As with most of my writing projects Older Gods was spawned and spiralled out of a single thought, in this case a line I woke up with one morning, which troubled me for some time before I worked out where it belonged: “we fled these shores in search of older Gods”.
It tells the story of two people; name, age, gender never specified; who live in an idyllic island community where the culture has been subverted by the advent of acquisitiveness and greed, something common to all the world in that time and place.
The two fall foul of a taboo which prevents them being together as a couple. The taboo is also not specified. In order to find acceptance and permission for their love they leave to seek out “older gods”.
Much is left unsaid. This is very deliberate, and quite difficult to stick to. Mores and the boundaries of acceptability vary from culture to culture and person to person. By avoiding the specific I hope to enable the reader to overlay their personal experience of difference. The lack of cues will make this tough for some. It may make the whole unreadable, but if I don’t try I won’t know.
The style is lyrical, with repetitions and a certain interior rhyme and rhythm that verges on the poetic. It is not a poem. Cutting prose into odd lines does not make it a poem. Don’t get me started.
The intention is that this should be read aloud, perhaps even chanted. One day I may even record an audio version.
I’m aiming at ten fifteen parts and perhaps 4000 7000 words by the time I have finished. All the pictures are ones I have taken. The current draft is in 14 parts and over 7000 words, with edits I imagine it will condense to about 12 parts.
Please let me know what you think. I will now leave the posts as they are, and when the edits are complete post the entire work here, and available as a pdf.
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I am enjoyed writing it.
Contents:
Ali Abbas 
15 thoughts on “Older Gods”