While attempting to summit the unconquered crest of Parascotopetl, a fictitious mountain in Ecuador, a mountaineer named Nunez slips and falls down the far side of the mountain. At the end of his descent, down a snow-slope in the mountain''s shadow, he finds a valley, cut off from the rest of the world on all sides by steep precipices. Unbeknown to Nunez, he has discovered the fabled Country of the Blind. The valley had been a haven for settlers fleeing the tyranny of Spanish rulers until an earthquake reshaped the surrounding mountains and cut it off forever from future explorers. The isolated community prospered over the years despite a disease that struck them early on, rendering all new-borns blind. As the blindness slowly spread over the generations, their remaining senses sharpened, and by the time the last sighted villager had died, the community had fully adapted to life without sight. Nunez descends into the valley and finds an unusual village with windowless houses and a network of paths, all bordered by kerbs. Upon discovering that everyone is blind, Nunez begins reciting to himself the refrain, "In the Country of the Blind the One-Eyed Man is King". He realises that he can teach and rule them, but the villagers have no concept of sight and do not understand his attempts to explain this fifth sense to them. Frustrated, Nunez becomes angry but they calm him and he reluctantly submits to their way of life because returning to the outside world is impossible. Nunez is assigned to work for a villager named Yacob, and becomes attracted to Yacob''s youngest daughter, Medina-saroté. Nunez and Medina-saroté soon fall in love with one another, and having won her confidence, Nunez slowly starts trying to explain sight to her. Medina-saroté, however, simply dismisses it as his imagination. When Nunez asks for her hand in marriage he is turned down by the village elders on account of his "unstable" obsession with "sight". The village doctor suggests that Nunez''s eyes be removed, claiming that they are diseased and are affecting his brain. Nunez reluctantly consents to the operation because of his love for Medina-saroté. But at sunrise on the day of the operation, while all the villagers are asleep, Nunez, the failed King of the Blind, sets off for the mountains (without provisions or equipment), hoping to find a passage to the outside world and escape the valley. In the original story, he escapes the valley but becomes trapped in the mountains, which ultimately leads to his death. In the revised and expanded 1939 version of the story Nunez sees from a distance that there is about to be a rock slide. He attempts to warn the villagers, but again they scoff at his "imagined" sight. He takes Medina-saroté and flees the valley during the slide.

The Country of the Blind

As the narrative opens, we meet Comet Jo at eighteen years of age. He has spent his entire life in a "simplex" society on Rhys, a satellite of a Jovian planet orbiting Tau Ceti. (At first the reader assumes that "simplex" is a synonym for "simple," but after Jo''s encounter with the "Geodessic Survey Station," Jo and the reader both realize that even "simplex" has some "complex" and even "multiplex" aspects to it.) Jo comes upon the wreckage of a spacecraft and encounters two survivors. The first is quickly dying and asks Jo to bring an important message to Empire Star moments before passing away. The other is a lifeform known as Jewel. Jewel is a tritovian in crystallized form, and in that state can easily view situations from several points of view, thus enabling narration from the point of view of the omniscient observer. Jo quickly leaves Rhys in an attempt to deliver the message to Empire Star, and on his journey he meets several other characters along with a race of creatures known as the Lll. The Lll are incredible builders—not merely of structures, but of ecosystems, societies, and ethical systems. As such, they have been enslaved. However, in order to protect the Lll, the Empire has created a phenomenon known as “the sadness of the Lll”—any being who owns the Lll suffers from a constant, overpowering sadness. This sadness increases geometrically with each Lll owned and with how much each Lll builds, so it is only possible to own a few Lll at a time. Indeed, just being in the presence of the Lll is a heartbreaking experience for even non-owners, a lesson that Jo learns early in his travels. The story then follows Jo over the next few months. Once he reaches a certain point in his maturity, knowledge, and ability to perceive events around him, the linear narrative stops and the reader is left with a few pages of important events not arranged in a strict order; by this point, the reader may have learned enough to sort out the tangle. Along the way, several questions are raised, either explicitly or implicitly. What is the message that Comet Jo must deliver? Who is coming to free the Lll? Will the Lll ever actually be freed? Is the story a closed loop, or is there indeed an end (or at least a point at which events move on past the ones mentioned in the story)? Who, exactly, entered the Empire Star? How many of the events of the story are arranged by those people?

