenly start with the truth-telling?

he's a conjuring.. and making triple sure that Sing is afraid of him

yet he also expects her to sell the masks? that bit is curious

add to that the limited edition cover.. is that Sing sitting down to finally read The Darkening Sky?

Reply by John Lenin on August 29, 2008 at 5:19am

I think you might be on to something about the limited edition cover - maybe a glimpse as to how Sing reacts to the whole experience.

Also I was one of the people arguing on WC that you can't be sure what really happened. And I am also feeling lazy so I am going to paste my post as well:

Great issue. Well worth scheduling a fake business meeting so I could read it as soon as Golden Apple Comics opened. Couple of thoughts:

Like Jason a couple of posts up, still not sure what's real and what's not. Doktor sleepless makes his comment about humans being the only creatures to have religion because only they have the imagination to believe in what's not there, but expects Sing to believe in the mythos of The Darkening Sky. As Stoker suggests, maybe the whole story of his parents' deaths is some sort of Post-Traumatic Stress induced fantasy.

Also what's the deal with all the books flying around in the splash page of his parents' deaths? I thought he just found a copy of The Darkening Sky. I guess that's just what he told Sing before, maybe there were a bunch of books but he realized that it was the one they were using and lied to her because it was an easier explanation then "Cthulhu ate my parents". Or I guess they could have gotten sucked up in the energy-draining vortex. I hope they weren't the books that explained how to see the other side without becoming a ten-dimensional being's lunch. That would suck.

I bet the Back Matter would have explained it.

One more thought: Now that Mike's got me looking at the limited edition cover, I think there are some clues in it. Like the "Atmospherics" sign hanging up. I've never read it, but Avatar describes the main character this way:

She's in a hospital. Except it may be a police station. She's been traumatized. Or she's been arrested. She's the only living witness of a cattle-mutilation style attack on humans. Or she's a multiple killer who has a psychotic reaction to heroin use. Who may not survive discovering who she really is

Sound familiar much? Maybe at this point we are not supposed to know what is and isn't reality. Maybe we never are.

And seriously what's the deal with all the books floating around in the scene of his parents' deaths? No thoughts on it on WC yet.

Reply by Mike Hills on August 29, 2008 at 8:00am

you know when i think it will (maybe) all make sense? the very last issue..

until then we'll be on par with Sing, trying to figure out wtf is going on..

WHICH IS HALF THE FUN! :D

also - how the hell did the Dok know the dude was hiding there in the bushes?

does he have perimeter defense systems wired into that-important-junk-in-his-head?!

Reply by Spiraltwist on September 4, 2008 at 2:30pm

does he have perimeter defense systems wired into that-important-junk-in-his-head?!

One explanation, which I like. But here's another: given the odd nature of his guardian (who may or may not be human), maybe they sense one another, ala Highlander? Perhaps Dr. Albert Cannon has to be a certain distance from him to be felt or spotted?

Reply by Spiraltwist on September 4, 2008 at 2:23pm

"Atmospherics" is different thing altogether. I don't think it has anything to do with the book, and was just ad placement for Warren. (yes, I've read it).

And seriously what's the deal with all the books floating around in the scene of his parents' deaths? No thoughts on it on WC yet.

Good question. I chalked it up to the Cthulhu thing created a vortex as it step through, which sent all the books flying. Once it went back through the opening, perhaps everything was set back in place, with the exception of the Darkening Sky because it acted the key to open the door?

Reply by Spiraltwist on September 4, 2008 at 2:17pm

why would the Doktor suddenly start with the truth-telling?

At this point, if he told the truth, who would believe him? :P

is that Sing sitting down to finally read The Darkening Sky?

That's what I think.

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on August 29, 2008 at 5:01pm

Got the new issue an hour ago (bloody English Bank Holiday delayed my local FP delivery!).

Oh my, yes.

I will surely have more to add later - but here's what I get from reading the whole run again before the new issue:

I think DS almost told Sing the whole truth - with one exception.

I don't think he's trying to starve the Elder Gods.

I think he's trying to poison them.

It wouldn't be much revenge just to deprive the EGs of a snack or two. But if he can do something to taint their food in some way, to actually harm them... that would be the best possible vengeance an ant can get. After all, he has access to designer diseases and all kinds of post-Tesla EM tech... all kinds of possibilities there to change our soul-energy.

I still think ending the world is the plan - but possibly more in the sense used in Promethea perhaps? Making humans inedible to the EGs, make them reject us as food, so we can perhaps become more than yummy-treats with egos? Heavenside as an emetic for Cthulhu, make it literally choke on his home town?

