A View From Corona #16

Jeremy Lassen | April 1st 2004 at 1:14 pm

“The solitary, steep hill called Corona Heights was black as pitch and very silent, like the heart of the unknown. It looked steadily downward and northeast away at the nervous, bright lights of Downtown San Francisco as if it were a great predatory beast of night surveying its territory in patient search of prey.”

- Fritz Leiber, Our Lady Of Darkness

Previously only hinted at (by a foul mouthed Jason Williams, in an interview in Flesh and Blood), the true scope and scale of Night Shade’s ambitions are just now coming to light. Clandestine operatives of Bertelsmann, and The Holtzbrinck Group, and well as Perason’s Group, Viacom, and News Corporation have all managed to infiltrate the inner circle of the Night Shade Cabal… They have discovered Night Shade’s plans for literary and media domination in the 21st century. They have begun leaking this information to the public and are currently formulating their responses to the threat represented by Night Shade Media & Entertainment Ltd.

It has henceforth been decided by the Board of Elder Directors that the previously secret plans for world domination should be made public… that the goodwill and positive image that the Elders have worked so hard to ferment over the last 5 years must not be squandered. It is believed that by being open and honest with the writers, editors, readers, and general consumers of fiction and culture, that The Shade will gain more converts to it’s cause.

Let it be noted publicly, from this moment forth, that The Shade shall actively seek the down fall and displacement of media conglomerates, and their control over the literary culture of the western world. Herein forthwith, this conglomeration of power shall be referred to as The Machine.

Let it be understood that that The Shade does not bear ill will towards the parts that make up The Machine. The writers and editors and artists who have been forced to work inside The Machine are not part of the problem… they are part of the solution. The gears and critical components that make up The Machine have been neglected… they are rusty, and are being used in ways that they were not meant to be used. The most important parts of The Machine have been marginalized and discarded. Only the massive quantities of cash, and obscenely large profit margins allow the machine to continue stumbling forward. Eventually, as more and more parts atrophy, or are discarded, the machine will slow. The machine will grind to a halt. The machine will begin to die.

Every time a brilliant first novel is allowed to wither and die in the commercial marketplace… Every time a new writer that shows promise is not encouraged and developed… every time an influential or important writer of a previous generation is allowed to fade away…. Every time enthusiastic and talented new editors are chewed up and spit out by the low wages and marginalization of The Machine… Every time an experienced, seasoned editor’s judgment is questioned by a 24 year old MBA… The machine loses momentum.

As The Machine slows, The Shade grows! Let it be known that The Shade shall spread. As The Machine gives up ground, and The Shade takes it. The Shade will spread its arms wide… The Shade has, and will continue to embrace the discarded and unappreciated parts of The Machine. The Machine may occasionally try to reclaim the pieces that it has lost… it may occasionally succeed. But in the end, it is The Same Machine. It has no memory. It has no vision for the future. It is barren, and hungry. It eats its remaining children and spits out their bones. The Machine props up the corpses of its dead, and calls them Life. The Machine is an abomination.

The Shade will collect up the bones of the slain… The Shade shall make a memorial to them. Exploitation shall give way to reverence. The Shade will plant the bones of the dead into the ground so that they may be reborn. Chronos was destroyed by his children. So to The Machine, and The Shade.

The Board of Elder Directors invites all to share the vision of The Shade – to move forward – to believe that things can change for the better. The Elders recognize that it is the parts that matter…. The tail should no longer wag the dog. Five years have passed. The Dog is larger, and the tail smaller. With your help, The Machine can be toppled by a great Shadow Hound… the dark, hungry, marginalized pieces that made up the whole can overthrow the machine, and bring about a new age. An age of Shade!

It is the small choices that we make everyday that will determine our futures. We are at a crossroads. The secret war of the last five years is past. The overt conflict for the future has begun. The Elder Directors of The Shade are grateful for the support you have shown in the past, and are hopeful that the future will bring us all closer together… and closer to a glorious future.

Yours in Night and Shadow,
Jeremy Lassen,
Spokesman for the Board of Elder Directors,
Night Shade Media & Entertainment Ltd.

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