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by Henry Whittlesey

 

The story is about an immigrant (Caesar) who is tempted by the culture of materialism, but ultimately renounces it for his working-class life (book 1). The woman (Monika) who is instrumental in his realization of the impending mistake (a crime he was about to commit for money) enters into a bad marriage and watches her life disintegrate, albeit her grandchild will become a great philosopher contributing to the salvation of mankind (through his identification with romantic values and norms (book 2). In the first two books, a cast of metaphysical characters in the metaorder deliberate on the future and fate of the two main characters in an invented language that consists of English, Spanish, German and Russian based on the grammar of those four languages (basically, from an American perspective, that means no sentence structure). Book 3 tells the history (left-hand column) and story (right-hand column) of the emergence of the metaorder in the form of an interview between the future philosopher Sottloy, who is the grandson of Monica and daughter of Caesar), and Socrates, as Sottloy prepares to understand the power of the metaphysical/existential as a counterweight to materialism/consumption. Finally, in book 4 we return to Caesar and the development of his relationship with Monica’s daughter, again accompanied by the metaphysicians and ultimately producing the philosopher Sottloy (who incidentally appears as the main character in the first (unpublished) book Edge I have written. Many of these characters also appear in the third novel just finished – Shambolic.

This novel is one of three dramatized versions of the peripatetic alterity theory promulgated in the context of our aesthetic.

The aesthetic is a fundamentally literary project that publishes works (including our own) to document our theory of peripatetic alterity. This theory is primarily based on momentary self-identification within the so-called Spectrum of Being between romantics and pragmatists (see the book Peripatetic Alterity), and then balancing oneself with the other (alterity). An individual is constantly moving about the spectrum. They are neither predetermined nor firmly bound to a particular position. The goal of this self-defining process is to bring about process-oriented production/creation or life/metaphysics (or both, compared to materialism/consumerism) in harmony with nature and without regard to success. This whole constellation would abolish the current discrimination of broad parts of the population and give these outsiders recognition as the necessary alterity to the professional and managerial class. This excluded group is called “romantics”; the currently dominant group “pragmatists”.

In some cases, such as the ones depicted in this novel, the circumstances can be quite difficult but lead to extremely inspiring or beautiful moments like Caesar’s speech at Monika’s birthday. Generally speaking, material hardship gives rise to greater metaphysical/spiritual depth and vice-versa. Viewed this way, we have absolute equality and each side can learn from the other.