The Poison Pie Publishing House presents:

Shaharazad and the 10,001 Diluvian Knights
(link to main page of novel)

May

May 1, 2020
Cole lay in bed, facing that creature, which during the day he presumed to be his wife. Its tentacles waved languidly and glowed with an internal light that illuminated the translucent tendrils so that each appeared as a pale blue silhouette.

The thought flashed across his mind that the world might as well end if he was expected to go on living this way. Cole did not immediately recognize this thought as foreign or originating from somewhere beyond himself. It was only in retrospect that he realized that this sentiment of self-annihilation was the first attempt by the being with the face of a sea anemone to communicate with him.

written while listening to:  Seijaku - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-3 (December 24, 2012, Club Goodman, Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 2, 2020
What can someone learn from a cnidarian? It is a creature renowned for not much, a predatory polyp, which waits patiently for currents and tides to sweep detritus within reach of its grasp or unwary arthropods to brush against waving tentacles and fall prey to a paralytic neurotoxin. Cole supposed he had little to learn from it. He asked precisely this same question one morning to Elaine, as they sat across the table from each other, drinking their morning coffee. She responded as if it were the oddest question in the world, then proceeded to insist that she had never heard the word cnidarian before. She accused him of having made it up or, better yet, having found it in one of the fantastic bestiaries in which he had recently taken such an avid interest. For his part, Cole did not feel compelled to prove to his wife the existence of cnidarians. Instead, he pursed his lips and returned to his coffee, while she rolled her eyes once more. This episode illustrated to Cole the first lesson that he could learn from a sea anemone, namely the virtue of remaining silent.

written while listening to:  Seijaku - unreleased live recording, tracks 4-8 (December 24, 2012, Club Goodman, Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 3, 2020
Despite ardent efforts of wayward academicians and lay practitioners alike, there exists no convincing demonstration of telepathy. Nor is there within the governing laws of our physics-based reality a plausible mechanism by which the thoughts of one entity can be communicated to another being without resorting to words or gestures. The notion of psychic connectivity is therefore rightly attributed to the same dubious provenance as the mystical chicanery of the roadside palmist or the occult nostrums of the hedgewitch. Besides, a sea anemone is an organism that possesses no brain. Therefore, the notion that it should possess the mental apparatus to form a thought, much less transmit one, is not worthy of serious consideration. Cole accepted all these arguments. There seemed no other explanation for the attempted communications than madness.

written while listening to:  Seijaku - unreleased live recording, tracks 9-12 (December 24, 2012, Club Goodman, Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 4, 2020
Cole would have supposed that the creature hailed from the marine world, owing to its anatomical form. However, he found circulating among his thoughts unbidden knowledge that the being originated from the depths of space. It was an interstellar traveler, not native to Earth. These mental flashes of insight were but initial, furtive probes transmitted by the creature, designed to make contact with the current inhabitants of the planet.

Like many individuals who have received a technical education, Cole enjoyed exercises in the overlap of fantastic conjecture and the rigors of engineering disciplines. He had watched with pleasure numerous science fiction films featuring all manner of spacecraft, aliens and extraterrestrial invasions. Thus the mundane narrative that emerged in his exchanges with the anemone who was his wife comforted Cole with its reassurance of banality; this surely was a derivative fantasy attributable to his own limited imagination.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Etsuko Yakushimaru & Naruyoshi Kikuchi - unreleased live recording, track 1 (January 27, 2013, UFO Club, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 5, 2020
Once the being had coalesced into its chosen form, it woke Cole each night for what appeared to him to be a series of history lessons. The teacher gesticulated with its translucent blue tentacles, describing a home world where the biologically ingrained instinct to survive had resulted in massive over-population. This unsustainable state resulted in recurring waves of starvation and death for a substantial fraction of its society. For those individuals who managed to escape the most severe deprivations, their existence was nevertheless reduced to an undesirable oscillation between insecurity about their own means of survival and anxiety regarding the pervasive suffering in their midst. The philosophers of this ancient race confronted the ethical and esthetic balance between two factors: biological survival and dignified existence. It was resolved that the current situation leaned disproportionately toward the former at the expense of the latter.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Etsuko Yakushimaru & Naruyoshi Kikuchi - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-2 (January 27, 2013, UFO Club, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 6, 2020
Cole warned himself that the thoughts, which entered into his thinking, originated in an alien source. While it was true that discussions involving the relative merits of survival and quality of life transpired among many members of Homo sapiens, it could not be forgotten that the solution presented to him had been adopted by a race of anemone-faced creatures. The transferability to human beings was therefore in doubt.

