The Modern Divine Comedy Book 1: Inferno 1 Descending

By Andrew J. Farrara

This book explores and details the experiences and trials of both the Journalist Romano known here as the First Man Adam and his celestial ancient Persian guide Zarathustra while they travel to the Inferno and Limboland Arenas of the Pre-Historic Paleo Heroes; the Ancient Greek Gods & Goddesses; the Ancient Roman Gods & Goddesses; the Sumerian & Babylonian & Egyptian Gods; the Norse Viking Gods; the Indian Hindoo Vedic Gods; the Chinese Gods & Emperors; the Koreans; the Vietnamese; the Amerikan Experimental; the Cambodian & Laotian Encampments; the Burmese; the Hodgepodge of Nations On The Fringe Desiring Anonymity; the Japanese; the Irish Republican Army & Sinn Fein; the Native Americans; the Incas & Aztecs & Mayas; and Cuba & Nicaragua.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663245649

Andrew J. Farrara

World traveler, writer, adventurer, entrepreneur, artist, romantic poet, Italian opera affezionato, ex-rugby player, and political animal! Andrew J. Farrara was born in Reading, Pa. in September 1950 and educated in the Reading School District. Coming-of-age in then-industrial Pennsylvania gave him an insatiable wanderlust. Since 1967 the author has traveled to over 135 countries and territories as determined by the Travelers’ Century Club lastly on a cruise from Genoa through the Suez Canal to the island of Mauritius and a flight to Madagascar, Ethiopia and England in 2019. He has visited all Seven Continents, including Antarctica, every State of the United States except North Dakota, and has conducted three around-the-world backpacking expeditions; for 8 weeks in 1983; 220 days in 1987-88; and 5 weeks in 2018. The second trip was the subject of his book entitled Around the World in 220 Days: Notes of an American Traveler Abroad published by Infinity Press in 2004. The author holds a BA in History and Political Science (1972) and an MA in Modern European History (1975) from Kutztown University, Pa. He taught social studies and history part-time in the Reading School District and at the Reading Area Community College before serving as an elected Reading School Board member from 1975 to 1977. Farrara served honorably in the Pennsylvania Air and Army National Guard from 1972 to 1978 as a Telecommunications Center Specialist in the 193rd Tactical Electronic Warfare Group at Middletown, Pa and as a Tank Crewman, Machine Gunner & Loader in the 103rd Armor & as an Infantry Soldier & Radio Operator in the 111th Infantry at the Kutztown Armory, Pa. from 1973 to 1978. The author held the positions of Supervisor then Superintendent of Recreation for the City of Reading from 1978 to 1987 resigning his later position to conduct his nine-month Around the World trip from Dec 1987 to Aug 1988. The author was also trained, certified and graduated from the 160-hour residential District Magistrate Program of the Minor Judiciary Education Board at Wilson College in Chambersburg Pennsylvania in 1982 and as a Pennsylvania Police Officer completing the 480-hour Reading Police Academy in 1983-4. He also completed a Para-Legal Certificate Program in 1976-77 at Penn State Berks Campus. Andrew J. Farrara currently operates an independent insurance agency in Reading since 1988 and spends his free time writing, observing, traveling, painting, and learning. In attempting to keep in shape intellectually and physically his personal motto has always been the well-known Chinese proverb: “Civilize the mind but make savage the body.” The author is presently working on an additional novel entitled Bonfire of the Gods about a group of world travelers taking a Grand Tour of Italia in 1896 starting in Rome Italy moving down to the mysterious Mezzogiorno of Napoli and Sicilia.

Book preview

MODERN DIVINE COMEDY

INFERNO 1:

DESCENDING

FEATURING

A Feeble, Humble but Heroic Attempt

to Analyze the Hereafter

BOOK ONE

ANGELIC NARRATORS VEZY & SARA: This book has no beginning nor ending because it continually lives onward in the minds and hearts of mankind throughout the ages. THIS IS A TRUE STORY! Well, not really, but then Celestial Truth can be stranger than…

By

Andrew J Farrara

BOOK ONE

INFERNO 1 DESCENDING

BOOK 1 OF 8

INFERNO 1 DESCENDING

PRE-SCENE

BEHIND THE STAGE CURTAINS

OVERTURE PHILOSOPHICAL

MANAGING EDITOR & FOREIGN WAR CORRESPONDENT

[First 40 Lines]

MANAGING EDITOR: [yells] God did not create Man. Man created God!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [curiously] What do you mean, chief?

MANAGING EDITOR: [angry] God does not know the Absolute Truth because there is no God and there is no Absolute Truth.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [upset] "How do you know that?"

MANAGING EDITOR: The Absolute Truth is that there is no Truth!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: That sounds contradictory. But you do think that both God and Truth do not exist?

MANAGING EDITOR: God and Truth are both necessary illusions!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [repeats] "God and Truth are both necessary illusions!"

MANAGING EDITOR: [pounds desk & stands up from chair & screams] Religion is the Mother of all Conspiracies and the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [smiles] Religion now!

MANAGING EDITOR: [calmer] "And Politics is the biggest swindle ever conceived by man!"

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [snickers] What do you mean, chief? Is not all religion politics and all politics religion? Ah, you also forgot Business!

MANAGING EDITOR: [yells] Religion is an organized fraud and Politics is a scam game from the Beginning of Time.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [playing] And Business is what? A Fair Deal?

MANAGING EDITOR: [screams] Religion is an instrument of Exploitation used to Enslave not free us while Politics is corrupt as Sin itself.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Chief, you also forgot LUST and SEX! Religion, Politics, Money and Sex! Don’t they all enslave us?

MANAGING EDITOR: [retreats] Kid, and Sex, I agree, is the main source of Man’s destruction.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Hmm, Okay!

MANAGING EDITOR: All the Priests and Politicians should be rounded up and shot!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [teasing] Chief, you sound like a French Revolutionary. I did not know you were a closet anarchist or Marxist. What would you do to the capitalists?

MANAGING EDITOR: [barks] Arf!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: What about newspaper editors?

MANAGING EDITOR: [snaps] Psst! We’re different! We seek, ah… the Real TRUTH.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [laughs] Hmm, okay. You say there is no Absolute Truth but the Editors seek the Real Truth which does not exist. But sometimes Newspaper Editors manufacture and not search for the Truth? Is that what you mean, chief?

MANAGING EDITOR: [raises voice] You are missing my point. Give me another shot of whiskey, kid! It’s Christmas Eve and I…I…I’m losing it; or am I gaining it? [hesitates] I’m getting dizzy now…

WAR CORRESPONDENT: You okay, chief?

MANAGING EDITOR: [staggering] Kid, what do you really believe in after traveling the world and seeing all these disasters, calamities and man’s violence to man?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [laughs] Believe in? I believe in myself and nothing but my own survival and immortality if there is is one!

MODERN

DIVINE COMEDY

REDUX or REVIVED

in EIGHT PARTS

INFERNO 1 DESCENDING

BOOK 1

MISE-EN-SCENE:

HOLY ANGELS VEZY & SARA AS NARRATORS

NARRATOR VEZY: "A young mortal Italo-American Foreign War Correspondent and Journalist named Andrea Romano of the current early 21st century in a bizarre dream thinks he’s living in 1895. He is transported on Christmas Eve to the office of the Managing Editor of the New York Herald and sent to the Inferno, Limboland and Heaven for one full day."

NARRATOR SARA: Journalist Andrea Romano seems to be unknowingly and unwillingly placed on a Divine Mission in an Epic Quest to discover the Holy Secrets of the Ages wherever and whatever they may be while searching for the Meaning of Life.

ANGEL SARA: Should we tell the readers who we are?

ANGEL VEZY: Not yet!

