The Book of Knots - Jags

many, many different ways. In this Great Gray City there is a cat who
knew the orphan. It’s a cat that wears a tuxedo and dines on mice who
beg for their lives before they are eaten. The dramas know no limits of
size or plausibility—the gentleman would never be surprised to see a
tuxedo wearing cat or a talking mouse.
The cat has fi shed a pocket-watch off of a drunk who, in turn, lifted it
from an eager young secretary who was having it repaired for his new
employer. The cat prizes the watch, but wants it to tick. It knows there is
a raccoon—a disreputable fellow—but very good with his hands—who
lives above Harley street and he will have him fi x the watch—for a price.
A price, which, perhaps, involves the gentleman.
All of this—and a thousand more stories—in a hundred more terrains—
winds on and on like a clockwork storm of interacting particles of theme
and genre and portent.
Do Humans Get Caught In Those Storms?
When they come down to Chessboards Five and Six, they may. That’s
the woods Alice wandered in during Wonderland. It’s the chess match of
Looking Glass. When a person is on Chessboard Five or Six, they may
be more of a tourist—or they may be caught up in it. The latter happens
when they are “mistaken” for someone who has a “role” in the drama.
In some cases, people from reality have found themselves in twisted
doctor’s offi ces—as the doctor—forced to diagnose and treat patient
after inhuman patient.
Screw up badly enough and you could get tried for be a fraud—run for
it and you might be hunted. On the other hand, quick wits and a touch
for seeing the literary story-structure of what’s going on might get you
through it.
Actors (be they white rabbits late for dates with murderous queens,
high-society human-seeming members of a gentleman’s club where
the servants are all fl oating draperies with tentacle-like tassels, or tiny
armies of ants in Napoleonic uniforms) are all real living beings that
exist within what they think of as an actual, logical world. Despite their
creation and trajectory as “literary characters” they are capable of selfdirection
(or, well, at least that isn’t as clear as maybe it could be) and
when a human arrives in their midst, they will treat them both within the
constraints of their role and to their basic personalities.
The Royal Drama: Meeting The Caretaker
We’ve established that there are dramas and actors but it hasn’t been
made clear under what circumstances a human undergoing Descent
might meet a Caretaker. This, actually, happens quite a bit: it is called
the Royal Drama. Alice’s adventures are an example of these—she meets
one Caretaker after another as she wanders through the dreamlike reality
of the deeper realms.
A caretaker is…
Mad
Because he sees the world, not
as it is but as he wishes it would
be. And for millions and millions
of years, the world has bent to
conform to his delusions.
The Eye of the Storm
Because she believes herself
to be physical thing, while her
infl uence roars around her,
corrupting, perverting, and
degrading everything within her
sphere.
Munifi cent
Because he has everything he
could ever desire and yet can
still be bigger by demonstrating
his largess.
A Petty Bastard
Because she knows she has
limits and they make her furious
and when she sees weakness and
mortality in others it reminds of
things that she hates in herself.
Paradoxes with Opposing Poles
Each Caretaker is obsessed
with something and repelled by
something else. Sometimes these
are polar opposites. Sometimes
these are the same things. And
these things are represent deep,
universal truths that would be
enlightening if one could see
through the
pageantry, rage, and distortion.
The Queen of Hearts has
sacrifi ced millions upon the altar
of the rules, but violates their
spirit with every psychotic deed.
The Duchess of Knots is
ensnared in storm of
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Book of Knots - The Caretakers