[UPDATE May 2019: The link to Matthew Graybosch’s commentary on the first three Chapters of The Alchemists’ Council is currently unavailable. Nonetheless, I’ve opted to retain my responses to his commentary in my “Reading The Alchemists’ Council” posts.]

This week Council dimension has been quite busy. I’ll start with a few news items before moving on to my response to Matthew Graybosch & Eric Higby’s reading of Chapter One.

First, I direct you over to Urban Fantasy Investigations for my first online interview.

Second, if you’d like to win a copy of The Alchemists’ Council, head on over to the Giveaways page at 49th Shelf. The Giveaway period runs from today until June 3, 2016.

Third, I’ve received a fun and intriguing review from “Alexa” on Goodreads. The full review may be accessed here. For now, let me give you a sample by quoting a few of my favourite lines therein: In the first paragraph, she declares The Alchemists’ Council to be “strange and complicated and incredibly odd, but lovely.” Even better is this gem from her “Reading Progress”: “This book is so insane, but in a great way.” I may actually quote that sentence at my upcoming reading here in Nanaimo.

That said, Alexa also notes a few “quibbles” including this one: “the plot and the world is so complex that I still don’t understand some of it….” Not to worry! Let’s remember that the world of The Alchemists’ Council is built upon concepts of medieval alchemy, one of the most complex subject matters imaginable. When reading any alchemical text, we should take heed of this warning by Andrea DePascalis: “enigmas, contradictions, allegories, symbols, interruptions, veiled meanings and apparent absurdities are enough to make even the most indefatigable neophyte wonder if he is not the victim of some bizarre joke” (Alchemy the Golden Art, p. 77). Fortunately for us, Matthew Graybosch and Eric Higby are on the case once again to decipher some of these apparent absurdities.

Like the book itself, this week’s Graybosch & Higby contribution is “insane, but in a great way.” These two have gone to unfathomable work to offer us their extensive insights into Chapter One. So please be sure to click the link and take a look! Though I cannot by any means respond to everything our outside world scribes touched upon this week, I will note a few elements that stood out to me. First, I admire the graphics throughout the post beginning with the bee being erased by a pencil eraser. Ha! If only the alchemists had it so easy!

At the end of his section, Higby offers an observation about numerology. Although I admittedly had no say over the actual pagination of the final printed text, I do appreciate this sort of analysis, and I can assure you that any alchemist worth his salt (and sulphur and mercury) would too. Indeed, in one of my academic essays, I contend that certain medieval alchemical texts were constructed by their writers to represent the Philosopher’s Stone. All alchemical texts are meant to be interpreted, and I encourage the reader to do the same, especially when it comes to esoteric possibilities.

What I enjoy most about the Graybosch & Higby Readings so far is the opportunity to see literary interpretation from the other side. That is, as an English professor, I have spent my career analyzing other people’s texts. Now I am being given the opportunity to read detailed analysis of my own book. Moreover, each week I find viewpoints and insights that offer me new meanings for my book’s concepts. As an author, this process is fascinating. Graybosch’s comparison of Jaden’s experience to lyrics found in “Swedish melodic metal act Evergrey’s 2004 album, The Inner Circle” offers one such moment for me. Similarly, I admire the discussion of Arjan’s namesake, the Terminalia arjuna. Though I did indeed look at the characteristics of the trees when I named each character, I did not realize that “Arjuna is the protagonist of the Mahabharata, one of ancient India’s major epics.” Of course, Graybosch also offers a perceptive analysis of key problems with the Council, such as those outlined in his sections “Sephrim: the Alchemist’s Little Helper” and “Playing Telephone with the Lapis.” Overall, he does an exquisite job of summarizing and analyzing the key concepts required for understanding the remainder of the book’s plot.

On a final note, I see that Graybosch claims to be representing the Rebel Branch in his interpretation. I suppose that makes Higby the Council representative by default. Of course, by next week, allegiances may have shifted!

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