My gut also tells me there's more going on with how he's manipulating Sing. Earlier speculations here that he's trying to provoke her/create his opponent spring to mind.

What's the 'special nature' of Hilltop House, I wonder? The residue of his parent's reality-breach, or something more? Maybe something going all the way back to the founding of Heavenside, possibly a connection to long-gone Hellside?

Darkening Sky will have much more importance to come, obviously. Big question there - why reprint and distribute it? Is it just a key, or something more?

Nice to see the backstory re. Stoker. Wondering a lot about what endgame the Nurse wants.

Last thought, based purely on a hunch and the facial resemblance - Is Albert Cannon really an older John Reinhardt? Some kind of timey-wimey thing, where Cannon/Reinhardt has come back to try and avert whatever DS is doing? Very unlikely, but they really do look alike to me!

Reply by Spiraltwist on September 4, 2008 at 2:38pm

I think he's trying to poison them.

This an interesting thought, and a good one.

As for the nature of the house, the fact that is it situated at the top of the hill, overlooking the city gives it an immediate edge. It makes it even easier for Doktor Sleepless to broadcast to the city, and literally gives people a place to look up to. In times of chaos, people like a focal point.

Maybe the people of Hellside were feed to the Cthulhu creature, which is why "they all died"?

I don't think Dr. Albert Cannon is an older Reinhardt.

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on September 4, 2008 at 5:50pm

The Cannon/Reinhardt is a long shot, certainly. (I know you see more of a connection between Cannon and Stoker - time will tell which of us is right. Or maybe we both are. Or...)

I suspect we will find out much more of the nature of Stately Reinhardt Manor as we go along. The focal-point idea could well come into play as chaos descends on Heavenside.

Plus, you know, Evil Mad Scientist Lair.

But I also wouldn't be surprised if we hear some kind of ley-line/lung-meng (or a sufficiently-advanced-technology version) force associated with the house which predates DS's rising, and connects to Hellside.

Reply by Spiraltwist on September 4, 2008 at 7:50pm

The ley-line/lung-meng is a good idea. And every Evil Mad Scientist needs a lair!

It's hard to run ideas any further in my head without more data, aka more issues.

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on August 29, 2008 at 5:36pm

A couple more points, about clothes;

In the big flashback to the parents death this issue, Reinhardt-as-a-boy is clothed - but in all the other single-frame flashbacks elsewhere, he seems to be naked. I don't think this is a mistake, but I have no idea what it means.

Same scene - the parents 'souls' are clothed. This may relate to the standard tradition of 'astral bodies' wearing clothes - but that's supposed to be due to residual memory of the projector. Why would 'neural electricity' have clothing?

Again, seems deliberate and maybe important.

Reply by Spiraltwist on September 4, 2008 at 2:39pm

The clothing or lack there of, has bothered me too. Yes, I think that it's deliberate. It's a big detail and I doubt Warren left it to chance.

Reply by Nathaniel F. Robinson on September 4, 2008 at 10:10am

Having read this issue shortly after finishing Robert Anton Wilson's and Robert Shea's Illuminatus Trilogy - which is also filled with lots of references, bizarre oddities, magic, Lovecraft references and weird science - I came up with an interesting theory.

The Illuminatus novels were an experiment in cognitive dissonance; they were written to make the readers re-evaluate their view of the text every twenty pages or so. Information keeps shifting, conspiracy theories suddenly seem like the only truthful explanation, etc. What if Mr. Ellis is also doing a work in that vein? A different explanation, say, every eight issues?

The links between Illuminatus and Doktor Sleepless are pretty strong. The apocalyptic themes - with the Eschaton and all that - the anarchist ideas, the Cthulhu references, and I think the work is actually referenced once or twice throughout the first eight issues.

Ah, I dunno. Maybe I'm just crazy.

I liked this issue a lot, by the way. Am I the only one who would kill for a real copy of the Darkening Sky?

Reply by Mike Hills on September 4, 2008 at 10:59am

I think you're onto something there for sure!

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on September 4, 2008 at 5:58pm

It's clear that Illuminatus! is part of Warren's influences on the book - and I agree re. the cognitive dissonance possibilities.

Also, the lengths Warren has gone to with the extra stuff (here, Grinding.be, the wiki etc) combined with the didactic elements of the book do make me think he's hoping for a wider effect from the story than just entertainment. Not in a Invisibles-metaspell kind of way (I'm fairly certain Warren isn't a mage, though he writes about us with sympathy and insight), but as a Big Meme Upload, perhaps. He wants, I think, to open some minds - as Shea and Wilson did.