As telepaths, the creatures shared a more communal process regarding decisions that impacted the welfare of the entire society. A variety of solutions were proposed to mitigate the on-going crisis. Gradually, one rose to the top, where it was embraced as a consensus. This consensus required that a calculation be performed determining the optimal population for a stable equilibrium on the planet. Once that number was determined, a process would be identified to select that number from a total population greatly in excess. The remainder would voluntarily submit to euthanasia.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Etsuko Yakushimaru & Naruyoshi Kikuchi - unreleased live recording, track 3 (January 27, 2013, UFO Club, Koenji, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 7, 2020
The calculation revealed a surprising result: only ten thousand individuals were recommended as the essential number necessary to propagate the species, to create a meaningful life, to avoid the detrimental consequences of over-population and to engage in the higher endeavors--the sciences and the arts--that lay beyond the reach of subsistence living. If there was shock at the number, it was well disguised. Perhaps there had been a train of thought that the mathematicians and philosophers responsible for this calculation should have endeavored to identify the maximum population that the planet could healthily sustain rather than the minimum required for the continued advancement of their civilization. But, again, these creatures did not react as Homo sapiens might have. Given their current number of nearly ten billion beings, culling the race to a mere ten thousand corresponded to an individual's chance of survival of one out of a million. Lest their resolve weaken, preparations were promptly undertaken to call forth the deluge that would cleanse their planet.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Gaspar Claus, Eiko Ishibashi, Kakushin Nishihara, Sachiko M, Jim O'Rourke, Kazuki Tomokawa & Leonard Eto - unreleased live recording, track 1 (February 23, 2013, Super Deluxe, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, digital file)

May 8, 2020
Of the selection process not much can be said. Survivors were chosen neither on the base of special training nor on the basis of physical attributes. As is the case with any species, the continuation of the race hinged on a combination of the breadth of the genetic pool and the ability of the organisms to modify the genetic distribution in response to external stimuli. The only conscious requirement was a willingness to adhere to the mandate going forward to strictly maintain the population at the prescribed level. As the odds were one out of a million, it was unlikely for an individual to know someone personally who had been selected. A biochemical treatment was administered to those ten thousand, granting them immunity to a chemical agent that flooded the planet. The planning was meticulous. Nearly an entire race carefully chose final activities, which suited their natures, then sought out their final resting places. They fell asleep, one by one and millions by millions, never to waken. There is no record of discord or resistance. In the history of this race, this event separates two eras regarded as ante-diluvian and post-diluvian times.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino & Dairo Suga - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-2 (March 11, 2013, Haretara Sorani Mame Maite, Daikanyama, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 9, 2020
So it was done. It was, Cole supposed, a noble sacrifice on a scale never before seen. And yet, he wondered to the point of doubt, if he chose to see this voluntary act of diminution through the distorted lens of human experience. Among marine invertebrates, it remains fashionable to play the environmental odds, reproducing by releasing into the surrounding waters an uncountable number of young. The fraction of those, which survive to adulthood, is much smaller than the million-to-one ratio adopted by the anemone-faced aliens. From this point of view, their sacrifice was not so much noble as it was a routine necessity in response to unyielding constraints imposed by the physics-based reality, to which all must bow in order to survive.