ANGEL SARA: The author wanted to call this series the DIVINE COMEDY being a Search for the Meaning of Existence Thru an Epic Quest to Discover the Holy Secrets of the Universe Wherever & Whatever They May Be but did not want to do it the same way Dante did.

ANGEL VEZY: I thought he wanted to call it the DIVINE COMEDY or DIVINE SATIRE…

ANGEL SARA: "Or A Satire of the Hereafter in The People’s Divine Comedy."

ANGEL VEZY: "Or A Modern Divine Comedy: Twilight of the Gods or a Trilogy being the Bonfire of the Gods."

ANGEL SARA: "Or The Unauthorized History or Story of the Afterlife…"

ANGEL VEZY: "Dante wrote in Italian; ‘Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate’ meaning ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.’"

ANGEL SARA: The author wrote that he wants to move the readers into the literary world of pure fantasy a la James Joyce.

ANGEL VEZY: I hear James Joyce is a character in these books too.

ANGEL SARA: I hear the Devil still wants to indoctrinate the entire world below in his evil philosophy.

ANGEL VEZY: "This Book Series is composed of the following:

BOOK ONE is the INFERNO 1 DESCENDING & BOOK TWO is the INFERNO 2 ASCENDING.

BOOK THREE is the LIMBOLAND 1 ENTRANCE & BOOK FOUR is LIMBOLAND 2 DEPARTURE.

BOOK FIVE is the PURGATORIO 1 ENTRY & BOOK SIX is PURGATORIO 2 DESCENDING. BOOK 7 is the PARADISO 1 ENTRY & BOOK 8 is PARADISO 2 DEPARTURE."

ANGEL SARA: The Author dedicates these books to those Blessed Souls who have reached Paradiso, the Sinful but Savable Souls who are waiting to be judged in Purgatorio & the Damned & Wretched Souls eternally condemned and trapped in the Inferno but who are looking to escape.

ANGEL VEZY: Remember, Sara, GOD forgives everyone so all humans who die on earth arrive in the Purgatorio first to be purged and cleansed of their earthly sins. However, some souls who venture down to the Inferno without Celestial permission do get captured and tortured and imprisioned and there are some who want to stay there but that’s another story.

ANGEL SARA: Oh, yah, I forgot. May the Gods and Goddesses have Mercy on their Pitiful Souls who remain trapped in the Inferno.

HOLY ANGELIC NARRATOR SARA: Vezy, our Journalistic Hero thinks he’s still in the end of 1895 and not in the early contemporary 21st century.

HOLY ANGELIC NARRATOR VEZY: Sara, I thought the themes were love and romance but…

HOLY ANGELIC NARRATOR SARA: But, Vezy, it does include treachery and fraud and deception and trickery that goes along with that.

HOLY ANGELIC NARRATOR VEZY: Sara, the Devil is up to his shenanigans again using the Annual Lantern Parade as a front…

"The New York Herald Newspaper Building in a snowy New York City just closed at 900 PM on Christmas Eve 1895 Year of our Lord except for the Managing Editor’s office in which always burns the midnight oil with characters of the historic past to be alive at the stroke of Midnight on Christmas."

Say again!

"Once Upon A Time some non-British Dickensian Characters of the historic past are to be alive at the stroke of Midnight," remarks Vezy, one of the two Angelic Narrators.

Oh, Dear, this chapter may expose many celestial secrets, Sara, says quietly Vezy, the other Angelic Narrator.

You play the Ancient Greek Chorus and I play the Modern Announcer, advises Angel Sara.

Ahem, practices Angel Vezy singing.

You start now, sister, dictates Angel Sara.

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS VEZY: This is the marvelous Modern Divine Comedy series in eight books by the author.

MODERN ANNOUNCER SARA: Starring the American Foreign War Correspondent and Journalist named Andrea Romano aka Adam…

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS VEZY: And the ancient Holy Prophet Zarathustra as his Celestial and Infernal Guide.

MODERN ANNOUNCER SARA: The Inferno Books 1 & 2 details the trials and tribulations of Adam traveling in the Inferno with Zarathustra.

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS: The Limboland Arenas and Inferno are next…

MODERN ANNOUNCER: The Limboland Books 3 & 4 are where the disenchanted souls struggle and organize to survive without the influence of both God’s help and the Devil’s interference.

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS: The Purgatorio is next!

MODERN ANNOUNCER: The Purgatorio Books 5 & 6 are where all people who die on earth first arrive to be purged and processed in their after-life…

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS: The Paradiso is next!

MODERN ANNOUNCER: The Paradiso Books 7 & 8 are where the souls are permitted to live eternally if they can successfully complete the very difficult Celestial Examination process engaging the intellectual and personal guilt and forgiveness requirements system…

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS: The Big Four Secular Giants!

MODERN ANNOUNCER: The Big Four Secular Giants?

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS: Here comes Charlie Darwin and his evolutionary theories...

MODERN ANNOUNCER: Shh, not yet!

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS: Here comes Karl Marx and his partner alter-ego Friedrich Engels together with their explosive revolutionary theories...

MODERN ANNOUNCER: No, no, no, not yet.

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS: E=MC² or MC square and Albert’s scientific revolutionary theories….

MODERN ANNOUNCER: Ah, we should not discuss Albert Einstein yet either, my dear.

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS: And Doktor Sigmund Freud arrives smoking his pipe and re-analyzing his revolutionary theories of the human mind…

MODERN ANNOUNCER: Please, no psychoanalytical theories yet…

ANGEL SARA: So we have Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud; the Big Four!

ANGEL VEZY: Boy, are we going to learn a lot about them.

Unbelievable, incredible, phenomenal, outstanding, amazing, bizarrely stupendous, remarks Sara playing with paper.

What are you doing, Sara? asks Vezy humming.

I am writing a book review now, responds Sara scribbling.

I can do it too. And now from our sponsor from the Celestial Kingdom… remarks Vezy.

What are you doing, sister Vezy? asks Sara.

I am practicing for a Television Introduction when God decides to introduce the medium of television and film into the Celestial Kingdom, responds Vezy.

I would love to hear this. Do it now then, kiddo, suggests Sara. Give it your best shot!

"AH, hmm…Our Heavenly Father God, in His Infinite Wisdom presents the four-part series entitled The Modern Divine Comedy, a modern satirical and fantastic take on the Human Afterlife based on the Dantesque books written in the 14th century using the Foreign War Correspondent-Journalist as the protagonist both within his dreamlike time frame in 1895 as well as the real current contemporary world in the early 21st century," presents Vezy.

Wow, this sounds so surreal, fantastic but realistic, says Sara.

Who are the characters in this series of books? asks Vezy.

How about the political leaders, good and bad, like Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan and Napoleon and Lenin and Stalin and Hitler and Mao and Ho Chi Minh…? asks Sara.

"How about the four superlative modern paradigmatic thinkers and masters including Charles Darwin who wrote about the theory of evolution in his Origin of Species and The Descent of Man; Karl Marx who wrote about capitalism and imperialism in his Das Kapital among others; Sigmund Freud who wrote about psychoanalysis in his Interpretations of Dreams etc.; and the scientist Albert Einstein who developed his special theory of relativity?" asks Vezy.

And philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire, Kant, Nietzsche and… adds Sara.

And the eminent film producers like the American Orson Welles, the German Fritz Lang and the Italian Federico Fellini and… adds Vezy.

And the characters like the multi-talented Tarzan and the bipedal genetic ancestor Mother of us all Mother Lucy… adds Sara.

And the world’s main religions of Hindooism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Sikhism, Christianity and Islam and the Primitive Religions as well, says Vezy.

And the political philosophies of Liberalism and Conservatism, Democracy and Aristocracy, Marxism, Atheism, Nihilism and Anarchism… says Sara.

And the great literary figures from Homer to Ovid to Horace to Lady Murasaki Shikibu to Charles Dickens and Mary Shelley to Mark Twain to Oscar Wilde to Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce and Gore Vidal… says Vezy.

