Eternity in a Pickle Jar
BONUS BITS
Contents:
1. Concerning God (And Why It Is Not Just an Omnipotent Dumpster Baby on a Chair.)
2. Concerning the Artists of Mindless Self Indulgence
3. Concerning Illustrations of a Mediocre But Interesting Variety
4. Concerning Dante Alighieri
5. Concerning General Author's Notes (Including a Catalogue of Mmy/Edgar Fics)
1. What's up with God and stuff?
Okay, so first off you have to understand that I'm a really philosophical person, and my personal philosophy is that human beings as a rule don't understand shit. Now, the Judeo-Christian (Islamic too) God is generally conceived to be omniscient, omnipresent, and all powerful. I think it's pretty clear that Mr. Vasquez was drawing from a semi-Christian God is formless and pretty much incomprehensible. As Edgar said, "He's kind of like this hyper-dimensional being from a sci-fi novel." If you've ever read Animorphs, think of the Ellimist. It seems logical to me that when we see something we can't comprehend, we sort of make a caricature based on the bits that was do understand. Seven Blind Mice style.
Before we go on, let me illustrate the difference between Johnny C. and my Edgar Vargas.
Johnny pretty much thinks that life sucks. Period. He expects everyone to be a useless, corrupt, hypocritical jackass. In fact, we're given only three examples of possibly decent people in his life: one he kills (Edgar), one he traumatizes (Squee), and one he attempts to kill. Let it suffice to say that his world view is about as bleak as The Invisible Man.
About Edgar, in canon, we know nothing except a) he's incredibly levelheaded in the face of Death incarnate, and b) he's not a mindless jerk like the rest of the population. I have chosen to make him a Nice Guy, with a buried steel streak and a quick mind. I figured that in comic books, people usually fit their stereotypes- thus, glasses equal smart. So I've got a smart, fast, nice guy, who is religious and follows Johnny's twisted logic very well. Do you sort of see where I'm going?
No? Yes?
My Edgar is a philosopher, although he doesn't quite know it. Thus, he views the world in shades of gray, and he's willing to admit his perceptions aren't perfect. He also believes that people are fundamentally good (he's a Humanist), and that life is fair one way or another. So whereas Johnny sees life through a lens of pessimism, Edgar sees the world through a lens of faith.
Now back to God. Johnny is the blind mouse that goes out and finds a useless sack of semi-corporeal flesh, and never bothers to consider that his perception might be limited. Life sucks. Thus, in Johnny's mind, God must suck too. Now, Edgar sees the same dissapointing sight when he's trouncing around heaven for two reasons. One: mainly, God just doesn't want him to catch on yet. Two, but less important: he's still locked somewhat into the same frame of mind he died in, which was a momentary break in the depression he'd been suffering for months.
Damn this is getting long. Anyways, Edgar's first impression of the Man Upstairs is partially a ruse to throw him off and partially a result of his own subconscious doubts. When he encounters Bondye (which is my own linguistic joke), he's in a much better frame of mind. He's also at the stage in his journey where he needs a sort of Guide- a Virgil to his Dante, if you will. So Bondye shows up as the archetypal Wise Man. Usually you find those on a mountain top, but the labyrinth is such a fantastic symbol for working out your own thoughts... and hey, I wasn't kidding when I said that Labyrinths are supposed to help you find God.
Basically, this version of the Supreme Deity is the elephant from the Seven Blind Mice, if the elephant was also making bets about you behind your back and trying to confuse you as you put the pieces together.
It's funny. I really didn't think it was this complicated until I tried to explain it. Whoops.
2. MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE
-is the name of my favorite band. I have like, way too many references to count in here. If you ever read this story again (which I recommend, if you're bored, because I'm always going back and cleaning things up), you might want to keep an eye out for song titles. Trust me. It's fun. You can make it like a drinking game or something.
Also, I've got this weird little project that started out as a total joke. But you know how that goes. Anyways, I've made up a list of MSI songs which narrate Jimmy's life and death almost perfectly. You'll have to use youtube, but it goes something like this:
Uncle- (He got picked on as a kid, yeah?)
Preteen Violence- (particularly the line about doing X rated things in school hallways)
Straight to Video- (hit the road)
Clarissa- (some bitch, I imagine she reinforced his bad opinion of women)
Lights Out- (kid's a real delinquent)
Backmask (Kill Your Self) - (he's also a stupid emo teenager)
Last Time I Tried to Rock Your World - (Johnny was not at all impressed)
Brooklyn Hype pt 1 - (Hell. I know I hit the bottom because all my friends are in it)
Faggot - (and here comes Edgar. But really, I imagine this song is coming from Jimmy's perspective)
Never Wanted to Dance - (Falling in looooove.)
Stupid Sadistic and Suicidal (3S) -`(insert confessions here)
Prove Me Wrong - (I think this one speaks for itself)
Tight - (CHAPTER 19)
Greatest Love of All - (because every lame-ass story needs a lame-ass feel good ending.)
And I think it's sort of fun. If anybody really wants one, I can make you a download package of all but Brooklyne Hype. I'll probably replace it with Bullshit.
Point two: You may have noticed that in my Interlude, I gave Jimmy a shiny new last name. Now, other people (bet you can name a couple off the top of your head) have of course given him last names before, but I thought I'd tell you the story about my choice. See, the lead singer of Mindless Self Indulgence is Jimmy Urine- James Euringer. Since MSI is my favorite band, and I've been using their music as a theme since chapter four, not to mention that Jimmy Urine reminds me of a less bratty version of this Jimmy, the word play came automatically.