For their part, sea anemones reproduce by ejecting sperm and eggs from their mouths into the oceans. Fertilization occurs in the near proximity, where the concentration of each ingredient is high. The eggs develop into larvae, which drift with other forms of plankton, through the currents of the world's oceans. Most satisfy the hunger of larger beasts. Some few eventually settle to the seabed where they endeavor to live the life of a polyp to the best of their natural abilities.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino & Dairo Suga - unreleased live recording, track 3 (March 11, 2013, Haretara Sorani Mame Maite, Daikanyama, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 10, 2020
The anemone explained to Cole facets of the drastic reduction in population, which seemed, apparently, important to it. What could ten thousand accomplish that ten billion could not? Surprisingly, the aliens found that their capabilities were expanded rather than diminished, despite the fewer contributing tentacles. Without the need to devote resources and time to such endeavors as defense, foremost among numerous government agencies, not to mention sundry commercial activities, including especially advertising, efforts could be focused with great efficacy on targeted goals. First among these goals was the preservation of this new-found utopia. It was impossible to predict that subsequent generations, who had not experienced firsthand the blight of over-population, would share the vision and dedication of their forebears. Therefore, the ten thousand agreed to take an oath to preserve their perfect society. They ritualized the pact with great solemnity. As paladins of old swore undying fealty to lord and land, so too did these beings vow to hold the preservation of this paradise above their own lives. Should one lose faith, each pledged to extinguish itself rather than betray its mission. This body composed the first of the ten thousand diluvian knights.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino & Tamio Shiraishi - unreleased live recording, track 1 (April 18, 2013, Project Issue Room, New York, New York, United States, digital files)

May 11, 2020
Freed from the gross excesses of growth and competition, the diluvian knights nevertheless doubted the effectiveness of their oaths upon future generations. To, at least, delay the dissolution of their utopia, they turned their collective talents toward advances in regenerative medicine, seeking to prolong their own lives and to postpone the onset of senescence. What we associated with thinking, namely that portion of the central nervous system associated with consciousness, was decentralized in the body of the sea anemone. No one tentacle possessed functionality that the others did not. This distributed model allowed a damaged or deteriorating tentacle to be individually replaced and retrained by the others, so that something that could be regarded as the life of a single, continuous entity was maintained. The older the diluvian knights grew, the greater their knowledge carried them, until it appeared to them that they had achieved immortality.

Eternity frightened them as nothing yet had, for they had not abandoned entirely the notion of children, but were constrained by their immeasurably long lives and the binding restriction on their number.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino & Tamio Shiraishi - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-2 (April 18, 2013, Project Issue Room, New York, New York, United States, digital files)

May 12, 2020
The diluvian knights had created an avenue of escape in their original oath, for each was permitted the freedom to take their own life, when their zeal for the common good expired. In college, Cole had read Dostoyevsky, from whom he had learned that there dwelt among men those who regarded killing oneself as the ultimate expression of free will. Therefore, he was predisposed to interpret this outlet, even in an alien context, as possessed of a certain nobility. Of course, the similarity ended there because the members of Homo sapiens had a handful of decades in which to grow disgusted with the way of things, while the subcellular tinkering of the diluvian knights had graced their order with an unnatural, exhausting longevity. Indeed, those first ten thousand persisted for countless millennia, in part because there remained before them unfinished tasks. Having conquered the mysteries of biology, they turned their attention to physics. Formerly remote concepts, such as the end of time or the death of their star, now appeared relevant. With the potential to observe the depletion of the stellar fuel that warmed their planet, the aliens considered, first philosophically then technically, travel to younger, more hospitable solar systems.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino & Maki Miura - unreleased live recording, track 1 (May 17, 2013, Kunitachi, Chikyu-ya, Tokyo, Japan, digital file)