And the great artistic figures from the ancient Greek sculptors to Michelangelo to the Impressionists and Vincent van Gogh and to the modern artists like Pablo Picasso to the surreal Salvadore Dali to the dripper Jackson Pollock to the modern Dadaist anti-art artists, says Sara.

And the great military leaders to pacifists like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, adds Vezy.

And great biblical figures as Noah and Abraham and Moses working here as the Celestial Supreme Court, asserts Sara.

And how about the Extraordinary School Children taking notes and their Young French Professeur? asks Vezy.

"And what about the cigar-smoking Viennese PSYCHOANALYST and cigarette- smoking Swiss PSYCHOANALYST who offer quick and on-the-scene psychologically analytical comments?" asks Sara.

Oops, we forgot the roaming Conspiracy Theorists too? comments Vezy.

"But we did forget to mention GOD’S THREE ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS known as the Holiest Warrior, the Grand Pontifex Maximus and the Aide-de-Camp Antonio also working in the Background of the Celestial Kingdom," states Angel Sara.

"And other characters as the mortal American Barrister Darryl Buchanan, says Angel Vezy, who is defending both the richest man in the world Rockyfello before God’s Personal Supreme Court and the ancient Jewish writer and Roman General Josephus before the Celestial Supreme Court Judges of NOAH, ABRAHAM & MOSES of the Kingdom."

Oops, shh, we should not have brought up the American Barrister yet because he is a main character in the Paradiso, reveals Sara.

Ouch, we also forgot the roaming Olde Holy Man of the Mountain and the Hunchback Philosopher Holy Man too, says Vezy, offering philosophical and theological tidbits of knowledge.

Ouchy, mouchy, we also forgot the Conservative Divine Chorus and the Liberal Peanut Gallery, mentions Sara.

Wow, we forgot the Daily Wise Prophets and Archangels too, admits Vezy.

But we must come up with a title of the books that will create a modern 21st century publicity sensation, ponders Sara.

"I thought The Modern Divine Comedy is a great title because it gives Dante credit for the idea and is composed of the historical ideas within the world below up to the early 21st century," states Vezy.

So this is comedy and fictional based on a true story? asks Sara.

Maybe, replies Vezy carefully. That’s for the readers to decide.

Vezy, how does this sound like a literary introduction? asks Sara reading from her notes recently written.

Sara, shoot it to me but no arrows, replies Vezy relaxing.

Ahem, within the confines of the Devil’s labyrinth playground his Inferno sweats with pathological violence, unequalled corruption, moral degeneration, the grossest cruelty and evilness incarnate where the weakneses of human flaws amidst the truly melodramatic world of Inferno illusion and oppression are challenged each few seconds. The scene changes so drastically from minute to minute because both the Foreign War Correspondent, that is Adam the Journalist, and the Holy Prophet Zarathustra, must beware of being conned constantly by the physical and psychic tricks the Devil plays on them mirroring the contradictions of mankind within his own psychological prison. The Infernal brutality shows us the death and suffering of the human condition here at its most basic level, presents Sara.

I like it, but it does need some grammatical brushing up, replies Vezy. The Infernal world is the modernistic Voltairean worst of all possible worlds.

Let’s sit back now, Vezy, grab some popcorn and drink some hot chocolate while nestled under one of our mother’s home-made blankets in a comfortable couch on a snowy New England or Scandinavian or Himalayan or Alpine or Uruguayan or Australian Snowy Mountain or New Zealand South Island or South African or Colorado Rocky Mountain Saturday evening next to the roaring fireplace being magically transported to a world of make-believe and personal heroism, says Sara.

"Ah, you forgot to tell the readers that we are designated as the ANGELIC NARRATORS who occasionally will offer summaries and other comments within the books…" says Vezy.

Yes, I did forget, sister Vezy, remarks Sara. My humble apology! But we’ll retell them constantly so they do not get confused as to who the various Narrators throughout the books may be then.

We should tell the readers more about the Foreign War Correspondent-Journalist Andrea Romano and the prophet Zarathustra, his Celestial Guide, throughout this adventure, insists Vezy.

Let’s wait and let the reader form an opinion about them, argues Sara.

Remember, sis Sara, we come from the ancient Holy Lands of the 1st century AD Middle East and should not be modern pop culture aficionados, insists Vezy.

I have only seen one television show and movie when I visited the earth as a Visiting Angel years ago in the early 1950s in eastern Pennsylvania, says Sara. It was a truly bizarre experience.

Actually, you could probably state, sister, that the enviroment in the Celestial Kingdom is very similar to television and movie comedy, drama, game shows and those dastardly soap operas, says Vezy with a smile.

ANCIENT CHORUS VEZY: "Today we will bring to you from the pool-side deck of the Celestial Kingdom’s movie studio a new movie called The Adventures of the Foreign War Correspondent-Journalist in the Inferno and Celestial Kingdom. Ouch, that’s literary license."

MODERN ANNOUNCER SARA: The story that you are about to read about is not real because the names have been changed to protect the inhabitants of the Naked Celestial Kingdom…

Stop that silliness, Vezy, says Sara sparring. You been watching on earth too many of them crime dramas on American television. But listen to me. I am now a Movie Announcer.

Go for it, coaxes Vezy.

The names and dates and places on earth and beyond have been changed to protect the… says Sara.

No, no, no, responds Vezy, ‘something more exciting."

The eternal battle between God’s World of Light vs the Devil’s World of Darkness, says Sara.

More pizzazz, coaxes Vezy.

You know, if we met the Devil himself we would probably never know it, says Sara.

I know, replies Vezy. The problem is that the Devil comes in so many disguises no one here except God can really describe him or has ever seen him.

Gosh! No one knows what the Devil really looks like then, adds Sara.

Well, I hope and pray we don’t run into him because I might faint, says Vezy.

What do we really know about the American Foreign War Correspondent Journalist now? asks Sara.

Adam is young, energetic, intelligent, dedicated to his profession but is very unconventional and loves life as difficult as his job on earth today is, replies Vezy.

Ancient Chorus and Modern Announcer again, coaxes Sara.

You start, please, again, demands Vezy.

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS VEZY: In his eternal search for Truth and Justice the Italo-American Foreign War Correspondent-Journalist is transported to the ‘never-never’ land of the Devil’s Inferno. There are but a billion stories in the ‘naked’ Celestial Kingdom. And this is but one of them.

MODERN ANNOUNCER SARA: And this is the most important one.

ANCIENT GREEK CHORUS: The Celestial Kingdom presents a Vezy-Sara Angelic Production in 8 parts or books…

MODERN ANNOUNCER: What you are about to read is so incredible that it will stimulate your mind and soul and spirit and body to the pinnacle of seeing before your very eyes a sweeping journey throughout human history from the pre-historic souls to the early 21st century told through the experiences of a modern Foreign Correspondent and…

ANGEL VEZY: [whispers] Tell the audience the Time, Themes, Places and Climate.

ANGEL SARA: Ahem. Here goes.

ANGEL VEZY: "Don’t be nervous. Start with the TIME."

ANGEL SARA: "The TIME includes the PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE meaning actually the early 21st century but some including the hero Andrea Romano playing Adam would argue Christmas Eve 1895. However, the administration and life of the Celestial Kingdom is frozen in the Holy Lands of the 1st Century AD due to God’s very conservative theological and management philosophy of not accepting any modern conveniences in the Celestial Kingdom like electricity, computers, automobiles, trains or even money exchanges which GOD argues are unnecessary in his Utopia."

ANGEL VEZY: "How about the THEMES of the books?"

ANGEL SARA: "The THEMES include searching for the Holy Secrets, the Clash of Many Egos, Good & Evil & Truth & Fiction, personal guilt, forgiveness, rage and hatred and love and expectedly revenge and the dark side of humanity while both MORTALITY & IMMORTALITY are interwoven here in all its contradictions & imperfections."

