Prometheus : The Furious Gods.

Many many thanks for those who diverted to the link. It is always exciting to see people from all over the world connect. China and the United States always come up but Malaysia and Mexico are new. 

One of the consequences of writing the book has been to look at material associated with the broader Promethean Tradition and see how close the movie was to that tradition. 

Since 2018 I have read the 1818 Text of Dr Frankenstein, considered various thesis written and looked hard at the Documentary. Two scenes come back to me time and again as being key.

1) The Holographic speech of Peter Weyland.

2) The four-way interaction between Elizabeth, the Dark Angel and then Weyland and David's intervention.

Why are we here, what is soul, the attempt to deny death, why did you make me and then want to destroy me. What have I done wrong? 

The difference between The Modern Prometheus and Movie Prometheus is David and he enables us to enlarge the question and consider comparatively what is existence and its subtext (do androids dream). 

This is the point at which to formally identify another concept of my work. Bardo or Intermediation. In Tibetan philosophy it is the state beyond life and before the next life.

From the very beginning, even when the story was quite different, two characters were in the Bardo, in the intermediation. But there is a broader way to look at it.

My work is split into two at the point that the Prometheus slams into the Juggernaut destined for the earth we leave Elizabeth considering the meaning of the two craft and their occupants. We begin Part 2 when she realises she has survived or has she? Different readers have suggested at different points she has 'died'. All are valid viewpoints. But they depend on your view of life, death and the soul. My work is proposing that those are not the gatekeepers to the truth and once you consider the distinctions of the imagined world then the answers to those questions are irrelevant.   

An even broader interpretation is if you take the matter of the Waterfall Incident and then consider the final visual in Ridley's Scott's short Hennessay advert (The Gathering In) you could consider everything is in the Bardo. The Lone Figure dies and all that he is passes with death into Intermediation until the story ends, until the soul comes back to us.

We live in a world where people live and they die. This is a world where people live as a consequence of someone 'dying.' 

The smaller question is would Bardo be relevant to a Movie which would have ended with David and Elizabeth reaching Paradise. Given that the subject was raised recently by Damon Lindelof to explain one of his other works it might have been.

I do believe though once Damon Lindelof saw how his attempt to fashion a separate story away from ALIEN was becoming anchored in a purely Alien conversation (Badass robots, nastier monsters, make Shaw vigilante) that such matters were to excuse the pun 'dead' from the moment he moved on. 

Thanks again for everyone's interest and in particular those who have fed me related matters. During Lockdown in New Zealand, I wrote a second book connected to the Star Trek Enterprise Series.

https://wordpress.com/view/theromulangambit.com

My next work will be entirely my own but I have enjoyed the apprenticeship and found myself going back to the text of Furious Gods this last month and once again finding more of the story.   

Thanks for the Share and Time put into this.

I really really must take a look at your Interpretation i think while we all have Varied Interpretations i feel its a SHAME that we never got a Sequel that seemed to take on what seemed to be a Different Direction to what we eventually got with Alien Covenant.

@BigDave

One of the most difficult elements of a conversation about where Prometheus was going is we all look at this in very different ways. We do not start in the same place let alone end up in the same place but there are two broadly different start points:-

1) The literal approach.

2) The philosophical thematic approach. 

The two elements have to find a common language which is not easy. If I can show why I will give three examples of each. 

Literal

i) What is the meaning of the Alien Shape fused into the alter?

ii) Why did the Urns in the Sanctuary leak but the Urns in the downed craft do not? 

iii) What is the weird creature in the Fresco pouring over the Engineer? 

Philosophical

i) You made us why did you want to destroy us?

ii) What is the soul?

iii) If they made us who made them and why?

For me, the first three questions are simply a matter of choice and ensuring the answers support the narrative. So In Part 1

i) I remove the shape and put back the Bowl and place Charlie's "This is just a tomb" where Damon had it in the Paradise script.

ii) The urns leak in the sanctuary as part of a broader warning.

iii) I build on the Fresco and turn it into one of many Buddist Story Boards which fits with Steve Messing's remarks about the Creature in the Mural.

Now some people will quite correctly go no no no that's not how I see it and that takes them away from the story. I understand that but I am interested in writing a coherent story where all those decisions support the much broader narrative which I am interested in.

Philosophical 

Oddly enough some of these questions are answered in the film and supporting materials but people from the literal group want "Evidence" and evidence that fits there view of what evidence is.

i) You made us why did you want to destroy us. Charlie and David both answer this at different points in the movie because we could and why does it matter. It is the question of Milton's Adam and the Creature created by Frankenstein. The underlying point is we assume our creator likes us even loves us clearly that is not the case. We are just something in a Petri Dish that can be upgraded, just like Dave the robot.

ii) What is the soul? That's one of the fun questions which we get no sense of in the film. David is offended by Sir Peter's remark in the Hollo Speech, wishes Sir Peter a safe journey and is fascinated by Elizabeth. He thinks there is some kind of answer. I provide one which makes perfect sense to a Robot.

iii) We do not get any clear idea of who the big chap is in the movie and that's a fun question. What I can say is 'it' made them. I also take as gospel Ridley's comment that he left the Engineers out of the Prologue because he did not want to meet God until the second movie. I also take the fact he called the material in the imbibing cup Genesis as being important. 

Now a certain segment of the audience would have loved those questions answered provided in a thought-provoking way. Damon and Ridley had some "Cool Ideas." I answered those questions and I stuck to Logan Marshalls remarks its neither Darwin or Faith-Based and it is also consistent with Ridley's view that we may simply be a footnote. 

However I hope my remarks have communicated that if you are from a literal background with your own preconceptions you would find my story understandably difficult. 