May 13, 2020
Among human beings, interstellar travel remains an area of active speculation. Most proposed modes of travel require extensive advances in physics, ranging from the challenges to keeping a body healthy during extended periods of zero gravity, to developing a viable process for reversible cryogenic hibernation, to mastering the hyperdimensional nature of the universe so as to controllably fold space. The diluvian knights also sought to contravene the limit imposed by the speed of light, rendering the vast distances between stars a moot point. Although the anemone-faced being, whose form was juxtaposed over his wife at night, attempted to explain to Cole their eventual solution to this physics problem, naturally he was not able to fully comprehend it. The difficulty lay not in the boundaries of his mental faculties so much as it did in the extent of his experience, for the diluvian knights had taught themselves to access dimensions beyond the four that compose the conventional space-time continuum, perceptible to the physical senses. When the alien expressed to Cole that his existence was a lower-order projection of a higher-dimensional reality, much as a shadow is a two-dimensional projection of a three-dimensional object cast upon a solid surface, Cole found a modicum of solace only in closing his eyes and returning to sleep.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Richard Pinhas, Merzbow & Tatsuya Yoshida - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-2 (May 30, 2013, Super Deluxe, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 14, 2020
That Cole's perception of not only space, but time as well, was a reduction based upon his inability to perceive an extra-dimensional reality was not all that surprising. The diluvian knights hailed neither exclusively from the past nor the future, so claimed the creature before him. The present was a conception that held no special attraction for them, any more than pointing at one arbitrary spot in space and declaring it the center of everything. The breaking of symmetry, which distinguished the temporal from the spatial dimensions, was not an inviolate feature of the universe. Just as a body could approach a point in space from the right or from the left, so too could one enter a point in time either from the past or the future. The human predilection to exclusively access the present from the past was merely an anomaly of their provincial experience. It was, the alien assured Cole, to be equated with neither necessity nor virtue.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Richard Pinhas, Merzbow & Tatsuya Yoshida - unreleased live recording, track 3 (May 30, 2013, Super Deluxe, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 15, 2020
The solution, devised by the diluvian knights, to the physical problems caused by the length scale of interplanetary travel lay neither in contorting geometry nor in exploiting probability, as might be initially presumed. Instead, the aliens relied upon the dynamic nature of the universe. For Cole's benefit, the alien likened the process to riding in the front car of a moving train. If one momentarily "stepped out" of reality and then re-emerged at the same coordinates, one could manage to transport oneself to the last car in the train. Moreover, it was not necessary to wait for the last car to reach that point at the velocity of the train because the diluvian knights had restored the bidirectional symmetry of the spatial axes to the temporal domain and could, therefore, independently adjust the elapsed time between "stepping out" and "stepping back in". The diluvian knights harnessed the expansion of the universe--a cosmological train hurtling in all directions--to similar effect, albeit over a vastly increased scale.

written while listening to:  Nazoranai - unreleased live recording, track 1 (July 7, 2013, Roskilde Festival, Denmark, digital file)

May 16, 2020
There is energy in thought. Here, the diluvian knight did not refer to the collective activity of cells within an organ that gave rise to thought. While it is true that neural impulses are carried by electrical current, the energy of which the creature spoke to Cole was not limited to the stored capacity of electrons required for biological tissue to generate a mental image or to perform a mathematical calculation.

Nor did the alien speak metaphorically of the power of thought. Again, it is true that an idea, if presented at the right time and if seen to satisfy a need, can spark movements, which leave dramatic impacts on society. Yet, the insentient cosmos cares little for such figments of the imagination, no matter how incendiary they may be.

No, the creature that occupied Cole's bed at night referred to thought as if it were sustenance, upon which a being could feed, its body metabolizing ideas that allowed it to satisfy the routine expenditures of living. When one existed for eons out of mind partly lodged in dimensions beyond time and space, one developed habits, it said, that eventually became second nature, though they may have initially appeared preposterous or even abhorrent.

written while listening to:  Nazoranai - unreleased live recording, track 1 (July 9, 2013, CBSO Centre, Birmingham, England, digital file)

May 17, 2020
Over the course of millions of years, the diluvian knights outlasted their sun. Ere the initial spasms of the solar death throes seared their planet, they had identified a new destination. The observation of the distant planet, which they would soon call home, occurred via projection through a dimension beyond space and time. With great ceremony, they bid adieu to the orb upon which they had not only arisen as a species but had also refined themselves through the great flood.