So you've got Jimmy Eurige. Figure, little Jimmy Eurige might grow up to be his universe's Jimmy Urine, if I gave him the chance.
3. Art
Like everything else here, this is just something to entertain you if you're bored and/or really fond of this story. But I have a deviantart account, and there's some art for the story- um, I'm not the universe's best artist, but I think my style is pretty rounded and I'm not half-bad.
http:/ desdemonakakalose .deviantart .com/gallery/#JTHM
I recommend the One Morning in Hell series, because besides being half-assed doodle comics, they're pretty funny to me.
Jynx did a couple illustrations too, which I think are fabulous: http:/ jynxsbox. deviantart .com/art/Desdemona-Learning-New-Habits-160619044 and http:/ jynxsbox. deviantart .com/art/Then-Why-d-We-Come-Here-175270186
4. Dante
Now, you might have noticed that I've got a few references to The Inferno, unless you're, like, blind- in which case, how are you reading this?
Unlike in Star Trek, where the alien ships have Greek names for no reason, all the references in my story are put there by the characters. In this case, mostly the Devil. My goal was never to rip off Dante, only to show that there are some overlapping universal concepts and that Satan has a sense of humor. Oh, yes, and to make it so that in this universe, Dante sort of did know what was going on, even if he thought he was writing pure fiction.
The most obvious references are the street names, and Jimmy's club. I want to acknowledge that I learned the circles a little different from John Ciardi's translation, where the Seventh Circle (the violent and the bestial) was split into two rings: the violent against humanity ie: murderers and suicides, and the violent against ideas ie: sodomites and blasphemers. When I got the idea for the club's name, I thought it was a clever sort of give or take, since the Second Circle of Hell is the Lustful. It could be either or.
I went and properly studied the Ciardi translation this year, and I noticed that he did things a little differently. In his Seventh Circle, there are three "rounds" (my rings). Sodomites are in the third round, which made me sort of unhappy. But still, this isn't supposed to be about copying Dante, so it's alright.
About the street names, this is cool. I went into this project thinking that I would name all the major streets after the Greek rivers of the underworld because I'm a Latin student and that's my idea of humor. I knew that the Styx was the main river, and also the river of Hate- it flows down into Tartarus, the Greek equivalent of Hell- so Styx was going to be my main street. Acheron is another river, thus another street. The Phlegethon is a river of fire, and I thought it was a bit too graphic to fit in with this version of the afterlife, which as you've noticed is mostly in your head. Cocytus, the river of Wailing, becomes Cocytus Avenue, the fault line of the City. The last river is Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. This one is more of a lake, depending on which poet you listen too, but I thought it was a fitting name for the "forgotten" sections of the city.
JTHM leads us to believe that the city extends out potentially into infinity, which of course got me thinking about where exactly infinity leads... you can see that mirrored in chapter 11. Anyways, Lethe became the Terra Incognita of the Underworld, which Edgar and Jimmy would eventually escape through for their Second Chance.
Ready for the weird bit?
So as I went into Dante for the first time, I noticed that he had the rivers of the underworld too, and I was like "cool, awesome coincidence." I figured it was sort of like Edgar being Catholic (ish), just like Dante. Fun happenstance. Except, I get farther in, and at the end of Canto XIV, I find this passage here:
"and you shall stand by Lethe, but far hence,
there, where the spirits go to wash themselves
when their guilt has been removed by penitence."
Dudes. How is Dante copying me nine hundred years ago? He's got Lethe being the gateway to Redemption too, I mean... does anybody else think that's so incredibly weird?
Yes? No? Maybe so?
Well.
5. A/N
Languages! So I've got this thing for including as many cultures as I can get away with. Fun facts:
-Bondye is "God" in Haitian. I kept expecting someone to look it up and figure it out... (Likewise, Dyab is "devil")
-Phuong, in chapter 18, says this: "ông là một kẻ ngốc Nhưng là một kẻ ngốc khá đẹp trai" which translates as "He is a stupid man, but rather a handsome one" or "He's a fool, but a fool is quite handsome."
- Napoleon (who if you know cool stuff about history, you'll know might have died of either stomach cancer or poisoning. Nooobody knows~) says this in the ballroom. "Diable faisait stupide. Toujours… il va stupide. Je suis ici depuis des siècles". This translates as "The Devil is stupid. There will always be stupidity. I have been here for centuries." Please note that I'm so not a French student, so this might be off.
I think everything that Bondye says in Hatian is more or less tranlated in the text, so we're covered there.
In other news, I no longer get the impression that Edgar is wearing a dress anymore. I'm not sure when it stopped, but it doesn't happen any more. ...I miss it.
My last order of business is recommendations. There are a few other Mmy/Edgar fanfictions out there, and I thought I ought to showcase them, since this chapter is just for fun anyways.
"Butterfly", by Crow Sensei
"Unnapreciated," by Kurumi
"Sick" and "Pay for It," by me
"Mad House," by Rebelionmuda
"Swarm", by Jynx'sbox
If you write one or you've written one that I don't know about, please tell me and I'll slap your name up there too. And that about wraps this up. If there was anything that you'd been wondering about as the story went on, just ask me about it in a review and I will HOOK YOU UP WITH SOME KNOWLEDGE. Yeah. Everybody who's been through here in the last couple years, I just want to thank all of y'all for real. It's been the best waste of my time ever. I know we're a small little group of people, but that makes us cooler, right?
Much love,
Dezzy