The fullest description of "the events of May June 1979" is in the DIALOGUE: FROM HELL with Alan Moore. Shulgan's version is pretty much what you would expect from a crack-head "pulling a cheque" appealing to a mainstream Toronto audience.
Actually, I made a math error: the original plan had been to do 156 bi-monthly issues, concluding in 2003. When I decided to go monthly, that got revised to 300 issues ending in 2003. It was (I'm not sure how many) years later that I figured out the actual date was March, 2004. VERY disheartening.
I had inferred that there would be a LOT of Ground Zero Literature being produced, timed to conclude with January 1, 2000 -- had inferred, in fact, that a LOT of it was already being produced -- and that CEREBUS would be "one of many" which would "come to light" in the late 1990s. (I think Prince sensed the same thing when he did "Party Like It's 1999": and turned out to be the only person besides me who was thinking about it). That is, that there would be a GZL metaphysical roller derby -- all of us becoming aware of each other late in the day and charging for the same spot -- and I had decided that I wanted to avoid being part of that. I wasn't sure how "far past" the date it was necessary to go to avoid whatever it was that I sensed on the horizon.
GZL turned out to be non-existant. Had I known that, I would have timed the ending of CEREBUS for January, 2000.
I do think I was right in anticipating the metaphysical realities. But, instead, they took the form of a metaphysical "head fake" -- the Y2K computer glitch which was going to bring about a worldwide
apocalypse -- and the actual Watershed Millennial Moment -- 9/11.
It wasn't I don't think Owsley's Acid that we were doing by the 1970s. The "speed" revolution was already engulfing the remains of the pot and acid "all you need is love" context. If it was the 1970s and it was a pill and a speed freak manufactured it, it was going to have a lot of speed in it. Speed freaks are like ketchup junkies who put ketchup on everything. "No drug can't be exponentially improved with a generous helping of amphetamines."
That was more my experience than anything that could be described as hallucinogenic. REALLY awake. I pencilled a bunch of pages of CEREBUS No.11 (I was going to make note of the pages and forgot -- I'll try to remember for tomorrow) and was definitely "seeing differently". I was TIGHT-pencilling for one thing which I tended not to do since I was inking the book myself. It was an impressive pile of pages until I "came down" and thought, "Well, yeah, but they aren't FINISHED. They're just PENCILLED. I still have to LETTER and INK and TONE them." I went from perceiving myself as having done several days' work in a few hours to recognizing that I had probably done about a day's work...in a day. Except the day had been all night.
I reverted to my "page a day" standard: if you finish the page, you have a page done. Anything else and you're just kidding yourself as most semi-pro guys do. "I GOT FOUR PAGES PENCILLED IN ONE DAY!" How long ago was that? "About a week!" "So, you pencil a page every two days." "NO WAY! FOUR PAGES IN ONE DAY!"
Seeing "mothers and daughters" as a primary division in the nature of Reality, arguably, came out of the acid experience, because I was already embarked upon creating as plausible a matriarchy as I could. I realized that I needed a term for "daughter: ????" that was an equivalent of "mother: matriarchy".
I think acid helped me to "think outside the box", but I was perceiving it the way the Beatles had: a source of enlightenment. A higher state of being. A higher consciousness.
I DID experience that for the first time fasting in Ramadan. "Oh, so THIS was what I was looking for."
The average North American is going to opt for acid in that "either/or" circumstance, I think.
Actually, I made a math error: the original plan had been to do 156 bi-monthly issues, concluding in 2003. When I decided to go monthly, that got revised to 300 issues ending in 2003. It was (I'm not sure how many) years later that I figured out the actual date was March, 2004. VERY disheartening.
I had inferred that there would be a LOT of Ground Zero Literature being produced, timed to conclude with January 1, 2000 -- had inferred, in fact, that a LOT of it was already being produced -- and that CEREBUS would be "one of many" which would "come to light" in the late 1990s. (I think Prince sensed the same thing when he did "Party Like It's 1999": and turned out to be the only person besides me who was thinking about it). That is, that there would be a GZL metaphysical roller derby -- all of us becoming aware of each other late in the day and charging for the same spot -- and I had decided that I wanted to avoid being part of that. I wasn't sure how "far past" the date it was necessary to go to avoid whatever it was that I sensed on the horizon.
GZL turned out to be non-existant. Had I known that, I would have timed the ending of CEREBUS for January, 2000.
I do think I was right in anticipating the metaphysical realities. But, instead, they took the form of a metaphysical "head fake" -- the Y2K computer glitch which was going to bring about a worldwide
apocalypse -- and the actual Watershed Millennial Moment -- 9/11.
It wasn't I don't think Owsley's Acid that we were doing by the 1970s. The "speed" revolution was already engulfing the remains of the pot and acid "all you need is love" context. If it was the 1970s and it was a pill and a speed freak manufactured it, it was going to have a lot of speed in it. Speed freaks are like ketchup junkies who put ketchup on everything. "No drug can't be exponentially improved with a generous helping of amphetamines."
That was more my experience than anything that could be described as hallucinogenic. REALLY awake. I pencilled a bunch of pages of CEREBUS No.11 (I was going to make note of the pages and forgot -- I'll try to remember for tomorrow) and was definitely "seeing differently". I was TIGHT-pencilling for one thing which I tended not to do since I was inking the book myself. It was an impressive pile of pages until I "came down" and thought, "Well, yeah, but they aren't FINISHED. They're just PENCILLED. I still have to LETTER and INK and TONE them." I went from perceiving myself as having done several days' work in a few hours to recognizing that I had probably done about a day's work...in a day. Except the day had been all night.
I reverted to my "page a day" standard: if you finish the page, you have a page done. Anything else and you're just kidding yourself as most semi-pro guys do. "I GOT FOUR PAGES PENCILLED IN ONE DAY!" How long ago was that? "About a week!" "So, you pencil a page every two days." "NO WAY! FOUR PAGES IN ONE DAY!"
Seeing "mothers and daughters" as a primary division in the nature of Reality, arguably, came out of the acid experience, because I was already embarked upon creating as plausible a matriarchy as I could. I realized that I needed a term for "daughter: ????" that was an equivalent of "mother: matriarchy".
I think acid helped me to "think outside the box", but I was perceiving it the way the Beatles had: a source of enlightenment. A higher state of being. A higher consciousness.
I DID experience that for the first time fasting in Ramadan. "Oh, so THIS was what I was looking for."
The average North American is going to opt for acid in that "either/or" circumstance, I think.
