THE DEMI-MONDE SUMMER

I took a draft of the unfinished third book with me to Egypt. I'd got sorta stuck with my characters running down way too many plot cul-de-sacs so I needed a little thinking time. And it worked. I came away with most of Summer outlined and the plot of the final book Fall almost finished. The key to this was a funny (well, not so funny actually) Russian called Konstantin Pobedonsotsev.


Konstantin Pobedonostsev

Now if ever there was a guy whose face was just made for horror fiction it's got to be Pobedonostsev. He lived during the nineteenth century, was head of the Holy Synod (which made him supervisor of the Orthodox Church) and, most importantly, exerted a huge influence over Tsar Alexander III. That he was fervently anti-Semitic, a believer in autocracy and an opponent to all things liberal and progressive makes him a perfect candidate for reincarnation in the Demi-Monde.

I've done a little piece of dialogue already:

Q: ABBA, I observed, seems to loom large in Mr Pobedonostsev’s thinking regarding the ForthRight's role in the world.
A:‘In this increasingly secular world, when we are all beset by the specious ideas peddled by a decadent scientific establishment, when the atheistic cant of the RaTionalists people is taken as the new gospel, when the faux-religions of HerEticalism and ImPuritanism are promoted and propagandised, it is easy for the young and the less clever to be seduced from the path of Righteousness. They do not realise, as I do, that these ideas are actually sent by Lilith to test and challenge our belief and faith in Him. The ForthRight is a bulwark against the evil of Lilith that has infested the Demi-Monde.’
Q: But what of liberty…what of individual human rights?
A:Mr Pobodonostsev laughed, ‘In my opinion liberty is a dangerous delusion of nihilistic youth. I would rather talk of liberating the people from Doubt, of liberating them from the lies of Modern Science and of Liberating them from the contamination of the nuJus. I would rather talk of Liberating them from Lilith. We must expunge doubt from the Demi-Monde and to do this there must be one race, one nationality, one language, one religion and one form of government. Where there is the Spirit of ABBA so there is Liberation of the Soul.'
Q: And what is the role of the Church of UnFunDaMentalism in this expunging of doubt?
A: ‘This expulsion of doubt is the ABBA-given duty of the Church,’ observed Pobedonostsev. ‘In the ForthRight the Government and the Church are as one and together we are building a kingdom of ABBA here in the Demi-Monde…’
Q: A theocracy, I suggested.
A: ‘Theocracy is a word brought into disrepute by the hysterical and evil nations addicted to false religions…these, thankfully, will be destroyed when ABBA sends His fury of retribution sweeping over their lands. I make no apology for the use of this word: the ForthRight is a theocracy and as such those in the Demi-Monde who do not bow to UnFunDaaMentalism must be seen as the agents of Lilith they are, as the enemies of Right. There must be no dissent; the enemies of ABBA will be silenced. More…the ForthRight must destroy its enemies…must destroy the forces of the devil.’
Q: And who are these enemies? I asked.
A:‘There are so, so many…’ Mr Pobedonostsev answered. ‘The ForthRight is assailed on all sides by the armies and the agents of Lilith.’ He paused for a moment, ‘But there is one thing above all others that we must do: we must also eradicate the contagion that is the nuJu…’

He's the guy I'm gonna use to link all the action in the ForthRight, NoirVille and the JAD. The tragedy is that every opinion expressed in the dialogue was voiced by the real Pobedonostsev, and he was regarded by contemporaries as an intellectual! Crazy as all hell.