Neon-powered Angels and the War for the Blue Lady's Secret Name

[oneirophrenia]

Thanks to lyssabard, I discovered an incredibly interesting article in the Miami New Times concerning the myths and folklore common among homeless children in Miami. The myths are awesome: God has fled heaven because of a demon assault and is M.I.A., probably dead, and the only thing that the people of earth can depend on to save them are the angels who hide in the shadows, feed on the beautiful neon light of the porn-store and bar signs, while the demons crawl everywhere, emerging from the hellmouths of abandoned refrigerators and SUVs with black windows to torture and maim. The angels are losing the battle, but at leas the Blue Lady is there to protect the very, very few children who know her secret name which frees her power from its demon prison in the ocean. But you gots to be careful, because the arch-demoness of them all, Bloody Mary--La Llorona (the moaning one, a form of banshee) is always there waiting to rip out your soul. It's a harsh mythology for a harsh, short life. And it's something I have to write about.

Don't expect the feel-good triumph-of-the-noble-homeless summer spectacular of the year from me, though. I'm not about to wallow gratuitously in the gutterlife of homeless children, but I'm not about to ennoble their situation--it's bleak, and that's all there is to it. But that doesn't mean the world's sunken entirely in blackness. Remember, there are angels in the architecture. Few. Beaten. Completely inadequate to stop the demons hacking the world apart on soul at a time. But they keep trying.

Comments

[vocis.livejournal.com]

I remember coming across that article a couple of years ago. It gave me ideas for paintings I can never create. :/

Very powerful stuff indeed.

[z0mb1e.livejournal.com]

Oh I've read that before, and its the sort of thing I would love to write a play/screenplay out of!

[eclective.livejournal.com]

Oh, someone totally needs to make a fiction out of it. Got that link a while ago and was totally in love, in the way that one falls in love with something so disturbing and fascinating and inspiring-yet-tragic. Go for it.

[oneirophrenia.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I plan to do. I think I'm going to take a Gaimanish tack with this one, since he's so good with working with mythological concepts--I might as well use Neverwhere as a sort of starting point, although the story I plan to tell will be somewhat simpler, and about 50,000 times more violent and depressing. Mind you, I don't take a perverse pleasure in the misfortune of children, but if you're going to be talking about homeless children and the myths they make up to distract them from the absolute HELL that is innercity shelter life, you can't pull any punches or you end up eliminating the very soul of the mythology itself. I know I'm going to draw a lot of criticism for some of the scenes I've already planned in this piece (La Llorona ripping a little girl's heart out through her mouth, for instance), but I'm not about to candycoat it: it's a harsh mythology for a harsh world. But still strangely beautiful and, for all the filth and horror it's born in, a transcendent experience nonetheless.

[eclective.livejournal.com]

I might as well use Neverwhere as a sort of starting point

blblblbl-- ::'splode and DIEEEE::

OMG. OMFG. OMFLATDWG. (Ask for translation of that last if needed.)

I love you. I want your artificially-intelligent pseudobabies.

I MUST BE THE FIRST TO KNOW WHERN THIS IS WRITTEN. Or, you know, maybe your immediate family or significant others or your cat or something first, but THEN me.

Followed your link here, don't mind me...

[of-carabas.livejournal.com]

Someone has. Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill, it's called Mad Maudlin.

I think someone else's version could do it better, though.

[laerm.livejournal.com]

angels in the architecture

did you mean to quote "you can call me al" by paul simon (and chevy chase)?

[oneirophrenia.livejournal.com]

What do *you* think, O my brotha? :)