The Towers of Silence

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The Towers of Silence
by Nabarz
17-Oct-2009
 

From my very dark and surreal book/play: "Divine Comedy of Neophyte Corax and Goddess Morrigan". If you enjoy works of Terry Pratchett, Mighty Boosh or Mulla Nasreddin, this tale of the surreal magical journeys of a Neophyte called Corax, and his initiator Goddess Morrigan is might appeal to you. The Celtic Goddess Morrigan is the Goddess of war, death, rebirth, change, and justice. This is far more than Corax expected at his initiation! This is the Act XIII of the play/book and involves a visit to the Towers of Silence. Details at: lulu.com or amazon.com

Act XIII: The Towers of SilenceIt is dinner time and Morrigan is leading her children to supper.

Morrigan: What does everyone fancy tonight?

Corvus: How about going for French cuisine I hear the Gaulish temples in Northern France are full of decaying bones, especially Ribemont has some lovely offerings, you can even get Duir Burgers™ made from the Bulls meat offerings.

Morrigan: They have nice roof platforms for the bodies to decompose, but the bodies are still wearing armour, which gets in my beak.

Corax: They swap the upper parts of the bodies with lower parts at the waist, very tasty each body is made of two persons really, a bit like a Big Mac, but they lack the head so we won’t know the expiry date.

Corvus: Well, how about going for an Indian, a spicy curry would help me to digest the last of the Greek meal we had last week.

Corax: I did say remove the wrapper (toga) before eating.

Corvus: Well at least I finished my meal, you left half of yours.

Morrigan: Ok children that’s enough, stop arguing. This week we go for an Indian and next week for a French one. Both happy? Good, and Corax how many times I told you, always finish your food.

Morrigan and her children begin their flight to Bombay for an Indian meal, the Zoroastrian ‘Tower of Silence’ restaurant used to be a global Franchise at one point but now only a handful (beakful) remain. The quality of food is still good but being in the middle of a city now the food is smoked, which gives a strange after taste.

Morrigan: Now remember kids you must not drop any of the food in the city, and avoid the planes when going over the airport.

Corax and Corvus exchange a mischievous glance. On their arrival, they are met with an elderly man, a Nasarsarlas, who greets them with their names.

Morrigan: Greetings to you too, I’ll have my usual table please; you haven’t changed at all from my last visit.

Nasar: Great Queen, that was my grand father, it’s been many years since your last visit. I have the three towers ready as always, the deceased men in the outer circle, women in the middle circle and children in the inner circle.

Morrigan: Thank you, I think I’ll sit at the inner circle; Corax will eat the middle circle and Corvus the Outer Circle.

With that the three begin their feasting. Soon all are full and Morrigan decides to have a siesta. The kids are also full and begin playing with their food, and soon they are flying all over the city with remains of their meal.

Corax accidentally drops a skull in someone’s swimming pool, while Corvus accidentally drops a leg on top of a bank. It doesn’t take long before its raining bones, and the whole city is in commotion; some also land in a Kali Ashram. Kali doesn’t like to be woken up by piece of ribcage (unless it’s her own chest clock made by 12 Raja’s skulls). She sticks her head out and sees Corax doing a Maradona's ‘Hand of God’ impression by pushing someone’s skull straight into a bus stop full of people.

Kali: Oi Corax! What do you think you’re doing?

Corax: Ummm Auntie Kali, didn’t realise you were in.

Kali: Don’t Auntie Kali me; you know the rules, never play with your food! And don’t drop them in the city. Where is my sister?

Corax: Morrigan is having a nap.

Kali: Not after the racket you two have been making, here she comes now.

Morrigan: CORAX, CORVUS, what the Hel have you two been up to?

Kali: Look at the mess they made, the whole place is covered in body parts.

Morrigan: Honestly Corax and Corvus it’s this sort of behaviour that caused the decline of most of the Celtic cults of decomposition. Your behaviour could cause this fast food tower to be closed as well. Go and clean up the mess you created, and return all the bones to their original place.

Corax: Yeah, but no, no but yeah but no….

Morrigan: Just get on with it NOW!

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Nabarz

Historical based play

by Nabarz on

Hi Minoo,

Thanks for the feedback, good points.

My work including the above piece is historically accurate, so even if the surreal style is not some people's cup of tea, hopefully by reading it the readers still absorb something of the Persian history and other cultures history and their links together.

My works cover Persian history in number of ways see: //astore.amazon.co.uk/pan05-21

Regards,

Nabarz 

 


Minoo66

Payam has a message

by Minoo66 on

I found a hint of film noir, sort of German expressionism, in your work. Of course I don't consider myself a critic; far from it. In my, negligible, opinion you hve to be very patient with Iranian readers/audience before making a breakthrough. Remember, you can't force your audience to appreciate your work and, with the same token, you shouldn't wait, forever,  for your audience to catch up with you; it's a delicate act between you, as a merchant of intelligence, and me, the regular Joe or, Jane.

I can't leave you without my, sometimes, boring political yada yada: the Pahlavis (especially Farah) tried to influence the public by some works of avnt-garde genre. They failed; simply for the lack of connection between the "merchant" and the "market".

Good luck.