by Iguana Jo

Eleanor sat back under the shade of her white umbrella. The air seemed to hum with the heat. The air seemed to smell of soap and chemicals. How thoroughly people wash in England, she thought, looking at the yellow soap, the green soap, and the pink soap in the chemist’s window.
—Virginia Woolf, The Years, 1937.

by Mystic Lens

The Land of Ultimate Bliss has pools of the seven jewels, filled with the eight waters of merit and virtue. The bottom of each pool is pure, spread over with golden sand. On the four sides are stairs of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and crystal; above are raised pavilions adorned with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, mother- of- pearl, red pearls, and carnelian.

In the pools are lotuses as large as carriage wheels: green colored of green light; yellow colored of yellow light; red colored of red light; white colored of white light; subtly, wonderfully, fragrant and pure. . . .

[I]n that Buddhaland, when the soft wind blows, the rows of jewelled trees and jewelled nets give forth subtle and wonderful sounds, like one hundred thousand kinds of music played at the same time.
—Buddha, The Amitabha Sutra, as translated by Ronald Epstein, 1970.

by magnusfranklin

Through his half- open eyes he saw hands holding flowers — thin hands, fine hands; but hands that belonged to no one. And were they flowers the hands held? Or mountains? Blue mountains with violet shadows? Then petals fell. Pink, yellow, white, with violet shadows, the petals fell. They fall and fall and cover all, he murmured. And there was the stem of a wine- glass; the rim of a plate; and a bowl of water. The hands went on picking up flower after flower; that was a white rose; that was a yellow rose; that was rose with violet valleys in its petals. There they hung, many folded, many coloured, drooping over the rim of the bowl. And petals fell. There they lay, violet and yellow, little shallops, boats on a river. And he was floating, and drifting, in a shallop, in a petal, down a river. . . .
—Virginia Woolf, The Years, 1937.

The Devil’s Trill

Who could count how many musicians have sold their souls for unearthly talent?  The violinist Paganini was rumored to have made such a contract, and the blues guitarist Robert Johnson famously bragged that he had.  We’re by no means suggesting that either the British pop band Thompson Twins or the German soul/electro singer Billie Ray Martin sold their souls for their exquisite musical abilities.  (If we were indeed privy to such diabolical secrets, we’d be all the less likely to whisper them about!)  We merely call your attention to the unconventional personage who accompanied each band on stage.  Wearing a large hat that obscures his face, this archetypal figure in black looked nothing like the rest of the band.  Exuding aloofness and confidence, this maverick appeared to be some sort of "puppet master,” pulling the band’s strings even as he manipulated his own bass or steel guitar.  In the case of Thompson Twins, the mysterious figure even brazenly shape-shifts, his shadow growing larger and smaller as he performs behind a massive screen.  Of course, two different musicians played out the role of the hat-wearing figure in black; while their identities are known, it is the archetype they played out that is in question.

Figure One: the bassist in black (right) looks nothing like the zany members of Thompson Twins in this 1985 Liverpool performance.




Figure Two: The bassist looms over the band.  Here he is seen in enlarged shadow form.




Figure Three: Another view of the mysterious bassist looming over vocalist Tom Bailey.




Figure Four: Shapeshifting from behind a screen, the enigmatic bassist repeatedly changes size.




Figure Five: Behind Billie Ray Martin sits Mr. X, his face always hidden by his incongruous cowboy hat, in this 1995 performance on the "Later With Jools Holland” television program.




Figure Six: What archetype is this mysterious figure playing out, performing a pedal steel guitar in an electronic dance band?

by antmoose

Hecamede now drew up for them a polished table / With blue enamelled feet, and set on it / A bronze basket, and next to it an onion / Grated for their drink, and pale green honey, / And sacred barley meal. Then she set down / A magnificent cup the old man had brought from home, / Studded with gold rivets. It had four handles, / With a pair of golden doves pecking at each, / And a double base beneath. . . . / Into this cup Hecamede, beautiful as a goddess, / Poured Pramnian wine, grated goat cheese into it / With a brazed grater, and sprinkled white barley on top. / She motioned for them to drink.
—Homer, The Iliad, translated by Stanley Lombardo, 1997.

by : Damien

Like a sprawling, misshapen Christmas tree the lights of Sector Twelve General Hospital blazed against the misty backdrop of the stars. From its view- ports shone lights that were yellow and red- orange and soft, liquid green, and others which were a searing actinic blue. There was darkness in places also. Behind these areas of opaque metal plating lay sections wherein the lighting was so viciously incandescent that the eyes of approaching ships' pilots had to be protected from it, or compartments which were so dark and cold that not even the light which filtered in from the stars could be allowed to penetrate to their inhabitants.
—James White, Hospital Station, 1962.