Their new home was, of course, hospitable to life and, as a result, had given rise to a dominant species of its own. This being their first interplanetary migration, the diluvian knights erred in failing to forewarn the locals of their coming. Consequently, when ten thousand anemone-faced creatures appeared, a violent reaction was elicited. Nearly one percent of their number were killed within the first few days. The fatalities among the natives were many orders of magnitude higher, though not to the point of complete annihilation. From this experience, the diluvian knights modified their practice when, after hundreds of millions of years, they were prompted to seek subsequent homes.

In these nocturnal visions, Cole was not so drowsy that he failed to recognize his own role as a herald in an amended procedure for the impending migration to Earth.

written while listening to:  Nazoranai - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-3 (July 11, 2013, Scala, King's Cross, London, England, digital files)

May 18, 2020
The diluvian knight deemed it worthwhile to describe to Cole the mechanism and criteria for replenishment, when one or more of their number was lost. As it stood now, their deliberate actions rarely allowed one of the ten thousand to succumb to a mishap. Rather, the endless eons gradually eroded some essential component of being until an individual no longer felt the compulsion to contribute to the collective mission demanded by their knighthood. Regardless of the cause, a new member of the order had to be created.

One among them intermingled their tentacles with those of the knight who would leave them. In this embrace, known fondly as a farewell kiss, a sample of the alien analog to human chromosomes was extracted. Once internalized, the group collectively, telepathically examined the genetic information. Usually, no aberration was discovered for the ennui induced by an unnaturally long existence did not register in the biology of cells. Still, the new arrival would not be an identical clone. Modest manipulation at the molecular level gave rise to changes in behavior and thinking, which were impossible to entirely anticipate, even for creatures who moved through time as easily as stepping to the right or the left.

Only when an embryo incubated in the womb of a healthy knight was the depleted knight granted leave to depart.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino & Franz Hautzinger - unreleased live recording, track 1 (August 23, 2013, Saalfelden Jazz Festival, Saalfelden, Austria, digital file)

May 19, 2020
The number ten thousand was inviolate. An exhausted knight was not allowed to privately dispense of themselves in the manner of their own choosing, lest, at the moment of the suicidal act, their resolve should weaken. The notion that an errant knight might secretly flee to promulgate a second order loomed as an out-sized fear, for the specter of the billions of lives sacrificed in the deluge demanded that the diluvian knights hold true to their shared vow.

Still, the aliens were not without a sense of compassion. They allowed the moribund knight to choose from their number a companion, who would serve as witness and would return with unequivocal evidence of death. To sever the anemone from the rest of the body in a ritual decapitation may seem inordinately gruesome but, upon presentation, it provided proof to all assembled that the deed was done, the oath upheld, their honor undiluted.

Cole interrupted the alien to ask if it had ever served in the role of final witness. The creature waved the translucent tentacles that covered its face in an ambiguous gesture, which Cole proved unable to decipher.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino & Peter Brötzmann - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-3 (October 9, 2013, Rice University Media Center, Houston, Texas, United States, digital files)

May 20, 2020
The diluvian knight that occupied Cole's bed explained over the course of a week how the practice now employed for transitioning to a replacement home contained five steps, the first of which was observation from afar. Myriad worlds, it claimed, were inspected without ever being visited. The ability to access dimensions beyond time and space provided the knights with a mechanism through which they could survey a solar system, evaluating each for the habitability of the planets therein and the long-term stability of the sun.