ANGEL VEZY: "How about the PLACES of the books?"

ANGEL SARA: "The PLACES include the Milky Way Galaxy, Planet Earth, North America, New York Herald Newspaper Office & the Inferno & Limboland below & the Celestial Kingdom above."

ANGEL VEZY: "How about the CLIMATE?"

ANGEL SARA: "The CLIMATE is Cold and Snowy in December in New York City outside but Hot as Hell inside the Managing Editor’s Office and the Devil’s Inferno with always PERFECT SUB TROPICAL COOLING HAWAIIAN TRADE WINDS weather in the Celestial Kingdom."

ANGEL SARA: Geez, how did I do?

ANGEL VEZY: You did fine, Sister Sara.

ANGELIC NARRATORS VEZY & SARA: Oops, we forgot to remind you of this. The Inferno, Limboland, Purgatorio and Paradiso have a section called INFERNAL WICKED INTERRUPTUS where the Devil and his Three Crown Princes of Mephistopheles, Satan and Lucifer among other certain souls offer comments which the writer deems relevant to the story line. Sorry, loyal readers.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

(Cast of Characters)

FEATURING

THE JOURNALIST

aka

ADAM

THE FIRST MAN

swaggering, self-confident & independent Foreign War Correspondent,

single, age 43, Italo-American really named Andrea Romano

ZARATHUSTRA

Holy Prophet & Celestial Kingdom’s Official Guide to Inferno

MANAGING EDITOR

cynical, ruthless, arrogant, dictatorial, married 4th time, age 60

A BLACK CAT.  .  sleek, cunning, roaming & mysterious with yellow eyes, ageless

EDITOR’S FEMALE ASSISTANT .  .  .  .  young & charming, transformative

JESUS CHRIST.  .  .  .  As a wooden Statue in corner

VIRGIN MARY.  .  .  .  As a wooden Statue in corner

JACQUES DEMOLAY.  .  .  .  .  .  As a Human Skeleton in corner

PALM TREE.  .  .  .  .  .  in corner

JOHN THE BAPTIST.  .  .  .  .  .  On a Peace Pipe

BLUE STUFFED MARLIN.  .  .  .  On the wall

BIBLICAL QUOTES.  .  .  .  on the wall

MOTIVATIONAL QUOTES.  .  .  .  on the wall

OCCASIONAL NARRATOR.  .  .  .  black-hooded Philosopher

THE ALMIGHTY GOD

Everywhere & Nowhere

THE DEVIOUS DEVIL

Most Sinister and Evil opponent of God & Goodness, appears in many

manifestations with & as the Infernal Troika known as the

Three Crown Princes of Mephistopheles, Lucifer & Satan

GRAND PONTIFEX MAXIMUS, the HOLIEST WARRIOR

& the AIDE-DE-CAMP ANTONIO

Immortal Administrators of the Celestial Kingdom

MARY MARY.  .  .  .  .  .  Quite Au Contrarie

INFERNAL COURT JESTER.  .  .  .  .  .  the Personal Spy of the Devil

HUNCHBACK PHILOSOPHER as ECHO OF THE BIG BANG

MORTAL & IMMORTAL SOULS

WANDERING TRANSMIGRATING SOULS

EXTRAORDINARY SCHOOL CHILDREN.  .  Learning While Touring

YOUNG FRENCH PROFESSEUR.  .  Tutor & Professeur of School Children

VIENNESE PSYCHOANALYST.  .  offering psychological insights

SWISS PSYCHOANALYST.  .  offering psychological insights

JAMES BENNETT

powerful owner of New York Herald operating in Paris

in background

BROTHER DOMENICO PISANO

Benedictine Monk, Chief Archivist in Vatican,

Andrea Romano’s Godfather, future Cardinal, age 80

in background too

Oops, most importantly we forgot the following:

HOLY ANGELS SARA & VEZY—Special Angelic Narrators

BOOK 1 TO 8

INFERNO 1 DESCENDING

SCENE 1

NEW YORK HERALD MANAGING EDITOR’S OFFICE

OVERTURE PHILOSOPHICAL

MANAGING EDITOR & FOREIGN WAR CORRESPONDENT

AGAIN

(first 40 lines repeated)

MANAGING EDITOR: [yells] God did not create Man. Man created God!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [curious] What do you mean, chief?

MANAGING EDITOR: [angry] God does not know the Absolute Truth because there is no God and there is no Absolute Truth.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [upset] "How do you know that?"

MANAGING EDITOR: The Absolute Truth is that there is no Truth!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: That sounds contradictory. But you do think that both God and Truth do not exist?

MANAGING EDITOR: God and Truth are both necessary illusions!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [repeats] "God and Truth are both necessary illusions!"

MANAGING EDITOR: [pounds desk & stands up from chair & screams] Religion is the Mother of all Conspiracies and the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Religion!

MANAGING EDITOR: [calmer] "And Politics is the biggest swindle ever conceived by man!"

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [snickers] What do you mean, chief? Is not all religion politics and all politics religion? Ah, you also forgot Business!

MANAGING EDITOR: [yells] Religion is an organized fraud and Politics is a scam game from the Beginning of Time.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [playing] And Business is what? A Fair Deal?

MANAGING EDITOR: [screams] Religion is an instrument of Exploitation used to Enslave not free us while Politics is corrupt as Sin itself.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Chief, you also forgot LUST and SEX! Religion, Politics, Money and Sex! Don’t they all enslave us?

MANAGING EDITOR: [retreats] Kid, and Sex, I agree, is the main source of Man’s destruction.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Hmm, Okay!

MANAGING EDITOR: All the Priests and Politicians should be rounded up and shot!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [teasing] Chief, you sound like a French Revolutionary. I did not know you were a closet anarchist or Marxist. What would you do to the capitalists?

MANAGING EDITOR: [barks] Arf!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: What about newspaper editors?

MANAGING EDITOR: [snaps] Psst! We’re different! We seek, ah,… the Real TRUTH.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [laughs] Hmm, okay. You say there is no Absolute Truth but the Editors seek the Real Truth which does not exist. But sometimes Newspaper Editors manufacture and not search for the Truth? Is that what you mean, chief?

MANAGING EDITOR: [raises voice] You are missing my point. Give me another shot of whiskey, kid! It’s Christmas eve and I…I…I’m losing it; or am I gaining it? [hesitates] I’m getting dizzy now…

WAR CORRESPONDENT: You okay, chief?

MANAGING EDITOR: [staggering] Kid, what do you really believe in after traveling the world and seeing all these disasters and man’s violence to man?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [laughs] Believe in? I believe in myself and nothing but my own survival and immortality if there is is one!

NARRATORS VEZY & SARA: "Wow, the Song has ended and now is the Beginning of the Story."

CHAPTER

1-1

GREATEST STORY EVER WRITTEN

MANAGING EDITOR: Arf! Forget it! When are you going to write the Great American Novel for us and we’ll publish it in sections like your foreign correspondance?

WAR CORRESPONDENT JOURNALIST: [laughs] The Great American Novel so you can get the credit!

MANAGING EDITOR: Arf! Forget it again! Why do human civilizations break down, kid?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [repeats] Why do human civilizations break down? Why do human beings break down? What do YOU think?

MANAGING EDITOR: [smiles] It’s the Breakdown of the inner human spirit.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: The inner human spirit! So the greatest danger to man is man himself.

MANAGING EDITOR: But as our philosopher Nietzsche said; it is the Superman, not mankind, who is our Goal and Solution.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [sarcastic] "So the Nietzschean Ubermensch will solve all of Mankind’s problems! Is he elected by the people or appointed by God or the Devil himself?"

MANAGING EDITOR: [yells] Arf! I want to know the ANSWERS!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [smiling] Answers? What answers? What are the questions?

