....
Artifacts provide the first sign that a Tangent Universe has
FOREWORD
I would like to thank the sisters of the Saint John Chapter in
Alexandria, Virginia for their support (in my decision).
By the grace of God, they are:
Sister Eleance Lewis
Sister Francesca Godard
Sister Helen Davis
Sister Catherine (Arnold)
Sister Mary Lee Pond
Sister Virginia (Weaver)
.…This intent(?) of this short book is for it to be used as a simple
and direct guide in a time of great danger.
I pray that this is merely a work of fiction.
If it is not, then I pray for you, the reader of this book.
....If I am still alive when the events foretold in these pages occur,
then I hope that you will find me before it is too late.
Roberta Ann Sparrow
October, 1944
chapter one
THE TANGENT UNIVERSE
....The Primary Universe is fraught with great peril. War, plague,
famine and natural disaster are common. Death comes to us all.
....The Fourth Dimension of Time is a stable construct, though it
is not impenetrable.
....Incidents when the fabric of the fourth dimension becomes
corrupted are incredibly rare.
....If a Tangent Universe occurs, it will be highly unstable,
sustaining itself for no longer than several weeks.
....Eventually it will collapse upon itself, forming a black hole
within the Primary Universe capable of destroying all existence.
chapter two
WATER AND METAL
Water and Metal are the key elements of Time Travel.
....Water is the barrier element for the construction of Time
Portals used as gateways between Universes at the Tangent
Vortex.
....Metal is the (transitional) element for the construction of
Artifact Vessels.
chapter four
THE ARTIFACT AND
THE LIVING
....When a Tangent Universe occurs, those living nearest to the
Vortex will find themselves at the epicenter of a dangerous new
world.
occurred.
....If an Artifact occurs, the Living will retrieve it with great
interest and curiosity. Artifacts are formed from metal, such as an
Arrowhead from an ancient Mayan civilization, or a Metal Sword
from Medieval Europe.
....Artifacts returned to the Primary Universe are often linked to
religious iconography; as their appearance on Earth seems to defy
logical explanation.
....Divine Intervention is deemed the only logical conclusion for
the appearance of the Artifact.
chapter six
THE LIVING RECEIVER
....The Living Receiver is chosen to guide the Artifact into
position for it's journey back to the Primary Universe.
No one knows how or why a Receiver will be chosen.
....The Living Receiver is often (blessed) with a Fourth
Dimensional Power(s). These include increased strength,
telekinesis, mind control, and the ability to conjure fire and water.
....The Living Receiver is often tormented by terrifying dreams,
visions and auditory hallucinations during his time within the
Tangent Universe.
....Those surrounding the Living Receiver, known as the
Manipulated, will fear him and try to destroy him.
chapter seven
THE MANIPULATED
LIVING
....The Manipulated Living are often the close friends and
neighbors of the Living Receiver.
....They are prone to irrational, bizarre, and often violent behavior.
This is the unfortunate result of their task, which is to assist the
Living Receiver in returning the Artifact to the Primary Universe.
....The Manipulated Living will do anything to save themselves
from Oblivion.
chapter ten
THE MANIPULATED
DEAD
....The Manipulated Dead are more powerful than the Living
Receiver. If a person dies within the Tangent Dimension, they are
able to contact the Living Receiver through the Fourth
Dimensional Construct. The Fourth Dimensional Construct is
made of Water.
....The Manipulated Dead will manipulate the Living Receiver
using the Fourth Dimensional Construct (see Appendix A and B).
....The Manipulated Dead will often set an Ensurance Trap for the
Living Receiver to ensure that the Artifact is returned safely to
the Primary Universe.
....If the Ensurance Trap is successful, the Living Receiver is left
with no choice but to use his Fourth Dimensional Power to send
the Artifact back in time into the Primary Universe before the
Black Hole collapses upon itself.
chapter twelve
DREAMS
....When the Manipulated awakens from their Journey into the
Tangent Universe, they are often haunted by the experience in
their dreams. Many of them will not remember.
....Those who do remember the Journey are often overcome with
profound remorse for the regretful actions buried within their
Dreams, the only physical evidence buried within the Artifact
itself, all that remains from the lost world.
....Ancient myth tells us of the Mayan Warrior killed by an
Arrowhead that had fallen from a cliff, where there was no Army,
no enemy to be found.
....We are told of the Medieval Knight mysteriously impaled by
the sword he had not yet built.
We are told that these things occur for a reason.
DONNIE’S LETTER TO
ROBERTA SPARROW
Dear Roberta Sparrow,
I have reached the end of your book
and there are so many questions that I
need to ask you.
Sometimes I am afraid of what you
might tell me. Sometimes I am afraid this
is not a work of fiction. I can only hope
that the answer will come to me in my
sleep.
I hope that when the world comes to an end,
I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there
will be so much to look forward to.