The initial criterion by which a planet was judged tenable lay in its capacity to support biological life. However, for a race as advanced as the anemone-faced creatures, mere physical survival was insufficient. Additional criteria invoked esthetic considerations. The visitor expressed to Cole a range of emotions triggered in response to ordinary external stimuli, using as examples to which he might relate such images as snow-covered mountain vistas, the reflection of sunrise on the underside of clouds and tracts of verdant forest stretching to the horizon. It seemed that many of the phenomena, which endeared Earth to its local inhabitants, also held appeal for non-native species.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino & Peter Brötzmann - unreleased live recording, tracks 4-6 (October 9, 2013, Rice University Media Center, Houston, Texas, United States, digital files)

May 21, 2020
The second step in a planetary relocation involved the selection of herald. The diluvian knights managed the announcement of their imminent arrival by disclosing it under well-controlled circumstances to one or more carefully selected members of the dominant native species. These individuals subsequently served as harbingers, disseminating the information through the conventional channels of their kind.

A particular phrase had caught Cole's attention: 'one or more' heralds. "Are you," he asked, "sleeping with other men?" He considered this an amusing way to inquire about the exclusivity of their nocturnal arrangements.

His thoughts seemed to reach the knight, for it became clear to Cole that he was the sole recipient of its extended message. He did not know whether to feel pride for having been singled out or loneliness that he was, for a second time in his life, subject to a truth no one else could see. It did not occur to Cole that his demonstrated ability to keep private his experiences with the squids was a determining trait by which he had been chosen as herald.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Shun Sakai & Takashi Seo - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-7 (November 25, 2013, Pit Inn, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 22, 2020
The communication between Cole and the diluvian knight occurred primarily in one direction, with information flowing from the alien to the human. In the handful of instances when Cole had put a direct question to the creature, the answers had not been directly forthcoming. Only in the recent, specific case of asking how many others this knight visited had he received knowledge that provided an unambiguous response to his query. Still, he felt a kinship growing with his nocturnal visitor; it was a natural consequence of their extended conversations. So Cole felt emboldened to ask, "What is the third step?" He thought this question innocuous since the first two steps of planetary migration had been described on the knight's own initiative. However, Cole received no identifiable reply to this question. Although he did not recognize this as such, a precisely prescribed sequence of events was unfolding about him. Deviation from the script was not tolerated. Instead, the diluvian knight continued a rather detailed exposition on the criteria for heralds, a topic which it had failed to fully cover on the previous night.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Shun Sakai & Takashi Seo - unreleased live recording, tracks 8-15 (November 25, 2013, Pit Inn, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 23, 2020
Married readers may well wonder what effect the nightly visits had on Cole's relationship with Elaine. Of course, it lies outside the realm of possibility that a wife could remain entirely oblivious to the fact that her husband was receiving regular instruction from an extraterrestrial intelligence. It matters not whether the diluvian night was a manifestation of Cole's imagination, as we suppose was the case for the squids of his childhood, or a genuine first contact between species born of different planets. Cole interacted with the knight as if it were consistent with reality.

Unfortunately for Elaine, there was, as we have noted many times thus far in the narrative, something wrong with Cole. Whatever influence his exposure to the history of the diluvian knights exerted on him was muted by his already taciturn nature and the fact that he eschewed many social conventions. In short, the additional degree of reticence and increased frequency of absent-minded reveries, as he recalled fantastic details of the alien lectures, proved barely perceptible, as odd behaviors go. Still, it cannot be said that Elaine was insensitive to a change in her husband. However, his behavior did not trigger her internal alarm trained to detect infidelity, her bellwether of the state of their marriage, so she remained content.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Henry Kaiser & Jim O'Rourke - unreleased live recording, tracks 1-4 (December 2, 2013, Super Deluxe, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 24, 2020
"What is the third step?" asked Cole again of his midnight visitor. A surge in the intensity of the pale blue luminosity momentarily flashed through the writhing tentacles of the diluvian knight. Cole began to feel alarmed; he was well acquainted with several examples of alien invasions, having watched them transpire in movie theaters. Therefore, he suspected the reticence of the alien to speak on this matter was due to the threatening nature of the third step. Presumably, it involved terra-forming or some similar modification of the global environment to better suit the biology or temperament of the knights. Cole further imagined that, if terra-forming was in the mix, he would be compelled to form a resistance movement in order to preserve his species.