MANAGING EDITOR: [lowers voice] The answers to the mysteries of Life, Death, Salvation of the Soul and whether there is a God or not!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [snickers] Oh, those answers! Philosophers, theologians, astronomers, physicists and others have attempted to answer those questions for thousands of years to no avail…

MANAGING EDITOR: [raises his voice] I want to know the TRUTH!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [cynical] Well, the Truth is that Injustice not Love rules the world but…

MANAGING EDITOR: [lowers voice] I want to know the Real Truth…

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Good luck, chief. The TRUTH! The REAL TRUTH! NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH! Show me the Money and you’re on the right path. Money, Power and Sex Rules the world!

MANAGING EDITOR: [takes another drink & chants] OM, OM, OM!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: What happened to your Irish Catholicism?

MANAGING EDITOR: Truth is My Mistress.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [repeats smiling] Truth is My Mistress! That’s a good line.

MANAGING EDITOR: My Church now is the Newsroom. I and I alone am the Disseminator of Truth and Information.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [adds dramatically] Listen, chief, as the most pragmatic philosopher of cynicism on earth I am totally without illusions about religion and politics and I have traveled around the world in many places and have been searching for that Elusive Mistress called TRUTH all over this world but I have not found her yet.

MANAGING EDITOR: [takes another drink & barks] Psst!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [laughs] The Elusive Mistress of TRUTH does not nor has ever existed!

MANAGING EDITOR: [interrupts] I know the Real Truth lies beneath the hidden surface in the lies and deceits that Religion and the Government foster upon us.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Religion and Government again! Chief, don’t people need to believe in something? Certainly religion is based on the promise of the unknown hereafter and politics is naturally corrupt but what do you advise as an alternative for both? Even pure democracy is an ideal. Is there a Utopia and…

MANAGING EDITOR: [interrupts] What is the destiny of Man? Is there an afterlife?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Destiny and the afterlife! Sounds like the ancient Greek Gods are haunting you.

MANAGING EDITOR: [adds] I am seeking the Real Meaning Of Life!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [teasing] You are now thinking or performing as a Catholic theologian or an ancient Greek metaphysician?

MANAGING EDITOR: [interrupts] Kid, the innocent child asks WHERE did we come from? The thinking adult then asks HOW did God or whoever or whatever create this God-forsaken World? And the dying person asks is there a Heaven or Hell because he is afraid of where he’s going after he dies?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: "Every person needs hope and faith and love. That is why Religion will always exist and the spiritual world will, in the End Game of Life, triumph."

MANAGING EDITOR: But why does God permit Evil and Hell to exist?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Chief, theologians and philosophers for thousands of years have argued this concept of theodicy coined by Leibnitz trying to reconcile the existence of evilness with the benevolence of God.

MANAGING EDITOR: Where is this Hell of the Inferno?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [cynical] I never met nor heard of anyone who has visited Hell or the Inferno, surivived and returned to tell the Tale; except those who say Hell is on earth.

MANAGING EDITOR: [yells] There is a Hell. I know it.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [raises voice] In all the countries I have traveled to I have discovered that there is Hell on earth here! I see it on the streets of New York City much much more since I returned from overseas!

MANAGING EDITOR: [screams] I still want to know the ANSWERS!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [perplexed] So does everyone! Chief, I see a storm brewing in your personal life here. Should you not be asking where are we going and why did God create such a mess…?

MANAGING EDITOR: [retreats] You know, kid, the ancient religions; be it Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, Sikhism etc. were RIGHT! Man’s desire for power, money, wealth, status and lust is at the core of his suffering. It took years but I finally agree!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Wait a minute, Chief. A minute ago you said that religion and politics were the biggest frauds in history. [satirical] Now you are getting religious! So you are changing your life to emulate the Saints and ah…[hesitates] Interesting that you used Zoroastrianism first.

MANAGING EDITOR: [yells] I don’t really care anymore! It really doesn’t matter! I am now for MYSELF! EGO! MOI!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [teasing] Chief, so you weren’t for yourself before?

MANAGING EDITOR: [avoids question] Who owns the Universe?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Chief, do you believe in God?

MANAGING EDITOR: [forceful] I don’t need to believe. I know! I am a GOD!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: You don’t need to believe. I believe in myself too but in what way are YOU a God?

MANAGING EDITOR: To me, God did not create Man. Man created God. Ergo, I am God and I also believe in Myself and Man.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [repeats] To me, God did not create Man. Man created God. Ergo, I am God and I also believe in Myself and Man. [stops] Interesting justification!

MANAGING EDITOR: [attacks] "Do YOU believe in God?"

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Yes! Most of the time I do believe. Not always! But I also recognize that there are unknown and unexplained forces in the universe and I think that in the spiritual world nothing can proven nor disproven scientifically. It is all based on belief, is it not?

MANAGING EDITOR: Faith and Belief in religion. Phtt!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: We can’t prove the existence of God or the Gods by reason or science but we know that the message of Jesus and Buddha and Mohammed and the other prophets and founders of their religions is divinely good and were the real essence of religion.

MANAGING EDITOR: [takes another swig] What do you mean, kid?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: The message of Jesus was love, unconditional love, and forgiveness and sacrifice, particularly self-sacrifice from him. That’s the message.

MANAGING EDITOR: Love and forgiveness and self-sacrifice are weaknesses and shams of the human spirit.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: But, chief, I also know that you did not answer my question!

MANAGING EDITOR: Phtt!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: I also think more importantly that the eternal struggle between the Spirit and the Flesh and the Soul and the Body will always rage within ourselves and I suspect we won’t really know anything in the spiritual world until we die.

Pause.

MANAGING EDITOR: [yells] I want Freedom, not Equality! Equality is for the weak!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [sarcastic] Freedom not equality? Chief, when have you changed your political philosophy? You always supported the downtrodden of our society in your own bizarre way!

MANAGING EDITOR: [retreats] I always believed that but finally I have seen the light and…

WAR CORRESPONDENT: So NOW you can throw democracy out the window, chief.

MANAGING EDITOR: [cavalierly] "If God does not exist we can do anything without ultimate consequences and ‘All is Permitted’ as Dostoevsky wrote in his Brothers Karamazov."

WAR CORRESPONDENT: You can not prove the existence of God by reason. It is accepted on Faith. Even the Jesuits understand that.

Editor opens his favorite bottle of Scotch and pours its contents into a cloudy glass.

MANAGING EDITOR: [drinking his cheap Scotch] Kid, who is the greatest Foreign War Correspondent and Journalist this nation has ever produced?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [shrugs his shoulders & laughs] "I am on an Eternal Mission to discover Truth and Justice and as I have said earlier and I have not found HER yet."

MANAGING EDITOR: [pushing] Come on! Who do you think? Guess? You’re a college graduate of City College.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Is this a Quiz? To me the only real heroes are the dead ones and only those who died in the line of duty are the greatest whether they were in the military battles or in the struggles and battles of life!

MANAGING EDITOR: Well, YOU ARE, Blood and Guts himself. You are the greatest Foreign War Correspondent and Journalist this nation has ever produced!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [suspicious] Chief, you called me here on Christmas Eve to tell me that! [points] I know you! You are building my ego to trick me and deceive me later.

MANAGING EDITOR: You are the greatest Journalist in the history of American news journalism.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: You can argue semantics all day but I am not a Journalist, chief. I am a reporter.

MANAGING EDITOR is biting his nails and still drinking Scotch.

MANAGING EDITOR: [on a roll] "And the New York Herald is the greatest newspaper in the history of the world. And in the 20th century New York will be the cultural and financial capital, the grandest city in the world, greater than London today financially and Paris culturally and America will be more powerful than Rome during Jesus Christ’s time. And you, kid, will be the Hero of Our Age!"

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [lifts his hands teasing] How many people do I have to murder for you?