Empire Star

One evening, at the home of the cobbler old Bob and his washerwoman wife Joan, there is a knock at the door. Bob opens the door and sees a little boy in a torn and stained page''s uniform. When asked "who are you?", the boy replies "I was a rat". Bob and Joan have no children and they take care of the boy by providing food and a bed. The boy was unable to eat with a spoon, and during his first evening he tore his sheets and blankets into strips. However, Bob and Joan were patient and the boy was a quick learner who, wanting to please them, carefully followed their instructions. When he spots a photograph of Princess Aurelia, the prince''s fiancée, in the newspaper, he appears to recognise her as ''Mary Jane''. Joan calls the boy "Roger", the name Bob and Joan would have used for their son. Bob and Joan take Roger to the City Hall to find how to return Roger to his proper home. An official declares that there are no lost children in the city, then notices that Roger has eaten a pencil belonging to the City Council. Bob and Joan take Roger to the orphanage, the police station, and the hospital, but no one can help locate Roger''s home. The Philosopher Royal learns about Roger and his belief that he was a rat, and takes Roger to the palace for tests. Roger announces that he has "been here before", and states that the Prince will marry Mary Jane, only to be told that the Prince will marry Aurelia. When confronted by a cat, Roger runs away from the palace and undergoes adventures as people exploit his ability to eat almost anything, and to wriggle through small openings. Roger escapes and lives in the sewers, but is discovered by the local paper, The Daily Scourge, who exploit Roger again by writing about "the monster of the sewers". After a publicity campaign, Roger is captured and declared a menace whose fate is to be determined by a tribunal. Bob and Joan learn that the tribunal may declare Roger to be a non-human monster that must be exterminated. Joan notices a picture of Princess Aurelia who by now has married the Prince. Joan remembers that Roger had mentioned Mary Jane, so in desperation Bob and Joan contact the Princess. When hearing about Roger and the name "Mary Jane" she announces that she will help. Due to her intervention, Roger is saved and is adopted by Bob and Joan. The Princess had been a girl who worked in the kitchen and kept a pet rat. Her wish to attend a ball at the palace was granted, and her rat was turned into a page boy as her attendant – a "Cinderella story".

I was a Rat! or The Scarlet Slippers

The Shri GuruCharitra is a holy book for Datta Sampradaya devotees. The book includes the life story of Shri Narasimha Saraswati, his philosophy and related stories. Some people regard the book to be historically important as it depicts stories or events which took place around the 14th Century. The language is 14-15th century Marathi. Shri Saraswati Gangadhar used only Sanskrit words. The poet''s full name is Saraswati Gangadhar Saakhare (Deshastha Brahmin). It has been said that he spent most of his life at Kadaganchi village in Karnataka. There is one composition of the GuruCharitra in Kannada language as well. However, this does not make this book any terse. It is far simpler to understand and follow. This shows the poet''s command over the Marathi language. Moreover, the poet''s mother tongue is Kannada and not Marathi. The book originally had 52 Chapters; the 53rd Chapter of "Avatarnika" (अवतरणिका) summarizes the previous 51 chapters. The whole book is considered a "Mantra" in itself and thus there are very strict rules for reading it. In Datta Sampradaya they consider this as their "Veda".