As if projected onto a cinema screen of their own, all his thoughts were laid bare to the diluvian knight. By some mechanism, the fact that his suspicions had been unveiled was made clear to Cole. With nothing to hide, he declared to the anemone-faced alien, "Out with it! If you harbor a terrible plan, I would know of it. Let us not delay, if I am to be placed me in a position where I am obligated to kill you."

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Henry Kaiser & Jim O'Rourke - unreleased live recording, tracks 5-8 (December 2, 2013, Super Deluxe, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 25, 2020
The diluvian knights chose their heralds with great deliberation. Many candidates were screened and preliminary interrogations performed, in a manner not unlike the introduction to Cole, without the extra-terrestrial origin of the strange visions ever coming to light. Those aborted attempts ended with the individual shrugging off a passing spell of weird dreams. Rejection of the candidate, this far along in the process, when the alien had already revealed its presence and announced the impending arrival of its kind, was rare.

Nevertheless, the knight was not entirely surprised. The traits, by which heralds were selected, placed, of a necessity, the individual far from complacency. If a person was situated as an outlier in this one respect, it was probable that the herald-in-training possessed other eccentricities. The diluvian knights had long ago adopted a regimen to correct situations such as the one Cole presented. To this protocol, the alien took recourse. It hinted at forbidden knowledge, as if dangling a fruit before a man lost in the desert for days. Predictably, Cole created excuses to delay confrontation with the knight, reasoning to himself, "I shall discover the extent of their plan, before I break company with it."

written while listening to:  Sanhedrin - unreleased live recording, track 1 (December 13, 2013, Club Goodman, Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 26, 2020
The diluvian knight communicated to Cole the proposition that the number of Homo sapiens on Earth currently exceeded the planet's capacity to sustain them. To be sure, Cole was already of aware of this fact. His daughter's campaign to convince the officials at her school to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy was driven entirely over concern for ecological damage caused by anthropogenic climate change. "We are working on that," Cole replied half-heartedly. He did not attempt a full-throated endorsement of humanity's efforts on this front because, of course, humanity was mounting a very lackluster response. In many cases, especially in the case of the current president, powerful groups with short-term financial interests that would be threatened by a shift in energy sources or by associated changes in social behavior, actively denied that climate change was anything more than a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to weaken the American economy. The diluvian knight suggested that there were more effective ways to deal with issue. Cole had no choice but to listen as it described one such plan.

written while listening to:  Sanhedrin - unreleased live recording, tracks 2-3 (December 13, 2013, Club Goodman, Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 27, 2020
Human beings value their humanity, using it to elevate themselves over all other life forms. For this reason dehumanization is the greatest threat an individual can face, whether it be caused by the mechanization of the labor force, the automation of services once rendered by other humans, or through deliberate policies, which deprive a subset of people of their human rights, such as slavery or less overt social injustices. Because the diluvian knight was not of Earth, it explained to Cole that beneficent philosophers of humanity were both correct in valuing the dignity of individual life and errant in limiting that belief to include exclusively Homo sapiens. The singular distinction of humans with respect to all other species was an arbitrary conceit. Humans managed populations of both domestic and wild fauna and flora to accord with their needs and, in some cases, whims. Yet they had neglected to place similar constraints upon their own population. Never should a species impose on another that to which they were unwilling to subject themselves. The alien said this with authority because its kind had invited the great deluge, which, for every million lives lost, left but one knight.

written while listening to:  Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke & Oren Ambarchi - unreleased live recording, track 1 (March 2, 2014, Super Deluxe, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, digital file)

May 28, 2020
In this manner, the plan of the diluvian knights to reduce the population of Homo sapiens on Earth to a number, which they deemed consistent with the capacity of the environment, was revealed to Cole. "You mean to reproduce the deluge," he said aloud. His wife, cocooned within the alien's luminous presence, remained asleep. The global population stood at roughly eight billion. If the knights held to the same ratio that they had used on their own planet, namely one in a million, that would leave only eight thousand surviving humans. Cole's thoughts were transparent to the knight. It explained that the ratio was not fixed. In fact, his estimate of eight thousand humans was far below the projections based on their intended purposes.

