Beyond Review
Jun. 29th, 2015 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
So in several RPGs, there's the idea that magic is simply you imposing your beliefs on reality. That's true for Mage: The Ascension and Unknown Armies as well as other games and a few fantasy novels. The thing is, the kind of belief required to alter reality as experienced by the mass of people around you is immense. It's a level of sheer stubborn determination that borders on, and may in fact be, insanity.
Beyond Redemption by Michael R. Fletcher takes this concept and runs with it. In this book, people suffering from delusions have the ability to affect reality in ways corresponding to their delusion. Someone with multiple personality disorder would actually generate people to represent each persona, pyromaniacs can cause fires, people with phobias can banish the thing they're afraid of from around them. As their delusions get stronger (reinforced by the fact that their delusions actually cause the change they want to see), their powers grow as well. Eventually, they reach a peak level where their power is god-like but their delusions have completely taken over so they can't act coherently and they sort of disintegrate.
So, into this setting, High Priest Konig realizes that gods are just a manifestation of the beliefs of a lot of people. It's also a haphazard process that leads to broken, ineffectual gods. So if he can carefully groom and manipulate someone, get everyone in his religion believing that this person will die and become a god and if Konig himself kills the pseudo-god (because pretty much everyone believes you will served in the afterlife by the person who kills you) -- then he'll have a useful, effective god who is totally under his control.
All his work has produced Morgen. He's not quite ready yet, but he's very close. Nothing must be allowed to disrupt his experiment as it nears fruition.
Meanwhile, a narcissistic swordsman, a deadly kleptomaniac and a scarred, battered old veteran are trying to work out their next big score when they get wind of this future god-child and decide Konig would pay a great deal to get him back if he were kidnapped.
So obviously you might wonder if this is just making light of or glossing over serious mental health issues. The short answer is that I don't think so. Any character with power is wracked with doubt, fear, self-loathing and is generally not a Harley Quinn, happy-go-lucky type (although some have a veneer of joviality, third-person narration shows how brittle that is). People are often aware that they have a problem, they know that it's getting worse, but it's a downward spiral where their powers keep pushing them harder and harder into insanity. People are all hurting in some way in this book. How anyone can manage to find a stable place in a world disrupted by madmen pretty much forms the core of the narrative.
Not a terribly happy book, but it did have some darkly humorous bits that caused me to laugh out loud and overall I rather liked it. Maybe not beach reading, but certainly something to check out if you're looking for something a bit different in your fantasy.
later
Tom
So in several RPGs, there's the idea that magic is simply you imposing your beliefs on reality. That's true for Mage: The Ascension and Unknown Armies as well as other games and a few fantasy novels. The thing is, the kind of belief required to alter reality as experienced by the mass of people around you is immense. It's a level of sheer stubborn determination that borders on, and may in fact be, insanity.
Beyond Redemption by Michael R. Fletcher takes this concept and runs with it. In this book, people suffering from delusions have the ability to affect reality in ways corresponding to their delusion. Someone with multiple personality disorder would actually generate people to represent each persona, pyromaniacs can cause fires, people with phobias can banish the thing they're afraid of from around them. As their delusions get stronger (reinforced by the fact that their delusions actually cause the change they want to see), their powers grow as well. Eventually, they reach a peak level where their power is god-like but their delusions have completely taken over so they can't act coherently and they sort of disintegrate.
So, into this setting, High Priest Konig realizes that gods are just a manifestation of the beliefs of a lot of people. It's also a haphazard process that leads to broken, ineffectual gods. So if he can carefully groom and manipulate someone, get everyone in his religion believing that this person will die and become a god and if Konig himself kills the pseudo-god (because pretty much everyone believes you will served in the afterlife by the person who kills you) -- then he'll have a useful, effective god who is totally under his control.
All his work has produced Morgen. He's not quite ready yet, but he's very close. Nothing must be allowed to disrupt his experiment as it nears fruition.
Meanwhile, a narcissistic swordsman, a deadly kleptomaniac and a scarred, battered old veteran are trying to work out their next big score when they get wind of this future god-child and decide Konig would pay a great deal to get him back if he were kidnapped.
So obviously you might wonder if this is just making light of or glossing over serious mental health issues. The short answer is that I don't think so. Any character with power is wracked with doubt, fear, self-loathing and is generally not a Harley Quinn, happy-go-lucky type (although some have a veneer of joviality, third-person narration shows how brittle that is). People are often aware that they have a problem, they know that it's getting worse, but it's a downward spiral where their powers keep pushing them harder and harder into insanity. People are all hurting in some way in this book. How anyone can manage to find a stable place in a world disrupted by madmen pretty much forms the core of the narrative.
Not a terribly happy book, but it did have some darkly humorous bits that caused me to laugh out loud and overall I rather liked it. Maybe not beach reading, but certainly something to check out if you're looking for something a bit different in your fantasy.
later
Tom
no subject
Date: 2015-06-29 04:24 pm (UTC)Nope. That wasn't his focus.
later
Tom