Thursday 1 April 2010

HerEticalism and ConFusionism

I'm currently about 50,000 words into The Demi-Monde 3: Summer with the action moving from the Quartier Chaud (where DM 2 was set) to the Coven. The Coven has a racial mix which is orientated towards the East (Chinese, Japanese and Burmese) and a gender mix which is skewed 2:1 in favour of women. The religion here is HerEticalism which I've defined as follows:

HerEticalism is the official religion of the Coven. Developed by Empress Wu, HerEticalism is based on female supremacy and the belief that if the Demi-Monde is to survive and flourish it must be protected from misMANagment - the aberational and perverse rule of nonFemmes (aka Man) - which in turn will require the subjugation and ultimate elimination of nonFemmes. HerEticalism rejects heterosexual sex, believing it to be an artificial socio-political construct by which nonFemmes have oppressed Femmes. Instead HerEticals practice Femme2Femme sex known as MoreBienism. HeEticalism teaches that the utopian condition of MostBien - of the achieving by Femmes of political, religious, economic and sexual supremacy in the Demi-Monde - will only be secured when the male of the species has been eliminated from the Breeding Cycle. More radical HerEticals - the Suffer-O-Gettes - are of the opinion that the ultimate expression and apotheosis of MostBien will require the total elimination of all nonFemmes.

As I guess you'll have twigged the Coven is run by the most extreme examples of ultra-radical Feminists and it's been quite interesting doing my background research on the stuff written by people like Andrea Dworkin, Helene Cixous , Marilyn Frye and Valerie Solanas. Before I delved intothis I had no idea that such movements as anarcha-Feminism and Separtist-Feminism even existed so it's been a real education and the SCUM Manifesto and ideas about a Lesbian Utopia have been inspirational.

I had a lot of fun concocting the nomenclature that I'd be using with regard to HerEticalism. In the Coven 'woman' is a bondage term for the female gender so in order to avoid the lingusitic contamination of patriarchal-centric speech the terms 'Femme' is use for woman and 'nonFemme' for man. Femme2Femme love, romance and sex is referred to as MoreBienism and those who practice it are MoreBiens. Of course this has been lampooned throughout the Demi-Monde with the Femme followers of MoreBienism being ridiculed as LessBiens. The Feminine Utopia is called MostBien.

The problem I had was that as the Coven is largely Sino-Nipponese in orientation I had to find a way of meshing HerEticalism with Eastern philosophy and I did this by surmising that this Eastern religion - ConFusionism - was usurped by HerEticalism. The back story is that during 993 and 994 AC (After Containment) the revolutionary forces of HerEticalism and the reactionary forces of ConFusionism jockeyed for position and power within the Coven. Finally in 995 Femme Wu felt strong enough to act and during the Fight for the Forbidding City forces loyal to Wu stromed the Imperial Palace, executed the Emperor, his family and all the ConFusionist lackeys and running dogs responsible for the maintenance of a Femme-oppressive and patriarchal Coven. The Coven was proclaimed a HerEtical Sector in 996.

After coming to power the Empress Wu decreed [Decree 995/chop: Regarding the Eunuchisation of the Covenite Civil Service] that henceforward any nonfemme working in the Covenite Civil Service, serving in the Covenit Army, or having duties and responsibilities within the walls of the ForBidding City had to be a NoN [the Covenite term for a eunuch; it's a corruption of 'he ain't got none']. This led to a mass exodus of nonFemmes from the Coven matched by a equal number fleeing NoirVille and Shaka Zulus venomously misogynistic HimPerialism.

So that explains why there are more women in the Coven than men, and why there are more men than women in NoirVille.

All well and good. BUT as there was now an undercurrent of ConFusionism in the Coven I needed to get straight in my own mind what ConFusionism is. I spent almost two weeks researching Eastern philosophy and if I'd spent two years I doubt if I'd have been any the wiser.

NEWSFLASH; JUST HEARD THAT SPURS LOST TO SUNDERLAND...ARGHHH!!!!!!!!

Eastern philosophy is subtle, esoteric and enigmatic: I didn't have a chance. So, Folks, this is Rod Rees' definition of ConFusionism:

ConFusionism is the religio-philosophical system that held sway in the Coven until it was toppled by HerEticalism in 996AC. Although it is now outlawed in that Sector ConFusionism (and especially its subForm, WunZianism) still informs much of Covenite life, thought and moral attitudes. Based on the teachings of the mysterious Master as recorded in the two preConfinement MasterWorks, the iChink and the BiAlects, ConFusionism differs from all other religions in the Demi-Monde in that it refuses to provide a definitive guide to its followers as to what a ConFusionist should believe and how they should act. This 'confusion' inherent in ConFusionism is a result of the Master's teachings being represented by the diametrically opposed views of two mythical opponents and their inability - and, it must be said, ferocious unwillingness - to Fuse these views into a single teaching.

What this means if I've now completed BackGrounders to:

unFunDaMentalism

ImPuritanism;

Auralism;

HerEticalism;

HimPerialism; and

ConFusionism.

So all I've got left to write are RaTionalism (I'm dreading that) and WhoDooism. I can't wait.


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