Donnie Darko
SYMBOLISM
rabbits/bunnies/ bunny rabbits (+ hares)
general ideas / common symbolism
• Life, healing, clear-sightedness, gentleness / Luck; trust; love;
friendship; fear; evasion / Rabbit symbolism concerns the Moon
(Intuition).
• The rabbit represents humility, because he is quiet and soft and
not self-asserting. -- Black Elk Chinese tradition says that people
born under the sign of the Rabbit possess intelligence, wisdom,
and understanding. After turbulent Tiger years, Rabbit years are
times of diplomacy and gentle persuasion. Emphasis is placed on
human rights and helping the underprivileged. Activities dealing
with healing and medicine will flourish. An excellent judge of
character, they are difficult to deceive.
• Older than Christianity, the symbolism of the hare is thus a
celebration of life's continuation with rebirth, as in each spring,
and the rabbit expresses hope that life will be renewed, and
better than before.
• The nocturnal rabbit, signifying the moon who dies every
morning and is resurrected every evening, also represents the
rebirth of nature in spring. Both the moon and the rabbit were
believed to die in order to be reborn. Therefore the hare is a
symbol of immortality. In Egypt, Osiris, god of the dead, was
sacrificed to the Nile each year in the form of a hare to guarantee
the annual flooding Egyptian agriculture depended upon.
Although the hare is not a symbol for Christ some analogy might
be made to Christ who was sacrificed in the form of a man for the
feeding of God's people.
To Buddhists the hare is a symbol of self-sacrifice. Legend says
this creature threw itself into a fire in order to feed Buddha when
he was starving. As a reward, it was given a new home in the
moon.
Because of its fertility (one doe can produce 42 young a year),
the rabbit or hare is an emblem of fertility, abundance, good
fortune, sexuality, lasciviousness, lust, procreation, puberty,
renewal, spring, rampant growth, excess, and love gods and
goddesses such as Venus, Aphrodite, and Cupid. Pliny the Elder
even prescribed its meat as a cure for female sterility. The white
hare sometimes found at Mary's feet represents her triumph over
lust or the flesh. Because it signifies abundance, the rabbit is
sometimes used in western countries as a harvest or fall symbol.
It also stands for madness and the month of March.
The rabbit's alertness and speed made it a Christian symbol of
vigilance and the need to flee from sin and temptation. Like the
lion, the hare was believed to be so vigilant that it slept with its
eyes open. Its flesh was contaminated with wakefulness and
could cause insomnia in its eater. Its speed was a reminder of the
swift passage of life.
...The rabbit's burrow is a symbol of Christ's tomb.....The rabbit's
trembling makes it a symbol of cowardice and timidity. However,
Judeo-Christian writings recommend a holy trembling before the
Lord. [1 Chr 16:30; Ps 96:9, 99:1, 114:7; Is 19:1, 66:2; Jer 5:22,
33:9] The writer of Philippians warns the Christian to "work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling." [Phil 2:12] In
Medieval times, cowardice was personified with drawings of an
armed man running from a hare. On the other hand, in Africa and
the Americas, the hare was believed to be a trickster using its
superior intellect as its defense. Some tribes considered him a
hero and even the earth's creator. Aztecs believed 400 rabbits
guarded their fields.
- If we consider the phases of the moon in its waxing (masculine)
and waning (feminine), and accept the notion that the moon at
full intensity is the Destroyer of Darkness or, as Hillard says,
"sign of new life and the messenger of immortality," we can
appreciate the honored position to which the rabbit has
ascended..... A number of explanations account for this
hare/moon symbiosis. One is that the hare is nocturnal and feeds
by night; another is that the hare's gestation period is one month
long. And, it was believed that a rabbit could change its sex—like
the moon.
Alice in Wonderland - rabbits & more
There are many similarities between the two narratives. Donnie
falls asleep, and hears, then sees Frank, a 6-foot tall rabbit-
costume wearing being. Alice's summer slumber brings a vision
of a talking rabbit wearing human adornments. Frank tells
Donnie to follow him, & leads Donnie to a golf course. Alice
chases her rabbit, following him right down the rabbit hole.
Character introduction and water/metal symbolism aside, the golf
course/rabbit hole relation seems obvious. Like Alice's rabbit,
Frank acts as Donnie's guide in the mad world of the
"underground". (This aspect is suggested by Donnie's poem.)
Alice's rabbit is a servant of the Queen / Frank is a being
manipulated by the master force. Alice and Donnie are similar in
their confusion and curiousity, both are desperate to figure out
what is happening to themselves. Also... eat me/drink me similar
to Donnie's pills, both characters are changing lifeforces -- Alice
grows tall / shrinks, Donnie grows stronger & superhuman-like
when he's sleepwalking. These physical changes give solution to
the current dilemma the character is facing, but also cause
feelings of isolation and fear. And... The mirror imagery of
Donnie's bathroom communion place with Frank is similar to
Through the Looking Glass.
