In the rough diamond between them was a country so harsh as to make even the feral strips look tame. This was deeply muscled country that had sinuous depths and involved hills and ramparts. It was prototype nightmare country where everything was bigger and woolier. It was heap upon heap, and spires rising in clusters to the cross-buttressed heights of the mountains. And now, as the darkness began more to deepen, all the high places were outlined with an electric blue glow.— Chapter 7
Lightning, a billion times as bright as that on Electric Mountain, a billion times as short in duration, does it lace the things together with its instantaneous fire, or sunder them forever? Thunder that flattens worlds with the shock of it, and a tidal wave, a world wave carrying away the golden fungus from the orb! In much less than an instant, in much more than forever, it is over with. — Chapter 13
I've been thinking more today about Petersen's exposition of Chapters 6 and 7 of Past Master (LINK) and the deep structure embedded within them. It seems clear to me that these chapters are architecturally significant and connected to the novel’s final moments. To illustrate this, I will lay out an image and a table to clarify some of these relationships. This analysis builds on my previous discussion of spiritual and temporal authority in the novel.
One concept not addressed in that earlier post is the interplay between the Book of Nature and the Book of Revelation—the two complementary ways in which God reveals Himself. This medieval framework, central to Augustine, Aquinas, and Bonaventure, ultimately derives from Romans 1:20, where St. Paul writes that God's attributes are evident in creation.
The Book of Nature refers to the created world as a means of knowing God through reason, enabling natural theology to discern divine truths through observation and intellect. The Book of Revelation—what Catholics call the deposit of faith—comprises Scripture and divine revelation, conveying truths that surpass human reason and require faith. Together, these two books present a unified vision of knowledge, in which faith and reason are not opposing forces but interdependent aspects of truth. Now, let’s bring this into dialogue with the idea of spiritual and temporal authority.
We now have a framework for understanding the relationships between Charles, Oddopter, Adam, Evita, and the Feral Lands, allowing us to begin interpreting the interplay between character and environment. I propose mapping these figures onto the categories of emperor, church, revelation, and nature. These, in turn, correspond to the four mountains—Evita and the others. At the heart of this structure stands Thomas More, whose role remains to be more fully explored—perhaps in another post. This isn’t the whole picture, but it is, I think, part of what is at work here, and helps us understand what is going on with Evita, Adam, the Salic Emperor, and Oddopter.
The passages describing the space between the mountains are powerful—a prophetic vision of the novel’s final chapter. Prophecy precedes eschatology, as Daniel and St. John precede Apocalypse. In Chapter 7, we perceive this space from the outside, grasping its structure at a distance. By the novel’s end, we enter it, seeing from within—at the center of the stellar core collapse. The reborn world will have to account for the ends of the grid.
Evita, as the female mountain, is a major part of the transcendent yeast—transcendent in the sense of being a necessary condition of possibility, one of four lightning rods for its primal discharge. I can see how the interior of the rough diamond-shaped space is an image of primordial nature. I would argue that its defining points are just as significant, ensuring that we have both ground and figure.
AUTHORITY | ROLE IN CHS. 6 & 7 | KEY QUOTES Chs. 6–7 | ANALYSIS |
CHURCH | Manifested in the green-robe monk (Father Oddopter) and the liturgy- Spiritual Directive: Celebrates Mass, blesses kills, stands for a supernatural order.
Mission of Salvation: Father Oddopter tries to keep Thomas oriented toward the transcendent.
Suffers Martyrdom: Like the Salic Emperor, the Church in the ferals is constantly endangered. | “He is a green-robed monk of the order of Saint Klingensmith... ‘Preserve us this morning from dire-wolves and panthers…’” (Ch. 6)
“And the monk said mass for all the people in Goslar… a simple and clear mass with a surprisingly intelligent sermon. It was as though the Heavens opened on command and the Spirit came down…” (Ch. 7) | Dante’s Two Ends: Father Oddopter is the power guiding souls to the higher end (eternal life), fitting with the “Book of Revelation” (grace, revealed truth).
Martyr Figure: Father Oddopter’s death on Thunder Mountain shows the precariousness of spiritual authority in a mechanized, “Programmed” world.
Upshot: The Mass is both a sign of the Church’s constant presence and a foretaste of heavenly reality. By celebrating the Eucharist in a feral zone, Father Oddopter affirms that grace can break through any environment, a real “Book of Revelation” moment. |
EMPEROR | Embodied by Charles the Six Hundred and Twelfth- Temporal Authority: Represents an earthly “realm” in the wild margins of Astrobe.
