PRIOR CHAPTER

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Deus Ex Machine

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     The red gemstone pommel of The Right Honourable Reverend Doctor’s cane began to hum and pulse with light.  He turned to share the news with Phoenix, but she was already running out the door, clutching at the glowing red gemstone pendant of the necklace hidden under her blouse. 

 

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Eucatastrophe is a term coined by J.R.R. Tolkien

which refers to the sudden turn of events at the end of a story

which ensures that the protagonist does not meet

some terrible, impending, and very plausible doom. 

Tolkien formed the word by affixing the Greek prefix eu, meaning good,

to catastrophe, the word traditionally used

in classically inspired literary criticism

to refer to the “unravelling” or conclusion of a drama’s plot. 

For Tolkien, the term appears to have had a thematic meaning

that went beyond its literal etymological meaning in terms of form. 

In his definition as outlined in his 1947 essay “On Fairy-Stories”,

eucatastrophe is a fundamental part of his conception of mythopoeia.

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucatastrophe

 

Mythopoeia

aims at imitating and including

real-world mythology to modern readers,

and/or to add credibility and literary depth to 

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythopoeia

 

philosophical and mystical ideas. 

- Evan Balkan

Vanished! explorers forever lost

 

 It would seem that many New Agers

would make excellent science fiction and fantasy novel writers

but make for poor philosophers

and even poorer exponents of what little amount of

the Ancient Wisdom they are able to comprehend.

- www.blavatskytheosophy.com/atlantis-and-lemuria/

 

An enigma such as this cannot be easily solved

without the help of magic.

- Garcilaso Inca de la Vega

Royal Commentaries

 

you have been getting communications

purporting to be of an Atlantean nature. 

Such is not impossible

as Atlantis is very much ‘in the air’ just now. 

Such communication might certainly come through sensitives;

that is to say waves of released information are picked up,

or a deliberate plan is being developed.”

- Evan Balkan

Vanished! explorers forever lost

 

Deus ex machine

(Latin: [ˈdeʊs ɛks ˈmaː.kʰɪ.naː]: /ˈdeɪ.əs ɛks ˈmɑːkiːnə/ 

or /ˈdiːəs ɛks ˈmækɪnə/; plural: dei ex machina)

is a Latin calque from Greek ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός (apò mēkhanês theós) 

meaning 'god from the machine'. The term has evolved to mean

a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem

is suddenly and abruptly resolved

by the contrived and unexpected intervention

of some new event, character, ability or object. 

Depending on how it is done,

it can be intended to move the story forward

when the writer has “painted himself into a corner”

and sees no other way out,

to surprise the audience,

to bring the tale to a happy ending,

or as a comedic device.

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina

 

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A singular breath seemed to rise up from beneath the sea floor and also, seemingly impossibly, from betwixt the seams of time-space itself. A swarm of snakelike tentacles slinked out of a dark shadow,

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TO ACT 8 Table of Contents

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