the brief
Congratulations!
If you were looking for a good read, you've found it!
Well — okay — you've found it if your idea of a good read is trying to get your mind wrapped around several co-related co-contemporaneous realities all bashing up against each other like bumper cars at the fall fair.
Oh, and throw in a deadly serious discussion of self awareness intertwined with a meandering yet cogent treatise on the quantum nature of the universe.
All of this in a comic vein of course.
Can you get your head around reading that? Now imagine trying to write it! You couldn't, well at least I couldn't.
But I did. Except I didn't write it.
If anything, I was just the stenographer. The book channelled through me, from a deeper universal energy awareness that labels itself as karo. The book literally came into being whole and complete as I wrote. It amazed, surpised, startled and thrilled me at every turn. It was never what I expected it to be next ― starting from the moment I woke up from a dream realizing the book “was going to be a comedy,” to finding the storyline explode 'madly off in all directions' with multiple sub-books and commentaries.
The more I channelled, the clearer it became that this was not your daddy's ZatAoMM by any stretch of the imagination!
Not familiar with that acronym? That's cooltalk for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — the classic novel of obsessive-compulsive mental breakdown from seems so long ago, .
It has very little to do with this book. Except both lead characters are on a motorcycle journey. And both lead characters are dancing on the frayed edges of sanity.
But where one lead character is breaking down, the other lead character is breaking apart.
And sure, both have intermeshing realities and sure both take on deep philosophical QUESTIONS.
But only one of them has a talking motorcycle and a pontificating seagull . . . and only one has a jounalist with a panic disorder . . . and a cross-dressing standup comedian in a Real Wimmin dominated world to set it apart from the other.
And only one of them includes an original karosong.
So it's definitely not your daddy's ZatAoMM. In fact, it's a hoot, a mind-bending comic amalgam that reinvents the novel for the digital age, toys with every rule in the book and plays pretzels with your neurons.
What do the critics think?
Perhaps it's best summed up by that old standby and personal favourite Jon Dough.
If you're not familiar with ancient porcine Latin, that roughly translates as a 'a pile of well-rotted manure'.
Which is actually a really useful substance. So that's high praise indeed!
And I didn't write it. Except I did.
Get your head around that or check out the next tab to see what the excitement's all about, and grab your free epub sample Just the factsimile.
Or just get the hell out of here if you’re going to be like that.
gordon
the poet
The main novel
On the surface, tHe PoEt & i* is the story of a 40 year-old man on a mid-life-crisis, coast-to-coast motorcycle trip who comes to believe he’s a character in a book being written by a no-talent hack.
But look deeper and the novel is a challenging exploration into self-awareness and the spiritual nature of the universe, with side trips into the human psyche, quantum realities and new age blarney.
At the novel's center is the Rider. A character with no face, no description and no true past. A hack writer's plaything he believes. The evidence for this belief? A talking motorcycle, a sentient laptop computer and a — self-proclaimed — spiritual teacher with a penchant for disguise. (Seagulls, roaches, dogs and a bearded southern 'gentleman' are among his favourites.) He's dictating a treatise on self-awareness at the Rider called The Teachings of the Minstrel.
Or perhaps the Rider is just going insane. The evidence for this? Two inter-twining co-related realities that keep intruding on Rider's world.
In Eclectic Kitchen Kitsch — a world dominated by Real Wimmen — an aging soap opera actress goes into standup comedy as a male impersonator. She meets her inner male, on stage and off. Then has to kill him.
And, in the other, Just a coupl'a GoB, a tabloid journalist goes undercover with the Dulsia, the secret cartel of good'ole boys that controls the world-wide trade in dulse, the hallucinogenic seaweed only found in the tidal terrors of the Bay of Fundy. Or a place very similar to Fundy. Perhaps in another reality? Another dimension? No matter.
The 'journo' has a secret. He has a debilitating panic disorder.
It's triggered by water.
If it sounds surreal, it is. At times.
But it all hangs together, in part because of Transformation, the very first karosong. The song's seven parts relate the tale of the me's separation from the we and the we's promise of return. The song (which channelled almost 4 years before the book) provides both the structure and the very largest mytho-poetic themes for the novel.
But tHe PoEt & i* spurns easy categorisation. Beyond the novel’s blending of farce, travelogue and a couple of damn good stories is a tautly-crafted meditation on the intersection of infinity and eternity where the writer's art greets the universal writer. Kind of a Carlos Castaneda meets Robert Pirsig, with Tom Robbins as ghost writer.
The full epub edition of tHe PoEt & i* includes the full text of the novel, plus each of the major stories excerpted and consolidated into novellas.
What's really neat, is that each of the subworks can be read in their intertwining sequence within the full novel, or can be read on their own. See the next tab for more.
Not convinced? There's a free epub sample you can grab, Just the factsimile.
the teachings
The Teachings of the Minstrel
The best spiritual books enlighten with simplicity. In just ten simple dictatums, The Teachings of the Minstrel builds a strikingly powerful vision of the universe as a spiritual playground where “it” — however you envision it, whatever you want to call it — learns to express itself in the here and thou. A playground where “you” reprise your role over and over until you have mastered it.
