Maria Alexander News and Updates from TheHandlessPoet.com

I got on Skype the other night and spoke for 1-1/2 hours with my friend P-squared over in Manchester who is also an astrologer. It's such a relief to talk to someone who speaks my "language." Oddly enough, it really doesn't annoy me when people put down astrology or lump it with bullshit like Sylvia Brown -- mainly because I know they don't know shit about it, but also because I just don't care what anyone thinks. :) And just so you know, I'm not putting down Sylvia Brown because I don't believe in psychic phenomena -- it would be psychotic to renounce the things I've experienced. I just think 99% of the people who are truly psychic have profound experiences that they can't share with the world at large because they're too personal. I think it's right and fair for skeptics to put out tests, awards of proof, etc. However, it doesn't work that way and never has. The people eager to prove otherwise are largely egotistical crackpots who want to "show" the skeptics and get strokes for being "right." What-ever.

Anyway, ranting aside, I then worked on "Pinned" for a while and the Frenchman came over late after a big thingy at the French Consulate. I don't think I even want to know what goes on over there.

(By the way, why can't I write a story under 5000 words? This damned thing is already 5500 words and it's not finished!)

I took a break from this crazy proposal business and watched the commentary with Earl Doherty on The God Who Wasn't There. As if it were possible, I learned even more. And Doherty is pretty sure that the Jesus Myth will hit mainstream scholasticism in the next 10 to 20 years. (Hell, I wonder what he thinks of the trial in Italy right now.) He says that the thing about the Internet is that you just can't shut people up. "New" ideas get more air time than they normally would. He talked about Alfred Wegener, the guy who put forth the idea of continental drift, because he was ridiculed for his "new" idea (although people like Ben Franklin had already made similar observations). Granted, there are oodles of completely crackpot ideas flooding the ions, and many people consider this to be one of them. But once in a while, something valid breaks through. And if you keep finding enough holes and pushing people to be honest, they have to. As Doherty said in the interview (and I'm paraphasing), this isn't an issue of faith. We should strive for honesty and promote the ongoing search for historical truth.

Doherty hadn't read The Da Vinci Code. I'm sure he'll have a field day with that, especially Brown's claims to extensive research.

Saw Cache this last weekend. Unfortunately, Americans will not understand this movie unless they're French or Algerian, or sleeping with a Frenchman or Algerian, or otherwise well-versed in French or Algerian history. It was pretty brilliant except that the ending was a too subtle, even for my tastes. The people in the theater where I saw it walked out at the end saying, "What happened? I don't get it! What was that movie about." It's too bad because it was otherwise a great study in building psychological tension.

Received and watched my DVD of Brian Flemming's The God Who Wasn't There. So...fucking...GREAT! I only had two criticisms: 1) the sound of the narration wasn't very well mixed and 2) I wish he'd spent less time pulling his "Michael Moore-ish" stunt at his old school and more time talking about Paul of Tarsus -- specifically about the spiritual climate at that time. Otherwise, it was exceptional. Brian Flemming has a great sense of humor. There was one Christian guy who I adored completely. He runs the Rapture Letters website. I really loved the interview with Dr. Robert Price and Dr. Alan Dundes at UC Berkeley, who just passed away last year after the film's release. I still need to watch it with the track from Earl Doherty. I love that man's book, The Jesus Puzzle.

I've also started sending out queries and proposals to agents who have already answered earlier queries regarding The Secret Project. I've gotten oodles of positive feedback about this project. I'm hoping these are fast-sprouting seeds.

I spoke to Neil about this back in 1998 when I originally saw the photos. I'm glad he's made a public statement on Nancy Kilpatrick's website about Donna Ricci's claims to being a model for the Sandman covers. She was apparently hired by Vertigo to play Death at ComiCon or a similar convention, but that was the extent of it.

"I'm afraid you fell for that Donna Ricci person's fibs about being involved in Sandman. For the record, I've never met her, nor have any of the artists, none of the Sandman covers she has up on her website are actually photographs of her (they're mostly very expensive London fashion models that Dave McKean hired, and obviously not her)."