MANAGING EDITOR: Kid, you’re the best! You are always the First Man in Country, the first volunteer for the dangerous assignments and the Last Man Standing. You are the bravest of the brave, daring and bold…

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [intervenes] Chief, stop blowing smoke up my a**!

MANAGING EDITOR: [continues the compliment] Kid, you’re a pragmatic guy, the salt of the earth, a man of the people.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: Chief, was that a compliment or sarcasm?

MANAGING EDITOR: Champ, I want you to solve the greatest Divine Mystery in the history of mankind.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [perplexed] Say again! You want me to do what?

MANAGING EDITOR: [philosophical] First, what is the answer to the Riddle of Life?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: What is the question?

MANAGING EDITOR: Isn’t that the real question or answer?

WAR CORRESPONDENT: So the answer is the question! Okay! You playing the itinerant ancient Athenian Greek gadfly Socrates.

MANAGING EDITOR: [softly] Kid, I want you to rewrite the Story of Christianity.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [incredulous] You want me to do what?

MANAGING EDITOR: [repeats] I want YOU to rewrite the Story of Christianity.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [emphatic] What do you mean, the Story of Christianity?

MANAGING EDITOR: [confident] Yeh, I’ll explain it to you. Something like that!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [pushing] What do you mean, something like what?

The Editor appears disoriented probably from drinking too much Scotch.

MANAGING EDITOR: [snoring & mumbling] Nothingness, Existential Truth, the Seventh Seal, Allegory, The Lamb, Horror of Existence, Torture, Faith, Miracles, Eternity, Death, Oblivion of Life, Bankruptcy of Philosophy, Mysticism, Infallibility, Sex, Passion, Lust, Disillusionment, Famine, Biblical Symbolism, Revelation, the Apocalyse….

WAR CORRESPONDENT: What are you babbling about, chief?

MANAGING EDITOR: [screams] The Apocalyse! The Apocalyse has arrived finally!

WAR CORRESPONDENT: [shakes him] Chief? Wake up!

MANAGING EDITOR: [awakes] Wow, what happened? I must have dozed off.

WAR CORRESPONDENT: You were saying some strange words…

CHAPTER

1-2

PRELUDE THEOLOGICA: ABOVE THE CLOUDS IN THE KINGDOM

UNKNOWN NARRATOR: "Two very attractive but mischievous Angels, well, Provisional Angels that is, by ancient, medieval and modern standards sashay into the perfectly formed and purely white Mediterranean marbled and spotlessly clean Divine Library in the Celestial Kingdom and start reviewing ancient documents. The Divine Library is an exact replica of the classical Library of Alexandria but much larger and more importantly it holds the Real Original and at least one copy of all the documents, manuscripts, codexes, parchments, magazines, monographs, plays, books, drawings, artworks, literary works, musical compositions, architectural designs etc. ever written and created by mankind before and after Recorded History started from the Primordial muck to the post-Modern mess.

"One hears the sounds of sea gulls and observes the giant centurion Galapagos tortoises playing along the beach and smells the waves of the clear blue rushing waters lightly pound the white sandy shore. It is a perfect utopian world of Paradiso within the Kingdom where every living person and thing is protected and no one will ever be hurt again.

There exists in the Kingdom only love and forgiveness, respect and courage, tolerance and kindness.

UNKNOWN NARRATOR: At the Library some souls are concerned.

ALEXANDRIAN HEAD LIBRARIAN: [throws hands up] This will be impossible! Unhuman! Uncelestial.

EGYPTIAN ASSISTANT: What do you mean, Alex?

ALEXANDRIAN HEAD LIBRARIAN: [worried while shuffling books] This Celestial Library is a mess! I can’t figure out how this Celestial Kingdom is going to place all these records on computers when GOD requires us to do that supposedly next year by Christmas as that is what I hear from the whispers and rumours of the Wise Prophets and Archangels.

EGYPTIAN ASSISTANT: [happy] We won’t have to use papyrus reed to make copies anymore.

INDIAN COMPUTER SCIENTIST: Don’t worry about that, Sire. When that happens we will teach and train all those librarian souls from the ancient Library of Alexandria, the Library at Pergamum, the Hittite Hatusa, the Library at Nalanda etc. to learn to operate Computers.

MEPHISTOPHELES MASKED: [walking by snickering] We must be more diabolical, raw, demonic, bewitching, wicked and manipulative to win this Battle for the Hearts and Minds of those pathetic denizens of the Celestial Kingdom.

INFERNAL COURT JESTER: [juggling swords] Boy, Meph, they don’t know what we have in store for them during the Annual Lantern Parade.

MEPHISTOPHELES MASKED: [walking by] I am getting to like Art Deco art and Victorian dress more now. After we conquer the Celestial Kingdom I want to retire, go to the French Riviera for a vacation, learn to paint, and have sex with more exotic beautiful young babes that is if the Devil permits me since we have so many pressing responsibilities here.

CHAPTER

1-3

HOLY SECRETS OF THE AGES: NARRATORS/ STORYTELLERS INTRODUCED

ANGEL SARA: Vezy, what’s our Hero doing here as a Mortal?

ANGEL VEZY: I DON’T KNOW YET.

ANGEL SARA: I think he is searching for the Meaning of Life.

ANGEL VEZY: Aren’t we all, Sara?

ANGEL SARA: Not like him, though.

ANGEL VEZY: What do you mean, my darling?

SARA: This heroic JOURNALIST seems to be the unknowing and unwilling mortal sent on a Divine Mission searching for the Meaning of Life in an Epic Quest to discover the Holy Secrets of the Universe wherever and whatever they may be.

VEZY: So our hero does not know who sent him nor why he is being sent?

SARA: As I see it, Vezy, no!

VEZY: Hmm, the Holy Secrets of the Ages sound very mysterious and metaphysical.

SARA: What are these Holy Secrets of the Ages?

VEZY: I been a Celestial Angel for almost 2000 years and I don’t yet know what they are.

SARA: Where are the Holy Secrets of the Ages?

VEZY: I don’t know yet either.

SARA: He does not know yet either.

VEZY: Well, that’s what he is trying to do.

SARA: You mean searching for them, whatever they are and wherever they are.

VEZY: If they can be found.

SARA: If they even exist—metaphysically of course.

VEZY: Hmm, sounds like a paradox, a quandary, an obsession, a quest, an odyssey like the ancient heroes of Odysseus and Aeneas and Rama and Gilgamesh…

SARA: Or heroines on a fantastic adventure…

VEZY: Yes, these are the Holy Mysteries of the Ages, wrapped in enigmas, inside riddles that men and women have been searching since the Beginning of Time.

SARA: Should we help our Hero find these Holy Secrets?

VEZY: "No, I don’t think our responsibilities as Provisional Angels include helping him find them."

SARA: I understand. Our responsibilities are, if we obtain the job, is to Help him Help himself.

VEZY: Probably. We do not know yet.

SARA: Adventure and Truth?????? Maybe!!

VEZY: But the most important thing, Sara, is that Adam believes in himself.

SARA: Believing in himself can get him into a lot of trouble here, can it not?

VEZY: That is what and where the adventures begin.

SARA: Let’s start this adventure.

UNKNOWN NARRATOR: "The Divine Celestial Library inside is built with the best of the white Carrara marble from Italian Tuscany, the white marble with pink veining from the Greek island of Thassos, the Peking White and Royal White marbles of China, the Ruskeala marble from Finland and Russia and the pure white marble from the American Colorado.

"Rose and lily flowers and aloe, juniper, pomegranate and spice plants and Palm trees from the Ancient Biblical Holy Lands adorn the Library while canaries, swans, swallows, peacocks and pelicans and others roam and sing freely in the lake in the outside garden with olive, sycamore and cypress trees scattered about. Inhabitants of the Kingdom are picnicking along the lake listening to ancient bards and poets speaking and musicians playing their harps and lyres and violins while their children are swimming and playing freely and safely with the birds.