Shri GuruCharitra

The events in the story occur a day after the events of the first book. It introduces us to Ando Mitsuo who is assigned to do the autopsy of Ryuji. He and his colleague, Miyashita, find a benign tumor in Ryuji''s throat which is believed to be his cause of death. They are puzzled because the tumor they found appeared much like a tumor with smallpox, which was eradicated 30 years prior to the story. Ando, with his colleague, Miyashita, find out that an organism called "Ring Virus" caused this tumor. The virus is transferred to the body via the tape and begins to grow a tumor in the viewer''s throat. When the charm is not performed, the tumor grows to block the airways and kills the person. To stop this, the tape must be copied and shown to another person. They also found a cryptic message inside his stomach with the word RING and a series of other cryptic messages. This discovery further perplexes Ando. In search for the message''s meaning he came to meet Ryuji''s assistant and lover, Mai Takano. Mai seems to know something about the videotape and tells Ando the curse, but does not know how Ryuji died. As a scientist, Ando laughed at Mai''s explanation. He also went to talk to Kazuyuki, but found that he and his family were involved in a car accident. It is discovered that Kazuyuki''s wife and child were dead before the crash. Kazuyuki is in critical condition and unable to talk, and at the accident''s site lies a crushed videotape. When Mai was suddenly lost which further motivates Ando to investigate until he stumbles upon Kazuyuki''s files with the title THE RING. He is uncertain because it contains supernatural events and contradicts scientific explanations. After reading the report, Ando and Miyashita visited the well where Sadako died. They discovered that the virus has mutated and now uses the report as a medium. Ando also found out that Kazuyuki''s older brother, Junichiro Asakawa is planning to publish his brother''s report as his own horror novel. Days after Mai''s disappearance, he met a beautiful woman named Masako who introduced herself as Mai''s older sister. He fell in love with her. They made love one night. The day after that he discovers Masako and Sadako are one and the same. Later he receives a parchment from Sadako/Masako explaining how Mai Takano gave birth to her as well as warning Ando not to interfere with the publication of Kazuyuki''s files, which now contain the deadly virus. In exchange for his co-operation, Sadako offered to resurrect Ando''s son, whose death through drowning two years previously cast a shadow over his life. Ando realized that Ryuji was the master-mind behind the resurrection of Sadako as he lured Mai Takano into watching the video tape, as well as giving out clues to Ando, hoping he would discover the Ring Report and therefore distribute the virus. Ryuji is then brought back to life by Sadako. The epilogue shows Ando playing with his son on the beach, planning to reintroduce him to his wife. Unlike the first book where the focus was mainly on the supernatural and revealing more about the past of the origins of the virus, here we see the virus less as a supernatural event and more as a scientifically explainable one.

Spiral

Describing the plot of the novel itself, Manson said: "The whole story, if you take it from the beginning, is parallel to my own, but just told in metaphors and different symbols that I thought other people could draw from. It''s about being innocent and naive, much like Adam was in Paradise before they fall from grace. And seeing something like Hollywood, which I used as a metaphor to represent what people think is the perfect world, and it''s about wanting&nbsp;— your whole life&nbsp;— to fit into this world that doesn''t think you belong, that doesn''t like you, that beats you down every step of the way, fighting and fighting and fighting, and finally getting there, everyone around you are the same people who kept you down in the first place. So you automatically hate everyone around you. You resent them for making you become part of this game you don''t realize you were buying into. You trade one prison cell for another in some ways. That becomes the revolution, to be idealistic enough that you think you can change the world, and what you find is you can''t change anything but yourself." Manson has also stated that there is a character "that''s very much a take on Walt Disney," who was a big inspiration in the writing of both the book and its accompanying album. In describing the setting, he compared Holy Wood, the place, to Disney World: "I thought of how interesting it would be if we created an entire city that was an amusement park, and the thing we were being amused by was violence and sex and everything that people really want to see."