Water / Metal
• general ideas: nourishment, rebirth, regeneration, renewal and
fertility (water) / hopelessness and despair
• (water) Fr. Alexander Schmemann writes: "Water is
undoubtedly one of the most ancient and universal of all religious
symbols. From the Christian point of view three essential
dimensions of this symbolism are important. The first one can be
termed cosmical. There can be no life without water, and because
of this the "primitive" man identifies water with the principle of
life, sees in it the prima essentia of the world: '...and the Spirit of
God was moving on the face of the waters'(Gen. 1:2). But if
water reflects and symbolizes the world as cosmos and life, it is
also the symbol of destruction and death. It is the mysterious
depth which kills and annihilates, the dark habitation of the
demonic powers, the very image of the irrational,
uncontrollable, elemental in the world. The principle of life, a
life-giving power, and the principle of death, the power of
destruction: such is the essentially ambiguous intuition of water
in man's religious worldview. And finally, water is the principle
of purification, of cleanliness, and therefore of regeneration and
renewal. It washes away stains, it re-creates the pristine purity of
the earth. It is this fundamental religious symbolism of water -
symbolism rooted in the self-evident and natural attributes of
water - that permeates the Bible and the whole biblical story of
creation, fall and salvation.(Of Water and the Spirit p. 39) Thus
our Lord allows Himself to be cleansed in order to restore this
fundamental element of the world, and to purge it of the demonic.
• (metal) that which can be manipulated and used with infinite
precision and acuteness.... conductive/magnetic (the
airplane/engine, Donnie's knife)
REFFERENCES
• Jacob's Ladder
• (no. i'm not going to include it, okay fine - ) Harvey
• Mr. Mom (just kidding. even though hey it is from the 80s. so
Max Dugan Returns, and Real Genius and... North Shore -plus
the main character wears surf t-shirts like Donnie...)
• Wizard of Oz ..."parallels: 1) The Wicked Witch. [I think you
know who I'm talking about.] 2) The Good Witch who gives
Dorothy the Rudy Slippers [Grandma Death and her Philosophy
of Time Travel.} 3) The Wizard/exposed as a fraud [Mr. Jim
Cunningham] 4) The Tornado" --Impulsivelad2
- the following submitted by Robert -
"I'm very much a film buff and some excellent films (IMO) that
are similar to Donnie Darko (in one way or another) are:
1) Ghost Dog (modern day "ghetto" hitman bases his code of
conduct on a 17th century Samurai text entitled Hagakure).
2) Pi (math/computer genius stumbles across 200+ digit combo
that may or may not contain the name of God...will it destroy or
liberate?).
3) The Seventh Seal (the 1957 version with Max Von Sydow) -
Death challenges a disillusioned knight to game of chess.
4) Waking Life (a newer animated feature). Don't let the fact that
this is an animated feature turn you off -- it is very, very good.
5) Monty Python's Holy Grail (full of absolutely hilarious
symbolism and good old fashioned mockery).
6) Natural Born Killers - a homicidal romantic couple? Replete
with symbolism (one of my fav films).
7) Rashomon (a 1957 japanese film) - Rape in feudal japan from
the perspective of the different individuals involved.
8) Wings of Desire - One of the "watchers" gives up his
immortality for the sake of a mortal. Very, very good film.
9) Jacob's Ladder - This guy's alive, right?
10) A Pure Formality - If you figure this movie out on the first
viewing...well...I'd be shocked (everyone I know that has seen
this film either had to watch it twice or read reviews to
understand it)."
MISCELLANEOUS
Edgar Allan Poe said his favorite word in the English language
was cellar door. // strike that (maybe) -- it appears J.R.R.
Tolkien's favorite word in the... was (also) cellar door. Maybe
both authors loved the word, but this seems rather strange. oh
well... / okay now i'm starting to think there is some sort of
cellar-door-favorite-word conspiracy goin' on, see this link here.
{special thanks to Sune Mølgaard for the info}
T. was giving his orders with decision: it was as though this plan
had been with him all his life, pondered through the seasons, now
in his fifteenth year crystallized with the pain of puberty....
[read Graham Greene's The Destructors]
the shot above (the flooding of the school) was inspired by the
work below by artist Scott Mutter
A lyric I wrote isn't meant to define this image but to speak to it
and at the same time to introduce a truism of human nature:
I'm a pilgrim on the edge,
on the edge of my perception
We are travelers at the edge,
we are always at the edge of our perceptions.
--Scott Mutter, Surrational Images
But we also need the possibility of cataclysm, so that, when
situations seem hopeless, and beyond the power of any natural
force to amend, we may still anticipate salvation from a messiah,
a conquering hero, a deus ex machina, or some other agent with
power to fracture the unsupportable and institute the unobtainable.
--Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning the Millennium: A
Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown
deux ex machina - "god from the machine" / definitions from this
site
1. In Greek and Roman drama, a god lowered by stage machinery
to resolve a plot or extricate the protagonist from a difficult
situation.
2. An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or
event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to
resolve a situation or untangle a plot.
3. A person or event that provides a sudden and unexpected
solution to a difficulty.