"The entire property holds at least two specimens, male and female, of all the plants, trees, birds, animals, mammals etc. for study and research.

"On the property Zoologists are studying the animals, Ornithologists the birds, Entomologists the insects, Geologists the minerals and rocks, Gemologists the gems, Ecologists the environment, Botanists the plants, Arborists the trees, the Paleontologists the fossils and dinosaurs…

"The astronomers, chemists, biologists, physicists, and the various earth scientists have the most elaborate laboratories for study and research on the premises.

Among its historical gems the Library holds some of the original cave paintings of the Paleo and Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon Man and the latest Impressionist and Abstract Paintings of the modern late 19th century Europeans.

CRO-MAGNON MAN: [while painting amural] Our caves were prepared by the women as cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

ABORIGINAL ART HISTORIAN: I am writing a book about pre-historic art.

UNKNOWN NARRATOR: "In this living and working Encyclopedia of Mankind there are hundreds of thousands of ancient and medieval scribes and monks of all religions doing handwritten calligraphy and copying manuscripts and literary works with painstaking perfection while speaking their respective religious mantras and chants.

The Two Angels Sara and Vezy are having a very serious discussion. Well, one of them is serious. They are dressed like typical Angels in flowing white outfits from the ancient Holy Lands but they appear not to be wearing wings.

YET!

UNKNOWN NARRATOR: "At age 28 Sara is younger than Vezy at age 45. Sara is singing and dancing with herself pondering a future filled with romance and love while Vezy is studiously reading old documents and manuscripts in Aramaic, Hebrew, Amharic, Coptic, Arabic, Greek and Latin for some mysterious reason. Dozens of cute and chubby putti and love-obsessed cupids are flying around them with bows and arrows harassing them playfully while thinking of philosophy, mythology and history."

ANGEL SARA: [excited] Is it time to introduce ourselves, Vezy, o’ Vezy?

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews ancient Aramaic & Hebrew documents] I don’t know yet, Sara, because we don’t know what our responsibilities will be during the next six months. I am studying the Tetragrammaton and am looking into Jerusalem for the Temple of Solomon and the Ark of the Covenant, ah,...in Abyssinia…

ANGEL SARA: [playful] What are you reading, Vezerizski?

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews ancient Greek documents] Hmm, Pythagorean concepts, Euclidean geometry, Plato’s Atlantis, the oriental Yin & Yang…Chinese Confucianism and Taoism, Persian Zoroastrianism…

ANGEL SARA: [dancing about] What else, my professor of ancient metaphysics?

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews classical Sanskrit documents] Oh, the Gods and Goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, the Indian Rama epic, the connection with Buddhism.

ANGEL SARA: [dancing like a snake] What else? The Western Hemisphere civilizations were very cruel. Were they not?

ANEL VEZY: [reviews ancient Maya documents & calendar] Oh, I see the ancient pre-Columbian religions of the Aztec, Maya and Inca peoples. This Maya calendar is very intriguing.

ANGEL SARA: [ballet moves] Vezy, the Jezzabalster, the Prophets in the Kingdom just opened Plato’s Celestial Retreat, a great dancing hall for us and I am competing in their first Operatic Performance based on the ancient Greek tragedies. There will also be the Austrian waltz, the Polish mazurka, the Czech polka, the Sicilian tarantella, the French revolutionary carmagnole, the Spanish quadrille square dance, the traditional Japanese odori dance, exotic Turkish oriental belly dance, classical sacred Indian Hindu Natya dance performance, the Chinese dragon dance, multi-national folk dances and…Vezy, do you think a classical Russian ballet or the French minuet should be first?

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews medieval Latin manuscripts] That is wonderful, Sara, but I am preparing for our responsibilities and searching for some clues. The Ark, the Holy Grail, the Holy Cup, the Shroud, Stonehenge, prehistoric megaliths, Scotland, the Americas!

ANGEL SARA: [anxious] Maybe there are no clues nor secrets, Vezy, Vezful, the Most Beautiful. Hey, let’s narrate the Three or Four Act Play and see how the author develops it into a book.

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews Egyptian hieroglyphics] Anyways, Sara, until we discover what the Holy Secrets and the Mysteries will be. Egypt appears to be the origin of many many things be it scientific or religious. These Pyramids, the Sphinx, the Temples at Luxor, the Valley of the Kings! What a marvelous civilization!

ANGEL SARA: Vezy, Vezster, I thought that the Holy Secrets and the Divine Mysteries of the Universe will be discovered by the characters in the book by the End.

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews Book of Revelation] "When you say the End, Sara, do you mean the Biblical Apocalypse, the Battle of Armageddon, the Big Bang Revisited or the War to End All Wars or the Atomic Explosion by homo sapiens sapiens himself? Gasp!"

ANGEL SARA: "Big Bang and the Atomic explosion? What does the Manual of Kingdom Operations say about these issues?"

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews Gnostic documents] "Ah, ask the Wise Prophet on duty. Sara, we must by open-minded and not be dogmatic about the Mortals. Very interesting information I have uncovered here about Early Christianity! Things on earth and even in the Kingdom are not what they appear to be!"

ANGEL SARA: [repeats] Things on earth and even in the Kingdom are not what they appear to be! [stops] Is that an epistemological or metaphysical concept or Hypothesis?

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews Secret Archives of Vatican] Ah, could be both. These Secret Archives are absolutely mind-boggling. Napoleon, Columbus, the Knights Templar, the Jesuits, the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the Popes…

ANGEL SARA: [impetuous] Vezy, Vezarathustra, Okay, let’s do it and let the celestial and spiritual chips fall where they lie. Nostradamus told me the other day…

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews modern scientific journals] Hmm, Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin, Marx, even newcomers named Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein…

ANGEL SARA: [dreaming] When I was a child I would often want to fly on a beam of light and travel to the Kingdom and …

ANGEL VEZY: [very seriously] Sara, please read this new scientific stuff. I think this new scientist is getting to what you have been pondering lately.

ANGEL SARA: [reviews modern journals too] Hmm, I see a young man named Albert Einstein too in Adam dream time period of 1895 and…

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: [loud voice from the Heavens] Provisional Angels Sara and Vezy, please return to your posts. You are still in training. I will soon inform you of your earthly responsibilities and what Mortal you are to monitor. Shalom.

ANGELS SARA & VEZY: Archangel Michael, we will return Godspeed. We request permission to Narrate this Book, as we discussed earlier, please.

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: [loud voice] Permission granted, at this point, for only the First Act and Third Act. See you soon in time for the Annual Lantern Parade and the Trial of Josephus.

SARA & VEZY: [muses] First and Third? What’s in the Second?

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: Sara and Vezy, two out of three is not bad. You both are still being trained and on probation and have not been tested yet.

SARA & VEZY: [thumbs up] A Blessed Thanx, Arch Mikey.

ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: [grumbles & departs quickly] Arch Mikey!

VOICE: [announces] Proverbs 31:10 in the Judaic and Christian Old Testament states; ‘Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.’ Thank you.

ANGEL SARA: I don’t think he likes the Arch Mikey comment.

ANGEL VEZY: He’ll get over it. You know how men are. He knows we love him dearly.

ANGEL SARA: [curious] AH, no, I don’t know how men are. Please tell me.

ANGEL VEZY: [stops reading] Listen, Sara, that is an Impossible Task even for the Immortals in the Kingdom. I’ll tell you later, alligator.

ANGEL SARA: [acting reptilian swimming in a river] After a while, crocodile, great. Now is later so tell me now!

ANGEL VEZY: Women are looking for love and permanent passion.

ANGEL SARA: And men are looking for lust and temporary passion?

ANGEL VEZY: Something like that.

ANGEL SARA: [covers face] I knew it.

