The Dragons
Dean Williams
Copyright 2014 Dean Williams
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my good friend and colleague Toru Iwama. More than anyone else, he has shown me the importance of having an inquiring mind, and of never, ever, giving up.
Acknowledgements
The outstanding cover art was done by C. Adachi, a university student. For the foreign poetry, I took my best shot at the German poem myself. The Japanese translation was done by Ayumi Hayashinaka, and the French poem was translated by Pierre Flamand. There were two Korean translators, one of whom was Mifa Ryo, the other preferring to remain anonymous. My thanks to them all. I also wish to acknowledge a certain large crow that I saw perched on a branch right outside my window about a year ago. You started it all, my glossy brother!
Preface
It is a foolish thing to make a long prologue, and to be short in the story itself.
Apocrypha (the Second Book of the Maccabees, 2:32)
This is a story about the end of one world, and the beginning of another. It does have dragons in it, but I regret to say, not very much action. It certainly doesn’t have sorcery, or swordplay, or scantily clad women in need of rescue. So if you are looking for a fast, entertaining read, one with a plot that propels you forward like a Porsche on the Autobahn, your hair streaming backward while beside you the voluptuous heiress to the Siemens fortune leans seductively backwards, fingers idly playing on your knee…now I am just teasing you.
For such a reader, this will probably not be your cup of tea. What this piece does have, however, is ideas. Lots and lots of ideas-- I dare say too many! In the end, I suppose I am more of a teacher than a writer. But I like to think that there are readers out there who are hungry for ideas, for notions, thoughts, inklings, and even dreams of all kinds. So, if you are that rare type of bird, and you are willing to overlook a fair degree of jejune if well-intentioned prose, you could very well find something to like in my little tale.
One or two more things. I don’t know where the idea of putting songs into the story came from. At some point they just appeared, and like boorish, obtuse house guests who just don’t get the message, they refused to disappear. But being stuck with them, I resolved to make the most of the situation. The poet Marianne Moore wrote of “imaginary gardens with real toads in them”. There is a granularity in good writing; it’s the grit in the oyster that with any luck might turn into a pearl. The songs are my quirky, earnest attempt at putting some verisimilitude into the narrative. Of course you must be the judge of whether I have succeeded or not. Even if you think that I have made a hash of it, try to sing some of them! You might be surprised at the result. I won’t tell you which is my favorite. But I will say that I believe the rap, the composing of which filled me with justifiable terror, turned out better than I had feared.
There is a quotation in the text, “Out of the crooked timber of humanity”, for which I did not want to give the source at that point. The full quote is "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made." Immanuel Kant wrote it, but I believe it was popularized by Isaiah Berlin. He even has a volume of essays with that title. Similarly, in chapter 23 there is a reference to humans as “the storytelling animals”; that comes from Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue. And can you find the phrase lifted from Shakespeare? It comes very early on.
The story’s price is calculated solely on the basis of its length. It is a longish short story—almost a novella-- by an amateur writer. (But look up the etymology of that much-maligned word: amateur!) However, I want to go on record as saying that online publishers, readers, and writers are going to have to come up with a more satisfactory pecuniary arrangement than the one that currently exists for the e-book market. The access to the global market is much appreciated, but there is something wrong when an aesthetic commodity’s own creator has no idea what to charge for the fruit of his or her labor.
Finally, I will tell you what I really want for Christmas: reviews. Fair, objective, thoughtful reviews. You have heard that old saw about even negative publicity being better than no publicity? It’s true.
Dean Williams
Kyoto, Japan, July 2014
The Dragons
I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am guarding it until it blazes.
Gnostic Gospel of Thomas (10)
The Greeks possessed a knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
We live in fact in an exploding universe of mechanical and electronic invention, whose parts are moving at a rapid pace ever further and further away from their human centre, and from any rational, autonomous human purposes…In short, our civilization is running out of control, overwhelmed by its own resources and opportunities, as well as its super-abundant fecundity.
Lewis Mumford
‘Tis magic, magic, that hath ravished me.
Dr. Faustus (Christopher Marlowe)
And, without illusions, what greatness can exist or be hoped for?
Giacomo Leopardi
Behold the people, how nothing will be restrained from them, from what they have imagined to do.
Genesis, 2:6
Something instituted by humans is superstitious if it concerns the making and worshipping of idols, or the worshipping of the created order or part of it a if it were God….
St. Augustine (from On Christian Teaching)
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God.
Exodus, 20:5
Verily those who have disbelieved of the People of the Book and the Polytheists are in the fire of Gehenna to abide therein—they are the worst of Creation.
Koran, 98:5
Summoned or not, God will be here.
Carl Jung
Rebellion against tyranny is obedience to God.
Benjamin Franklin