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The Book of Knots - Jags

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Publish or perish. PUBLISH or PERISH” over and over in a dark room<br />

lit with flickering, guttering candles. He’s mad.<br />

That’s a Caretaker.<br />

<strong>The</strong>ir existence is tied into a recursive feedback loop that generates the<br />

literary meanings and perspectives lead them to believe must be or which<br />

they speculate should be. Whether that last sentence is meaningless or<br />

not, one thing is clear: they argue a lot.<br />

But there’s something else—most Caretakers are in some fundamental<br />

way created from a perspective and a mass <strong>of</strong> arguments and an intellect.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y believe things are true and so they are. <strong>The</strong>y instruct. <strong>The</strong>y analyze.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y philosophize and they contemplate. All this is both the natural state<br />

<strong>of</strong> being and the responsibility <strong>of</strong> the Caretakers. <strong>The</strong>y are beings <strong>of</strong><br />

literal literature.<br />

But not all <strong>of</strong> them “hold <strong>of</strong>fice” and certainly most do not hold “high<br />

<strong>of</strong>fice.” In the bizarrely complicated network <strong>of</strong> hierarchy that is<br />

Wonderland society, there are those who could be considered assistants<br />

… apprentices … or students. <strong>The</strong>y are in some senses “younger”<br />

(although by any real measure they are “the same age,” so far as anyone<br />

knows) and they are in some senses “less powerful” (although the<br />

measure <strong>of</strong> power for a Caretaker is an odd thing). One thing they are is<br />

a lot less sure that the massive, towering structure that is the Criticism<br />

and Canon, that comprises the bedrock existence <strong>of</strong> Wonderland—is in<br />

any way right.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Caretakers who meet and scheme and formulate plans to tear it all<br />

down have a name. <strong>The</strong> rebel faction in Wonderland that threatens a low,<br />

rumbling, civil war has a banner: Deconstructionists.<br />

<strong>The</strong> idea that “nothing intrinsically means anything”—that all viewpoints<br />

—author, interpreter, and beer-addled NASCAR-watching reality-TVjunkie<br />

commentary—is equally valid is the equivalent <strong>of</strong> Wonderland’s<br />

Global <strong>The</strong>rmonuclear War.<br />

<strong>The</strong> brewing internal conflict between the shadowy Deconstructionists<br />

(Decons) and the Caretakers is one that, if it sparks, could destroy the<br />

very fabric <strong>of</strong> creation.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Enemy <strong>of</strong> My Enemy is a Useful Tool<br />

Not all the Caretakers hate humanity (some <strong>of</strong> the most dangerous are<br />

the ones who love humankind!) but it is generally considered amongst<br />

even the most beneficent that something really should be done for the<br />

poor things.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Deconstructionists, however, see things a little differently: they<br />

understand that the Department <strong>of</strong> Works is, in some fundamental way,<br />

connected to the shared perspective <strong>of</strong> man.<br />

13<br />

<strong>Book</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Knots</strong> - <strong>The</strong> Caretakers

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