Then there is the issue that for some A L I E N fans Prometheus is an intrusion. I use that thought cheekily as a metaphor in my story and reverse the process I make the creature an unintended consequence. I take the view Kane was not meant to linger over the Ovoid they had much bigger fish to fry. 

So to sum up:-

1) If you have preconceived views of your own.

2) You want evidence that my view is "right."

3) Anyway, Prometheus is an intrusion. 

Then the book doesn't help. You talk about interpretations, having delved deeply into this you can imagine I would find it supremely hard to suspend and look at an alternative view. For a very simple reason, I wrote the book so I could get Elizabeths answers not for her but for me. So I have them and I am profoundly moved when people feel they got there's too not because they are accurate within the imagined world of Ridley and Damon but because it means we are together on a journey unlike Elizabeth who is alone.    

In the previous post I wanted to acknowledge how difficult it is for people who have speculated for years to simply accept my very clear unofficial vision particularly as the story is told without a genre anchor.

It's worth saying that from the moment I shared my working titles for Chapters in 2018 my mind set changed. It was no longer what does that mean? It was it means that and the only time I was nervous about how far from the intended path I might have strayed was when I sat down to watch "The Making of Prometheus" documentary and found all my key assumptions were correct which I shared from my blog.

But as a final point I did not write the book to second guess the Lindelof/Scott outcome I simply find it fascinating that each time I or friends uncover some potential clue its fascinating to note that I am operating in the same area.

One thing I have never mentioned and neither have any readers their is a relationship between the Michael Green written BR2049 and Furious Gods. The sense of unfolding mystery and the way it resolves is not dissimiliar. I believe the development of Alien Covenant was as much affected by Neil Blomkamp as the decision to hand off the sequel to BR and there was a splitting of ideas at that point. Pure supposition but I can feel the "What is life" journey narrative when I watch BR2049.           

Hello Michelle! Wow! This looks so amazing! I'm looking forward to reading this! Thank you so much for sharing!

@VivisectedEngineer

Thank you very much for your interest and I hope you find the very deliberate decision to push deeper into the Promethean territory works for you. 

May I wish you all safe passage at this time and the promise of hope at the bottom of our Jar of Woes? 

My thanks to AC.Com that have produced 48 referrals to my work whose overall readership has increased all most three times in 2020 for its best-ever year.

and if only one more person makes the journey...   

https://prometheuscontinuationstory.com/

“Oh no, no, no, it’s Christmas Captain and I want to open my presents.”

Finally, they reached the edge of the forest and Charlie had his first view of the craft, even three kilometres away it was huge. He took in the sweep of the left-hand horn and its curious shapes at the end of the 'tail'. "Good god and these things were all hidden in underground silos."

                                                                                      ______________

Anyway, what happens when David wears out or suffers a catastrophic failure? What did Weyland know about that?

A scene emerged of waves crashing endlessly against a coastline. A Lone Acolyte appeared on the seashore. The Acolyte looked around him a puzzled frown on his face, for many minutes he looked out across the ocean and considered the dwarf sun and its reflections on the waters and then he turned to face the land and began to consider his immediate surroundings, suddenly he stopped, his attention drawn by a single object. He walked towards it. He touched the shape and comprehension dawned on the acolyte's face. The acolyte turned and looked to the North between a gap in the mountain range, which skirted the sea, and then he set eyes on it for the first time, the Great Mountain of the planet wreathed in cloud. He picked up the clothing beside the large shape, dressed, in the cloak of the acolytes and began walking toward the mountain.

                                                                                       _____________

"I?" can’t..….. I can’t create life what does that say about me

Before them, a circle of Ovoid’s and in their midst, wreathed in majesty their mother. She called to them and their Petals flew back. From the naval of Shiva, Elizabeth, new life, catalysed by the very source of creation, leapt into the air and bore down on the ancient ones, overcoming all.

                                                                                       _____________

David turns the ampule on its length and the black cloudy substance lurking at the top of the ampule filters down and merges with the Green Liquid.

“I finally isolated the core components of the material. It combines some part of what I believe is the very essence of creation with something conceived and designed by the Engineers of the Moon.”

Elizabeth’s reproductive system treated this new mRNA as if it were generated from her own DNA, but the DNA inside the cell’s nucleus remains untouched which he hoped would fool the mutagen.

Well I thank you for your effort. Happy X-mas to you too.

Duplicate.

@ignorantGuy

And a happy new year to you. 

What has been fascinating this year is to see the themes of the work echoed in others. 

Soji in Picard has the same dilemma as Elizabeth; the guardian weighs Captain Georgiou in the same way that my guardian’s tests David. But most pleasing Discovery has slowed down and Burnham thinks and talks about her experiences in the same way as Elizabeth.

However, watching the prologue to Covenant in the fan adjusted combination reminded me how close David was to the truth "every step is fraught with tragedy, power is an illusion, they are false gods." As David makes those remarks you can see the Nativity the birth of a unique personality with a character pointing to a hole in the roof and through it can be seen... Paradise where all the answers lay. 

I have begun my original work I just need to discipline myself but inevitably in some ways, this year is distracting and so the occasional rewrite to a chapter of P: F.G. comes more easily. That is not a bad thing as I learn hopefully to become a better writer. 

Thank you as always for your enthusiasm.   

once l started reading , had to read it all , good stuff

@NCC 1701

Many thanks for taking the trouble to comment it is always appreciated and please feel free to make the link for others who might enjoy. 

Even going back to my reading group in the summer of 2018 I remember one saying you had me all the way. I  have lost count of the number of rewrites (not just corrections) I have done but that essential point that the subject matter is perfect for a mystery has always been there. 

Once again thank you.