As the reviews are coming in for my novel, I'm getting an idea about which subtleties people are picking up on and which they are not. I embedded a great deal of symbolism in Vainglorious Sun and I think it would be a shame if it remained buried and unrecognized. Many of these references, in retrospect, were too obscure for most readers to catch. So I'm providing a few teasers to give readers an idea of the multiple levels at which the book can be read:

NAME SYMBOLISM:

"Sybil Lee"
"Sybil Lee" is a homophone for "Cybele", the ancient goddess of the wild earth, whose priests castrated themselves in ritual worship. Jared's obsessive love for Sybil Lee and inability to attain her mirrors his obsession for the environment. The progression of his feelings for her mirrors his spiritual growth (growing past his obsession with one person/one aspect of the natural world, to recognize the rest).

"Jared Foster"
Jared means "descent from" and Foster can be taken to mean "foster child" or "foster" as in "forester", protector of the forest. Either interpretation works. Losing his mother early, Jared found solace in "mother Nature." He is also, obviously, devoted to the protection of the environment.

"Christopher Burgeis"
"Christopher" means "bearer of the Christ" and "Burgeis" means a "fortified townsperson." One of Chris's main roles is to take the message of the Christ figure (such as there is) to the city people (or city person in this case, Alan).

ALTERNATE REALITIES:

Much of what I was trying to do in this book was to show that there are different, legitimate ways of viewing the same reality. To that end, there are a number of scenes that can be interpreted as a Classical Maya person might (in a spiritual sense), but there is always a rational out. I tried to stretch our modern scientific worldview to its most magical near breaking point, but hopefully didn't go beyond that. To that end, I also took great care in making sure that the facts that I presented as such were accurate. As far as I know there are only two factual errors. I wonder if anyone can spot them.

Some other random tidbits -
This novel uses a worldview based on cutting-edge "complexity" science concepts such as self-organization, emergence, and chaos to bridge science and spirit. Prior to writing this book, I couldn't use the word "spirit" with a straight face. I learned what that term might mean through the process.

The "Cities" chapter is meant to convey all that is good and bad about city life, as well as the costs. I threw some globalization in there as well, in the form of the lecherous old man and chubby young woman in "La Cara Bonita."

Maya kings were thought to commune with the spirit world, and have the ability to shape shift into jaguars.

Jared's hope is that by turning people on to the wonders of nature we will be more apt to protect it. That was my hope as well with this novel.

Vainglorious Sun