Tulpa as red-herring?

From doktorsleepless

Tulpa as red-herring?

Posted by eschatonic.water on June 20, 2008 at 2:21am

Speculation:

John Reinhart "left Heavenside i search of wisdom," making his way to the Amazon basin, because :: "magic still dwelled there". He was seeking, and presumably found, in the person of Don Bastrardo, instruction/guidance in magick.

But then we have the tale of the tulpa. If John Reinhart created a tulpa for Preston Stoker to arrest - or sent one or more tulpas out into the world prior to being arrested by Preston Stoker - then he was already practicing advanced magick before "he" left Heavenside. The tulpa story may be a ruse; what if Reinhart "merely" found a way to create one or more mature clones himself and to transmit his memories and thoughts into it/them? Our first glimpse into Dok's lab (Issue #1) reveals what looks like a slightly-decomposed-or-perhaps-mutated human body in a large glass container. (It's possible this might just be part of the Doktor's Mad Scientist "set dressing".) And we've seen at least one Grinder with telepathic abilities (Issue #3).

Or, a possibly more mundane answer - one which explains why John has seemed to be a different person at different times, even to those who knew and loved him: Maybe "John" has never been one person, but a set of identical siblings (quadruplets?) who share(d) a common identity: Doktor Sleepless himself, the John Reinhart languishing in Room 23 of the St. Thomas Institute, "[t]he John Reinhart who died in a hotel room in Hamburg," and possibly one we haven't yet encountered,

"[t]he one who never actually went to the Amazon at all".

In any case, it seems that Doktor Sleepless and the John Reinhart in St. Thomas's, at least, can communicate on some level; while talking to Preston Stoker, Dok refers to the tale of Alexandra David-Neel and her tulpa the monk, as though he was aware in advance that Stoker had the necessary frame-of-reference.

Reply by Mike Hills on June 20, 2008 at 11:32am

very interesting.. i do like the idea of JR/DS being some sort of synchronized group mind, with multiple independent instances.. i like that A LOT

(could this tie into the "important junk" DS has in his head?)

this would also make the Shrieky Girls just a primitive prototype, yes?

Reply by Spiraltwist on June 20, 2008 at 9:24pm

If John Reinhart created a tulpa for Preston Stoker to arrest - or sent one or more tulpas out into the world prior to being arrested by Preston Stoker - then he was already practicing advanced magick before "he" left Heavenside. The tulpa story may be a ruse; what if Reinhart "merely" found a way to create one or more mature clones himself and to transmit his memories and thoughts into it/them? Our first glimpse into Dok's lab (Issue #1) reveals what looks like a slightly-decomposed-or-perhaps-mutated human body in a large glass container. (It's possible this might just be part of the Doktor's Mad Scientist "set dressing".) And we've seen at least one Grinder with telepathic abilities (Issue #3).

Interesting idea. I've always been intrigued by the bodies behind him, in the vertical tube, (as you have stated) in this cover

I don't think they are decomposing though - just the opposite.

What if they are being grown?

eschatonic.water Permalink Reply by eschatonic.water on June 21, 2008 at 7:18am

What if they are being grown?

That's kinda what I was hinting at, with my cloning theory. I only said they looked slightly-decomposed-or-perhaps-mutated.

I hadn't seen this cover before; except for Issue #4, all of mine have had the wrap-around covers. Given what's shown on those (whimsical touches like a "small-crawler-esque" critter reading a science manual, a rat with a lightbulb in its back and a plug at the end of its tail, Nurse Igor [twice] as a Bride-of-Frankenstein project), I've sort of written the covers off as sources of clues.

Reply by Spiraltwist on June 21, 2008 at 3:44pm

I only said they looked slightly-decomposed-or-perhaps-mutated.

Sorry, the brain and the eyes must not have connected properly. My apologies.

I've sort of written the covers off as sources of clues.

I wouldn't. Ellis has said that there are clues in the covers (and I can't remember where I read that, or else I would link to it). I don't think he would leave the covers totally up to the artists - they are designed to show a scene for a reason, we just need to figure the reason out.

Check out all the covers here. I'm pretty anal about getting them up, and I ask the folks at Avatar to post them, if they are not in their flickr stream.

Reply by Ian 'Cat' Vincent on June 22, 2008 at 11:26pm

I seem to recall Warren also saying the alternate covers should not be considered as canon - but of course that doesn't preclude the idea of them containing clues.

As for your central thesis... oh yeah. Very possible. Especially the whole tulpa-tale as misdirection.

Return to Secret Speculation IV.