Holy Wood

John Glenuff is the son of a wealthy Scottish family with deep and powerful religious feelings. He studies to become a minister and is assigned to a conservative Anglican church in London. He is troubled by the sin and lack of religious belief he sees and dreams of bringing all to Christ. A wealthy and beautiful young girl pursues him and he is distraught when he almost succumbs to her. Walking home through Leicester Square afterwards he is propositioned by Dorothy, an attractive young prostitute. On the spot he decides to marry her in order to “save her soul.” And, despite his superiors’ objections, he does so. Church officials transfer him to an Anglican parish in Paris to minimize scandal, but his religious fervor and grandiose plans soon alienate the congregation. His marriage also deteriorates as he finds Dorothy extremely resistant to his preaching. As the novel ends, Glenuff believes that he has developed stigmata and thinks that these will finally enable him to convert the world, but it turns out that he is the only one who can see the signs.

Children of This Earth

The main protagonist in Romero''s novel is Violetta Rosario "Viola" Dananay. Viola narrates her life in the Philippines and her eventual move to the United States. Viola was conceived before the marriage of her parents who belong to Manila''s socialite class. Viola grew up in Manila during the regime of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos. Her life was complicated by her quarrelsome parents. One of the main reasons for the disagreements between Viola''s parents was her father''s reputation as a womanizer and philanderer. Viola''s father left the family to live with a pregnant mistress. Viola''s mother, Ludy, left for the United States to escape the indiscretions of her husband, leaving Viola behind. Upon arrival in America, Viola''s mother became an undocumented immigrant working as a maid in New York City. After the fall of the Marcoses, Viola''s father was implicated in charges of corruption committed by the Marcos government. Viola''s father decided to send Viola, already a teenager, to the United States to live with her mother. Viola obeyed her father but with a "secret agenda": to return to the Philippines together with her mother.

Always Hiding

The play''s protagonist, Theodorus Witgood, has mortgaged his estates to his uncle Pecunius Lucre, a covetous London merchant. Witgood is in love with Joyce, the daughter of another London merchant, Walkadine Hoard. Lucre and Hoard are rivals; Hoard resents Lucre because Lucre has shown himself to be an even more ruthless swindler than Hoard is himself. Witgood persuades a former mistress to masquerade as a rich country widow and his new fiancée. Lucre, delighted at the prospect of a rich match for his nephew, provides him with £50 and a vague promise to make Witgood his heir. Similarly and for the same reason, Witgood''s creditors stop dunning him and offer him more credit. Conversely, rival suitors for the "rich widow" arise, including Walkadine Hoard. Witgood advises his past mistress to accept Hoard''s proposal and so fix herself for life. She allows herself to be spirited away by Hoard, with Lucre in hot pursuit. The "widow" agrees with Lucre to resist Hoard if Lucre restores Witgood''s estates, and Lucre reluctantly agrees. But Witgood''s creditors, angry over his apparent loss of a rich match, have him arrested; Witgood, however, claiming a pre-contract with the "widow," cons Hoard into paying his debts. Witgood marries Joyce in secret; at the banquet celebrating Hoard''s marriage, it is revealed that Hoard''s new rich wife is Witgood''s poor ex-mistress. But the courtesan kneels to her new husband and promises to be a good wife, and Witgood joins her in repentance and rejection of his former sensual and spendthrift ways.

