About this book
When Caul sets foot in Jude’s bar one Whitsuntide, he has no idea of the purgatory awaiting them over the next nine months. The bar’s violent owner, Paul, is obsessed with usurping Caul’s role as consort to Mae in a fertility rite, and will stop at nothing to use Jude in his quest to annihilate a much greater nemesis, the Church.
Welcome to Apocalypse of Jude, a tale in 116 discontinuous fragments, published by Nehemiah Blake. It is the fragmentary tale of seven characters whose lives are plotted to T.S. Eliot’s Wasteland and mashed up with Dante’s Purgatory and the Biblical books of Jude and Revelation.
Each fragment of Apocalypse of Jude lies in an assigned part of a cathedral floorplan. Just as it is difficult to gauge the 3D scale of a cathedral from a floorplan, so it will be difficult to piece together the time-space chronology of these fragments. However, by following the hyperlinks embedded in each fragment, the chronology of the novel will appear.
There are thus two paths along which to read Apocalypse of Jude:
- Click on Wasteland Mix to read the published order of discontinuous fragments, or
- Read the chronological Purgatory Mix by following the embedded hyperlink trail.
Why have I chosen this complicated structure? The architects of the Gothic cathedrals wished to use new technology at their disposal to capture for the worshipper, a sense of the awe of God. Likewise, in the architecture of this novel, I hope to allow the reader a sense of the movement of God’s Spirit.
Notes to understanding post headings:
Each post will have a heading akin to the following:
Fragment 1 /Christmastide /Vespers /Thurs, 24 Dec 1998
- Fragment 1 naturally refers to the fragment number.
- Christmastide refers to the liturgical or seasonal day on which the events occur.
- Vespers refers to the liturgical time during which the events occur.
- Thurs, 24 Dec 1998 naturally refers to the calender day of the events.
Key to the liturgical/seasonal/calender days in Apocalypse of Jude:
- Easter - Sunday, 12 April 1998
- Whitsuntide - Sunday, 31 May 1998
- Winter’s End - Saturday, 29 August - Sunday, 30 August 1998
- Spring Equinox - Wednesday, 23 September 1998
- Halloween - Saturday, 31 October - Sunday, 1 November 1998
- Midsummer - Tuesday, 22 December - Wednesday, 23 December 1998
- Christmas Eve - Thursday, 24 December 1998
- Christmastide - Thursday, 24 December - Friday, 25 December 1998
Key to liturgical hours in Apocalypse of Jude:
- Matins: Events occurring between midnight and 6am
- Prime: Events occurring between 6am - 9am
- Terce: Events occurring between 9am - 12pm
- Sext: Events occurring between 12pm - 3pm
- None: Events occurring between 3pm - 6pm
- Vespers: Events occurring between 6pm - 9pm
- Compline: Events occurring between 9pm - midnight