The dictatums at the heart of the Teachings are about self awareness, understanding the differences between the ego-self and the many different self-layers that extend deep into the universe. Their author — a free-wheeling and irreverent spiritual entity called the Minstrel — claims these dictatums are all that's needed to break free of the ego and achieve spiritual freedom.
But can you trust a shape-shifting entity who variously appears as a seagull, cockroach or southern 'gentleman'?
That's the question the Rider is struggling with. He's the main character in the comic-spiritual adventure novel, tHe PoEt & i*. Rider believes he's a character in a novel being written by a hack writer and that the Minstrel is a badly-written didactic device.
The Teachings are a book within a book and provide the larger novel's metaphysical backbone. They are dictated by the Minstrel at the Rider, as part of his education in self awareness.
As excerpted here, The Teachings of the Minstrel stands on its own, complete and self-contained. However, the Minstrel's words often draw from and relate to the events, characters and thoughts of the stories in the larger novel.
In their turn, the stories there are profoundly shaped by the lessons found in the Minstrel's dictatums and explanations.
While this work can be read on its own, reading it in the flow of the larger novel brings out and adds further layers of meaning to its messages.
The epub edition of The Teachings of the Minstrel includes Just the facstimile , a free outline of the full novel.
kitsch
Eclectic Kitchen Kitsch
On its face, the novella Eclectic Kitchen Kitsch is the story of Abby, an aging soap opera actress in crisis. But her reality is dominated by Real Wimmen and gender roles are strictly enforced; females are the breadwinners, males the stay-at-home caregivers. Rejecting these straitjacketed roles, Abby opens up to her inner guy and goes into stand-up comedy as the male impersonator Betcher David.
But appearances can be deceiving. It turns out that Abby's world is a reality co-related to that of the Rider, the main character in the comic-spiritual adventure novel tHe PoEt & i*. Rider's on a coast-to-coast motorcycle trip, beset by a talking Goldwing and a shape-shifting entity called the Minstrel dictating a treatise on self awareness. When Abby's world rips the fabric of his reality, all hell breaks loose, including another co-related reality that starts automagically writing on Rider's laptop computer.
As excerpted here, Eclectic Kitchen Kitsch stands on its own, largely complete and self-contained.
However, events and characters and thoughts in each of the stories do influence or shade into the other two stories. And all three co-related realities are profoundly shaped by the 10 dictatums of self awareness found in The Teachings of the Minstrel. The author claims these dictatums are all that's needed to break free of the ego and achieve spiritual freedom.
While the stories can be read individually, reading them in the flow of the complete novel brings out and adds further layers to their narratives.
The epub edition of Eclectic Kitchen Kitsch includes a free copy of The Teachings of the Minstrel and Just the factsimile , an outline of the full novel.
GoB
Just a Coupl'a GoB
In the novella Just a coupl'a GoB, an undercover tabloid journalist travels to the Canadian Maritimes to write a profile on the Dulsia, a shadowy group of good 'ole boys that controls all trade in the hallucinogenic seaweed dulse. Struggling with a severe panic disorder that's triggered by water, the reporter fails to understand the Dulsia has their own agenda — a trip to the godhead — for him.
Of course, that's just the surface story. Down below, Just a coupl'a GoB is a book within a book, an absurd story being automagically typed on a laptop comuputer belonging to the Rider, the central character of the comic-spiritual adventure novel tHe PoEt & i*.
But the Rider is not the novella's writer. In fact, the Rider doesn't know who or what is writing on his laptop. It might be tHe PoEt, a resentful warrior-spirit that channels through his '82 Goldwing. Or it might be the Minstrel, a shape-shifting spiritual entity who delivers mindbending lessons on self awareness 'dressed' as, for instance, a seagull, cockroach or southern gentleman.
Or it might be the Bard doing the writing, the laptop itself, what the Rider calls a "fully realized fusion of software and one of my minor neuroses".
Deep questions. But the Rider doesn't have time for working them out. He's too busy trying to fend off collisions with the reporter's drugged reality and another where an aging soap actress from a Real Wimmen dominated world has a personal breakdown then goes into standup comedy as a male impersonator. These three realities are co-related and interweave throughout the full novel.
As excerpted here, Just a coupl'a GoB stands on its own, largely complete and self-contained. However, events and characters and thoughts in each of the co-related realities do influence or shade into the other two realities. And all three are profoundly shaped by the 10 dictatums of self awareness found in another book within the novel called The Teachings of the Minstrel. The author claims these dictatums are all that's needed to break free of the ego and achieve spiritual freedom.
While the stories can be read individually, reading them in the flow of the complete novel brings out and adds further layers to their narratives.
The epub edition of Just a coupl'a GoB includes Just the facstimile, a free outline of the full novel.
the writer
the writer comments
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Cras a sem odio. Suspendisse dapibus ac enim id sollicitudin. In semper tincidunt metus auctor rutrum. Mauris pharetra aliquet accumsan. Vivamus at sem eget erat euismod gravida id at velit.
Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Fusce ultrices neque et porttitor euismod. Maecenas felis ipsum, pharetra nec tempus a, pretium nec tortor. Aenean at interdum magna, in maximus diam. Nullam vel ornare metus.
Cras at ultricies metus. Quisque mauris velit, maximus eget malesuada ac, tincidunt vel lacus. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Sed eget ante a ex lobortis tincidunt ac eu eros.
