[2003] LOSS & PORPHYRY the novels  

9992 A LOSS OF INNOCENCE - SYNOPSIS

CONTEXT 

The context for this novel is a year in the life of the inhabitants of a bronze-age village. In that year the community gradually moves from a peaceful, near-idyllic existence to one of barbaric tyranny and serfdom. This comes about as a result of the introduction of a new, alien culture which violently combines militarism with religion.

The main character, the narrator, is the middle-aged shaman of that community who is the focus for its spiritual activities. Over the year, though, his corresponding position as leader of the community is progressively undermined, and then usurped, by a young stranger who brings the alien culture to the village. As the shaman's role in the community diminishes, he becomes more and more involved with a strange young girl who arrives with the usurper. Thus, while his life at the practical level deteriorates to failure, at the spiritual level it rises to a mystical climax at the end of the book.

In part it is a forceful historical novel, where the period details have been carefully researched, and partly a romance describing a loving – but unconsummated - relationship between a young girl and an older man. At the same time, however, it is also a novel of ideas. Thus, at one level, the book is about the failure of an individual to control undesirable change, and the effect of this on him where public failure is balanced at the personal level by an unusually powerful, mystical romance. At another level, though, it examines the impact of the introduction of a highly organised – and vigorously promoted - culture, most specifically religion, on a naive community. Although most of the material is strictly realistic, and entertaining at any level, it also has an allegorical content. To a degree it can be seen as a comment on the long-lamented loss, since the 1980s, of the idealism, optimism and 'innocence' which were significant features of the popular culture of the 1960's; now replaced by the callous militarism of many modern governments.

SYNOPSIS

The book opens with the visionary participation of the shaman in the sacred rites at the dawn of midsummer. Thus, the first chapter of the book (Midsummer Idyll) sets the context, for the horrors to come, by a lyrical description of the daily life of the small bronze age community; ending with the excitement of the evening's feast and love-making.  

The second chapter (A Strange Madness) sees the return of the village's most successful trader (Isac). He brings with him two young strangers, a youth and a girl, both of whom have somewhat perplexing backgrounds. The girl, in particular, tells a harrowing story of her childhood as a slave. The youth, on the other hand, is inordinately proud of his skills as a warrior; where such martial arts, just as much as slavery, are as yet unknown to the peaceful community. 

In the third chapter (Equinox) the inevitable spiritual combat between the youth (Jon) and the shaman is set in motion, with a battle for the heart and mind of the community developing between Jon's brutal new militaristic ideas and the shaman’s traditional ones of shared community. Alongside this philosophical struggle, practical development of new bronze technology, which will bring new riches – and new threats - to the village, comes to a successful conclusion. At the same time an ambivalent relationship between the shaman and the young girl (Trina) starts to blossom; distracting him from what is happening elsewhere.  

The intellectual battle continues in chapter four (The Hunt), where the shaman – having recognised too late the problems he is facing in his community - increasingly turns inward to try and find solutions to the impossible new questions he is having to face. The climax is the traditionally barbaric splendour of the hunt, which sees the first of Jon's triumphs as a demagogue. This is, however, once more complemented by the parallel development of the intense, mystical relationship between the shaman and Trina, in which he learns more of her disturbing earlier experiences; which pre-figure what is about to happen to the village itself. 

The first practical effects of the changes in ideology are seen in chapter five (Midwinter) with the theft of a substantial proportion of the village's wealth, which inexorably leads to growing feelings of distrust and the unwitting beginnings of incipient militarism. The midwinter ceremony is a disaster for the spiritual life of the village and for the shaman, and another triumph for Jon’s devious plans. The shaman’s immediate problems, though, are once more subject to the distraction of a mystical experience of great power, through which he is led by Trina. 

In chapter six (Beyond Equinox) he becomes increasingly distracted by being immersed in the strange world to which Trina has introduced him. He gains consolation, to counter his growing failure as the leader of the community, by slowly withdrawing from the real world that is being gradually destroyed around him. This steady disintegration is brought to a head by the brutal, ritualistic murder of Isac's wife (Melani). Although the shaman is able, with Trina's help, to rescue the sacred equinox ceremony, the visions he sees confirms the ultimate fate of the village. 

The tragedy, for the community, works its way inexorably to its conclusion in the final chapter (A New World), with the rapidly growing feelings of fear and mistrust resulting in the first experiences of inter-communal war. The shaman and Trina, however, leave the community to begin a retreat to a pure, spiritual plane and this leads to the mystical climax of the book; as they pledge to use the knowledge they have gained from their experiences to keep the fires of innocence burning amongst the tribes of the north.

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