Alice and the City of Pillars

Abstract

This piece owes its conception and growth to more works of literature, art, and music than can possibly be named here. The attentive reader will undoubtedly be capable of noting for herself where a few of my debts lie, beyond that, I hope she will find the pleasure of a good puzzle that merits an additional look now and again. My primary source for this piece is an amazing bit of translation, scholarship and poetry by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, titled Inanna. Queen of Heaven and Earth. I can think of no better guide for those who wish to further explore this piece than this amazingly raw presentation of one of the eldest legends of mankind, the Descent of Inanna. This myth contains the seeds of everything you see here, and is one of the most moving and compelling narratives I've ever had the pleasure of reading. It is a sparse meditation on life and love, death and resurrection, pain and healing, in short, all of the themes of this piece, but in a stripped down and primal form. All I've done here perhaps excessively and sloppily so - is fill in between the lines for the benefit of our impoverished modem consciousness. It is a story that deserves to live again, and I hope that this piece will aid that cause.