"Am I the only one who would kill for a real copy of the Darkening Sky?"

Well... in theory, sure - but I'm not sure I have enough Sanity Points left to take it!

Reply by Stephanie Wilson on September 4, 2008 at 7:41pm

Sanity is overrated. I'd so read a copy, like right now. :)

Which makes me thing of other things.....

....why isn't the Darkening Sky available as a download or something to that equivalent? This is the future with Clatter and other goodies. Why not spread the work farther? Or it is the physical property of the book that makes it work?

Oh shit. If the book is a key, then didn't keys just get scattered all over the city? That's a lot of possible open doors.

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on September 4, 2008 at 9:14pm

My guess is it's more than a key - though Valen knows that'd be bad enough. I think there's more going on that DS just opening the doors to Heavenside and shouting 'dinner'! Unless that's the endgame - and the poison idea fits that quite well.

Reply by Mike Hills on September 4, 2008 at 11:43pm

Also, the lengths Warren has gone to with the extra stuff (here, Grinding.be, the wiki etc) combined with the didactic elements of the book do make me think he's hoping for a wider effect from the story than just entertainment.

I think this makes an important distinction from 80s cyberpunk. Sterling, Gibson et al looked around and said "this is where the world's heading.. pure dystopia".. and that's pretty much the future we have today.

Warren's saying a similar thing, extrapolating from the present, saying "this is the probable Future", but like the Doktor he's laying the tools to change it all.

At Grinding we're on the mission to find the seeds of that future in the present today. But that allows us the chance to question it as it emerges, examine things and hopefully, thus empowered, head in a better direction.

Cyberpunk was the only compelling narrative of the future, so it was a dystopia we got; it became a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Let's not make that same mistake again...

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on September 4, 2008 at 11:51pm

Yes. Damn, yes!

Especially in regards to the 'laying the tools'. It would be splendid if DS got to be a big enough hit (or at least the memes contained to be distributed widely) so as to enter general cultural consciousness. In the same way the original Matrix pushed concepts into the brains of even the average punter, (though with no shitty sequels). Dream of a world where Joe Bloggs is as aware of Grinding as he was of 'take the Red Pill' in 1999...

Reply by Mike Hills on September 5, 2008 at 12:59am

Dare to dream....

except then you'd mostly like have to water it all down too, to make it more "accessible"..

but yeah, say Fight Club meets The Matrix.. with Furries? that would work, surely?! :P

Reply by John Deppe on September 7, 2008 at 1:15am

Can't kill Sing... He loves her too much for that!

Doktor sees angels, doesn't he? Now everyone else does too. Seems like he's just trying to bring everyone to the same level he's riding on.

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on September 7, 2008 at 8:59am

Sure he could kill Sing - Mad Scientist, remember? 'Hate is all you need...'

I do think DS is trying to bring people up/down/along to something like his level - maybe that's why the distro of Darkening Sky? - but it doesn't answer why seeing the angel freaked him out.

Reply by Spiraltwist on September 9, 2008 at 6:18am

Can't kill Sing... He loves her too much for that!

Maybe. I think he regrets that she doesn't see things his way. In making her the hero, he does sorta ensure she will live long enough to see everything go to hell. (which, thinking about it that way, kinda sucks). Generally, the hero doesn't die until the end of the book.

Usually.

Reply by Jared on September 7, 2008 at 8:26pm

"I'd have the let the Nurse kill Sing. Cold, I know, but she's a wild card in his plans."

This actually gives me an idea--could be a long shot, but it came to mind as I read this part.

What if the Doktor is setting himself up to be the "villain," so that Sing will become the hero?

If I remember correctly, Sing was also trying to "save the world" when John was still around, and she seems to be too central in his plans for her to simply be one of the other pawns (having her store be the source for TDS and the seer masks).

So, what if he's making himself to be a villian that will cause enough people (and specifically Sing) to rise up, defeat Sleepless and, ultimately, the "masters of the world?"

Like I said, long shot, but just throwing the theory out there.

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on September 7, 2008 at 8:28pm

I think we've considered that before here - but that doesn't stop it being a very plausible idea!

Reply by Voyou on September 20, 2008 at 7:01am

What if the Doktor is setting himself up to be the "villain," so that Sing will become the hero?

I was thinking something along those lines - at least, I think he is planning on Sing reacting in some way. The Doktor keeps emphasizing that he is a cartoon Mad Scientist, and wasn't issue #8 largely him doing the old "I will explain my evil scheme to you and then leave you free to thwart it" bit? Presumably that's intentional.

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