He told me back in 1998 he wasn't going to say anything. I'm glad he said something eventually, though. And, for what it's worth, I don't think she makes this claim at all any more (at least, not on her personal website), but it's still out there like a virus in people's heads and in only slightly aged publications, as well as the Wicked Talent website.

I think I mentioned it before, but I do love Nancy Kilpatrick's The goth Bible: A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined. She's done such a tremendous job of pulling together so much information about a subculture that means so many things to different people. If you're even thinking about getting it, do. I give it two black lacey thumbs up.

So, there's a wave coming. It's probably not going to be the tsunami I'd rather see, but it's something.

Currently, an Italian judge has ordered a priest to prove the historical existence of Jesus. The priest has apparently published negative statements against the author of a book entitled "The Fable of Christ," and the author is suing the priest for "abusing popular credulity." (Wow! If we had those kinds of cases here in Los Angeles, we'd be in trouble!)

What's cooler is that there's a DVD now out entitled The God Who Wasn't There. One of the participants in the DVD's making is Dr. Robert Price, who is a Christian scholar, fellow of the Jesus Seminar, and Lovecraftian expert. I knew of him many, many years ago when he used to publish a Christian horror zine called "Churchyard." After the Jesus Seminar, Dr. Price had an epiphany about the material they had been studying: there was no real evidence for the existence of Jesus. This sent him spiralling out of the popular fold of traditional scholasticism and straight into intellectual study of the texts in a whole new light. As a result, he wrote the book The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man.

I'm encouraged that one of the alternate audio tracks includes Earl Doherty, who wrote The Jesus Puzzle, a very important book in the growing scholastic vein that deconstructs religious assumptions about Jesus' existence. I just bought the DVD. I'll be sure to write a review.

I know people who believe in Jesus aren't going to watch this. If they do, they're going to have the response that one woman on Amazon had: "I'am a born again Christian, and yes, I know for a fact that Jesus Christ existed and IS the Son of God, but aside from that, like another reviewer said, yeah, it is one thing to be skeptical if Jesus Christ is the Son of God who he claimed to be, but to completely deny Jesus's existence is just the stupidiest thing." (sic)

I think that speaks for itself.

I like my friend Seth's analogy, although I'd lighten it a shade or two: It's like King Arthur. There are these texts that refer to someone named Jesus, but they're not contemporary texts and they are filled with supernatural stories, which affects their credibility on some fronts. They might or might not really refer to someone who actually lived. There's heavy overlay with myth from earlier sources. Maybe there was once some guy over whose shoulders people later threw a mighty mantel. It's just not provable. If someone wants to believe there was a King Arthur, that's great! But when it comes to Jesus, Christianity loses a lot of its punch, as it claims to be the one religion whose God is a real, flesh and blood person (at least, that's how it was presented to me in my many years as a Protestant and then a fundamentalist).

Don't mind me. I'll just be anxiously sitting by my mailbox.

I've been over at the Gothic.net boards, lurking (sort of) around the discussion threads about the stories posted. So far, two very positive posts about "When Gods Die." Perhaps that one hit the right chord for the current audience. I guess we'll see if comments like those pile up. It's just nice to have been paid for the story at last. If for no other reason, Amelia G and Forrest Black pretty much rock for that alone.

Since last night, I've written over 2600 words for the book proposal of The Secret Project. I'm now writing a sample chapter. I"ll probably write two. I had great trouble picking one from the Table of Contents, as they all looked like fun. I worry that I'm going to offend a lot of people -- in particular, a group of people I'm closely associated with. My hostile humor is my Achilles heel. But I'm not being hostile -- at least, I don't think I'm being hostile. I'm primarily making fun of myself in this book. I just hope enough people can get on that bandwagon to make the project successful.

I hope the little black cat who was lost in the hallway found its way home. It's the same little black cat that likes to sit on the balcony and watch me on the exercise bike in the gym down the hall. He has a relatively clean collar, so he must belong to someone. Poor little guy! Of course, he comes to my door and cries out his furry heart, putting Cairo and Ophelia in a dither. I tried to catch him in the hallway to put him on the balcony, but he was having none of that. Poor beastie!

I'm off to bed.