This exchange constituted Cole's first intimation that the aliens harbored an ulterior purpose beyond making neighbors of human beings. Again, Cole contemplated how he might dispatch the alien without causing harm to this wife. He accepted that any of the suspicions and stratagems, which passed through his mind, were known to his inhuman guest.

written while listening to:  Nazoranai - unreleased live recording, track 1 (March 3, 2014, Super Deluxe, Roppongi, Tokyo, Japan, digital file)

May 29, 2020
Cole pressed the diluvian knight to reveal the purpose to which humans would be put, once the aliens had installed themselves on Earth. It remained difficult for Cole to read meaning into the gestures and silences of his anemone-faced visitor. Fluctuations in the intensity and hue of the internal illumination surely conveyed a meaning to which he was not yet attenuated. Still, he sensed a reluctance in the knight to answer. "You have already stated your intention to unleash a cataclysm upon humanity. What point is there in keeping details secret once the broad plan has been shared?" In the knight's continued silence, Cole repeated his threat. "If you tell me no more, we must part ways. I shall do my best to thwart you. If that means your death and mine, so be it."

The alien had no fear of Cole, objectively an insignificant biological organism confined to three and a half dimensions. It further had the advantage of approaching from the future, so it knew what reasoning to employ. It asked Cole to be patient and to give it time to compose a proper reply, a meaningless accommodation for one such as the knight. It promised to divulge the desired information on the following night.

written while listening to:  Sanhedrin - unreleased live recording, track 1 (March 7, 2014, Club Goodman, Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 30, 2020
The alien likened the diluvian knights to archivists, engaged in the preservation of memory. It was the single occupation that sustained them. Lives of seemingly endless duration had driven them to examine with great interest and care the dynamic phenomena, which constituted the workings of the universe. In exploring the experiences of the animate, more so than the inanimate, the knights found a pastime that offered the possibility of boundless entertainment and edification, a veritable cornucopia of variations on the eternal dance of matter and energy. Interactions on the cosmic level could be categorized into kinds of events, which exhibited similar behaviors--the dying of stars, the collisions of galaxies, the merging of blackholes. In each example, differences emerged that engaged the attentive observer. Harnessed to consciousness, the lives of organisms, while following a largely pre-defined pattern of birth, growth, aging and death, manifested nuances and eccentricities that could be deemed worth documenting to those who made such chronicles their business. These generalities did not fully satisfy Cole, who again urged the alien to speak specifically of its intentions for mankind. Again, the sating of his curiosity was postponed for another night.

written while listening to:  Sanhedrin - unreleased live recording, tracks 2-3 (March 7, 2014, Club Goodman, Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, digital files)

May 31, 2020
It belatedly became clear to Cole that he exerted no measure of control over the content or pace of the interaction with the alien. His threats to kill the creature had only prompted it to adopt delaying tactics, which were transparent and which cast the piecemeal conversation to date in a different light.

Cole was reminded of the tenth-century collection of folk tales, One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. In these stories, after his queen's infidelity, a misogynistic king sleeps with a different virgin every night, only to have her killed in the morning to preserve her faithfulness. When it is Shaharazad's turn to enjoy the king's favor, she tells half a story on her first night. The king is obligated to extend her companionship through a second night in order to hear the completion of the tale. This Shaharazad delivers, as well as the beginning of another tale, and so on, ensuring the following day's survival for a thousand and one nights, at the end of which the king has fallen in love with her and makes her his queen.

written while listening to:  Nazoranai - unreleased live recording, track 1 (March 29, 2014, Scruffy City Hall, Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, digital file)

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