Fragile Leadership: The Salic Emperors are always short-lived, hunted by the Programmed Killers.
Tension with Thomas: Thomas rejects Charles’s feral monarchy, which sees Thomas as a “string-puppet,” which might be a shadow of Thomas More’s relationship to Henry VIII. | “Not for thirty reigns have there been so many grand people… I am Emperor so I am given intuition about such things… The Scrivener is a machine.” (Ch. 6)
“You cannot mean that Astrobe must be still more exposed to its back-lands… They must be hidden away forever.” (Ch. 6, near Scrivener’s lines but referring to empire vs. wilderness) | Dante’s Two Suns: Charles exemplifies the second “sun,” the Emperor’s power, which Dante argues comes directly from God but is distinct from papal authority.
Failed Dantean Vision: Because each Charles is swiftly killed, Lafferty suggests that temporal authority on Astrobe is extremely vulnerable—there is no stable Emperor to enforce the Book of Nature’s moral order.
Catholic/Medieval Resonance: A healthy Emperor–Church balance is missing.
Charles tries to shape Goslar with quick decrees, but can’t unify his subjects or harmonize them with the spiritual dimension.
It echoes Dante’s line that “men in their cupidity… need a twofold directive,” yet on Astrobe, that second directive (the Emperor) is ephemeral, always about to die while false kingship reigns in Cosmopolis. |
BOOK OF NATURE | This just is the Feral Lands, the daily devil-slaying, the monstrous hydra, and the savage environment.
Unmapped Wilderness: Here is creation’s raw, unmediated power.
Source of Vitality & Danger: Characters must kill a “Devil” daily; the savage ecology is what sustains Golden Astrobe behind the scenes.
Contrasts with Cosmopolis: The city denies or sanitizes the feral’s chaotic abundance. | “It was a fat discoid thing, black and quivering… half out of the water… ‘Devil, Devil, come in hate! Take the fine Evita bait!’ the wild-girl chanted…” (Ch. 6)
“Here there is superstition… a creature that had its origin in the nightmares of Golden Astrobe. It was banned there by group therapy… it came out here and became physical fact.” (Ch. 6) | Augustine’s Two Cities / Dante’s Natural Philosophy: In medieval theology, the Book of Nature is a legitimate teacher of truth but must be guided by virtue and grace. Here, the Feral Lands are the “wild side” of Astrobe, full of real, primeval life—and demonic threats.
Distorted by Mechanized Ideology: The Programmed Killers treat nature and feral peoples as threats or tools. Lafferty portrays the Feral Lands as ironically more “human” than the “City,” because they still rely on the rawness of nature’s energies.
Nature, though fallen, mediates God’s goodness; it’s not to be suppressed but rightly ordered.
In Past Master, that “right order” has collapsed.
The daily devil-slaying shows nature’s spiritual warfare dimension—“Kill the Devil each day to limn his limits.” |
BOOK OF REVELATION | We see it most clearly in the the Mass, Scripture references, signs of grace, and the transfiguration on Thunder Mountain
Direct Divine Intervention: The moment of consecration opens the heavens; the mountain lightning is spiritual revelation, Job before his creator.
Subverted by Cosmopolis: The city enforces a uniform “Dream” that sidelines both the Church and nature’s spiritual lessons.
Survival in the Feral Lands: Even in the wilderness, Father Oddopter says mass, showing that the “Revelation” can break in anywhere. | “He said mass for all the people in Goslar… a miraculous morning, so why not believe in miracles again for a while? … It was a little while in the mornings that Thomas felt faith stirring in him.” (Ch. 7)
“Thomas and Paul and Evita had been transfigured on the mountain… They had been burned into something new…” (end of Ch. 7) | Dante’s Supreme Pontiff & Pope Boniface VIII’s Two Swords: In De Monarchia, spiritual authority has its own direct line from God. Here, the “Book of Revelation” is suppressed in Golden Astrobe (the City) but resurfaces powerfully in the feral Mass and the mountain’s electrifying theophany.
Transformative Encounter: Thomas’s partial restoration of faith “for a little while” signals that spiritual realities can still break through the “golden mediocrity.”
Catholic Mystery: The Eucharist confers grace even in dire circumstances—both a hidden (sacramental) and visible sign of Revelation. On Thunder Mountain, cosmic forces (lightning and thunder) resemble a heightened form of “apocalyptic revelation.” |
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