ANGEL VEZY: The quicker one gets over it the better one becomes.

ANGEL SARA: [hesitates] We’ll chat about this later. Okay, let’s begin the Olympian Race.

ANGEL VEZY: "You mean the Play and the Book. We may be going to Europe and the Italian Mezzogiorno not ancient Greece. A couple other places too."

ANGEL SARA: [whispers] I overheard the Archangels Michael and Gabriel talking about us going to London and Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Canada, Edinburgh, and…Berks County in Pennsylvania!

ANGEL VEZY: [whispers] Don’t let them know that we know.

ANGEL SARA: [performs] "I always wanted to speak French. Je m’appelle Sara, Monsieur. Bonjour."

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews medieval French documents from Bibliotheque nationale de France] "Tres interessant! The Knights Templar and the Biblical connections to southern France, the Cathars and…"

ANGEL SARA: When I get older I want to be a philosopher spouting wisdom, a Hebrew Prophetess, an Egyptian High Priestess, a USA Supreme Court Judge …

ANGEL VEZY: [reviews documents in Arabic] Everything I read seems to go back to Jerusalem.

ANGEL SARA: [places her hand to be kissed] "Monsieur, merci beaucoup. I want to say that when the Monsieur kisses my hands. Can we start?"

ANGEL VEZY: [blushes] Let’s do it.

ANGEL SARA: I’m ready.

ANGEL VEZY: Oops! Maybe we should tell the readers we are the Narrators.

ANGEL SARA: And Storytellers.

ANGEL VEZY: Alright, then we are both Narrators and Storytellers of these books.

SARA & VEZY: [clearing their throats as Narrators and Storytellers] In this smoke-filled 500 square-foot glass-enclosed on three quarters but curtain drawn newspaper office on the top floor with twelve foot ceilings having a world map on the wall and pins stuck to it, a half empty bottle of cheap (bottom shelf) Scotch whisky next to an opened Bible on his desk, a disorganized desk, and his white shirt and black suspenders inked with typewriter ribbon dust…

ANGEL SARA: The decor in the office has been changed just recently by the EDITOR’S new young wife to reflect her, not his, new tastes.

ANGEL VEZY: This Black Cat with silver streaks in the front roams around the office with reckless abandon and hops on the desk and window ledge drinking the milk from her bowl in which the Chief fills with some Scotch whiskey with a cynical grin. The Black Cat stares through the window below apparently looking for her next prey.

SARA: There are two beautifully hand-carved statutes in the office. The northwest corner has an eight-foot wooden statue of the BLACK JESUS while the southeast corner has a five-foot wooden stature of a BLACK VIRGIN MARY.

VEZY: A human skeleton hung on a nine-foot X-Shaped Saltire Cross is in the southwest corner while a large ten-foot green Palm tree is in the northeast corner with strange mushrooms in the potted earth.

SARA: A gigantic stuffed fish is hanging on the wall as a trophy.

VEZY: There are many things attached to the walls in the office. A painting of a Cross and the letter P painted black on a white background is shown.

SARA: A plaque is hung on the wall quoting Matthew 3:1. ‘In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, / And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

VEZY: There are also three other sayings posted as well.

SARA: The neutral observer could argue that the room’s ambience appears to be frozen in the First Century of Early Christianity.

VEZY: Enough political pontificating by the narrators!

SARA: Let’s watch the Play develop.

VEZY: We are only repeating the first few pages of conversation for effect.

SARA: Vezy, did we tell the readers we are the two Narrators?

VEZY: Sara, I don’t remember if we did yet.

SARA: So therefore we must tell them. Who are we?

VEZY: We are the Narrators Vezy and Sara.

SARA: We represent the Past.

VEZY: The Earth is the Future.

SARA: And this Story is the present wherever it is since in the Celestial Kingdom there is no time, really.

VEZY: By the way soemtimes our hero is called the Journalist, Adam and Andrea.

INFERNAL WICKED INTERRUPTUS 1

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH THE CONNIVING UNHOLY DEVIL

NARRATORS VEZY & SARA: Still within the secretive impenetrable and heavily guarded Private Office of the Devil in the Inferno’s lowest Ring the Three Crown Princes of Mephistopheles, Satan and Lucifer and the Devil are conspiring to control the Celestial World above and manipulate the souls within his Infernal World below and the mortals on earth. The Three Crown Princes can hear but not yet see the Devil.

THE DEVIL: [screams] The Inferno does not command me! I command the entire Inferno and all its souls!

THREE CROWN PRINCES: [meekly] Yes, Our Infernal Emperor. You control the entire Inferno.

THE DEVIL: [dancing & kicking his cats] "Sex and Politiks! Sex and Politics! Pay-to-play! Pay-to-play! If you want to play the Game you must pay me big time the Same! I should form a Politikal Consulting Business and the most corrupt Politikal Action Committee ever. I love racketeering, conspiracy, drug dealing, bribery, duplicity, payoffs, extortion, fraud, kickbacks, torture, assassination…Stop! I must use Withdrawal! Sexual and Politikal Coitus! And I shall call my Politikal Consulting Business Politikal Coitus Interruptus but I will be squirting venom everywhere or….Odi omnibus vobis! I hate you all everyone! [singing now] My Latin is getting better! I do agree! Odi omnibus vobis!"

THREE CROWN PRINCES: [singing] "Our Devil’s Latin is getting better. Odi omnibus vobis!"

Silence.

THREE CROWN PRINCES: [to selves] Hatred! Revenge! Liar! Cruelty! Anger! We three know very well that Our Devil, despite his many superlative evil talents he possesses throughout history, works both sides against the middle, hates everybody, is irascible, testosterone-driven, self-preoccupied to put it mildly, misogynistic as a women-hater, patriarchal, is pathologically jealous of anybody who does better than him in every endeavor, uses smoke-and-mirrors to confuse people, does have a very hostile and fragile psychopathic personality, is the most opportunist of all, perverts everything he encounters, doesn’t like any criticisms even from us, he lacks self-esteem, becomes belligerent too often, has a socio-pathic sense of humour, is hedonistic, a super-paramount bully, pathologically narcissistic, has extreme self-loved malignancy, has a greedy lust for sex and monies, loves to rape and torture people, and is in summary a brilliant example of having Personality Disorders…

THE DEVIL: [still ranting] Listen, the British historian Arnold Toynbee among others talked and wrote about the Pax Sumerica, Pax Aegyptiaca, Pax Romana, Pax Germanica, Pax Ottomana, Pax Mongolica, Pax Tatarica, Pax Britannica, Pax Americana and others like Pax Hispanica and even the new 21st century monstrous Pax Technologica must be replaced by my anti-technology Pax Diabolia in my new Limboland Empire. I don’t want Peace! I also want permanent War as in establishing not a Pax Diabola but a Bellum Diabola Inferna within the Limboland Arenas burning all my bridges behind and in front of me.

THREE CROWN PRINCES: [to selves] The Bible considers Our Devil a ‘deceiver’ and a ‘tempter’ and a ‘thief’ and a ‘murderer’ and a ‘distorter. That is why we love this guy so much!

THE DEVIL: [turns while laughing] My Three Crown Princes, when we visit the Celestial Kingdom of theological stupidity and religious self-righteousness don’t forget to say Grace before every meal.

THREE CROWN PRINCES: [snickering] We need a few Brandies first before we do that, Our Devil.

THE DEVIL: [pacing now] "After we conquer the Limboland Arenas I want you Crown Princes to build me the largest, best, biggest, extravagant, most elegant and ostentatious Chateau as my Office and living quarters in history even better than the royal Louis XIV French Versailles Palace, the largest and fastest yacht, a helicoptor, a private luxury Boeing jet, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a statute of ME using only the Italian Carrara marble making me more handsome and larger than lifesize like Michelangelo’s David, and don’t