A Trick to Catch the Old One

Fire and Ice begins with Fireheart and Graystripe performing a traditional silent vigil after their promotion to warrior status in Into the Wild. As their first task as warriors, Fireheart and Graystripe are assigned to find and bring back WindClan, which had been driven out by ShadowClan, and bring them home. They succeed, finding WindClan under a tangle of Thunderpaths (probably a highway interchange), and bring them home. Soon after, Bluestar apprentices Cinderpaw to Fireheart, and Brackenpaw to Graystripe. During a hunting patrol, Graystripe almost drowns after chasing a vole onto thin ice, falling in the river separating RiverClan and ThunderClan, but is rescued by Silverstream, a RiverClan warrior. Graystripe and Silverstream fall in love; however, this is against the warrior code, a code of honor that all warriors must follow. Fireheart discovers their relationship, and unsuccessfully attempts to discourage them from seeing each other. Graystripe finally agrees to meet Silverstream only at the full moon at the Gathering, when the four Clans meet to share news. Fireheart, later realizes that Graystripe has not been keeping his promise. Because Graystripe is often gone to see Silverstream, Fireheart takes over training of Brackenpaw, as well as training his own apprentice. Tigerclaw, in his ambition to become leader, sets a trap for Bluestar by the Thunderpath (road), intending to kill her, thus bringing him closer to becoming leader. Instead, Cinderpaw is crippled by the trap. Her leg is broken, and when it heals, she has a permanent limp, preventing her from becoming a warrior. She then trains under Yellowfang to become a medicine cat. Fireheart is reunited with his sister, Princess, a kittypet living in a Twolegplace (a human town). Princess gives Fireheart her oldest kit, Cloudkit, to take into the Clan as a new apprentice. Although Fireheart agrees to accept the kit, his Clanmates, with the exception of Frostfur and Graystripe, are reluctant to accept him because of his kittypet blood. Bluestar allows him to stay, and Brindleface becomes his foster mother. Brokenstar, the former ShadowClan leader, eventually attacks ThunderClan, along with several other exiled ShadowClan warriors. After the battle, the rogues are driven off, with the exception of Brokenstar himself, who is blinded by Yellowfang and is kept as a prisoner. Later, ThunderClan becomes involved in a fight against RiverClan and ShadowClan when RiverClan and ShadowClan unites and tries to drive WindClan out again, and WindClan allies themselves with ThunderClan. When Fireheart is attacked by Leopardfur, the RiverClan deputy, Tigerclaw watches as Leopardfur and Fireheart fight, and does not attempt to help Fireheart. Silverstream attacks Fireheart but releases him; he attacks her but sees Graystripe''s look of dismay, and releases her. Darkstripe witnesses the event and reports it to Tigerclaw. Consequently, Fireheart becomes certain that Tigerclaw is not to be trusted.

Fire and Ice

The Fast Red Road—A Plainsong is a gleeful, two-fisted plundering of the myth and pop- culture surrounding the American Indian. It is a novel fueled on pot fumes and blues, a surreal pseudo-Western, in which imitation is the sincerest form of subversion. Indians, cowboys, and outlaws are as changeable as their outfits; horses are traded for Trans-Ams, and men are as likely to strike poses from Gunsmoke as they are from Custer’s last stand. Pidgin, the half-blood protagonist, inhabits a world of illusion—of aliens, ghosts, telekinesis, and water-pistol violence, where TV and porn offer redemption, and the Indian always gets it in the end. His attempts to reconcile the death of his father with five hundred years of colonial myth-making lead him to criss-cross a wasted New Mexico, returning compulsively to his hometown of Clovis, the site of his father’s burial. Accompanied by car thief Charlie Ward, he evades the cops in a top-down drag race, tearing through barriers “Dukestyle.” The land they travel seems bent with fever—post-apocalyptic —as though the end has arrived and no one noticed. Its occupants hawk bodies and pastel bomb shelters, wandering a bleak hallucination of strip-joints, strip-malls, and all you can eat beef fed beef stalls. They speak a lingo of disposable nicknames, truncated punch lines—slang with an expiration date. Pidgin strays through bar and junkyards, rodeos and carnivals, encountering the remnants of the Goliard tribe. There’s the mysterious Mexican Paiute, Uncle Birdfinger, checkout-girl Stiya 6—the reincarnation of Pidgin’s mother—and media-queen Psychic Sally, who predicts the group’s demise. Each plays a part in the search that will eventually place Pidgin in a position to rewrite history.

The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong

In L''Ankou, Ororéa invites Spirou and Fantasio to join her at a congress of magicians in Brittany. When they arrive, they meet strange L''Ankou, who objects to the presence of a nuclear thermal power station on his land. They then save Ororéa from an aggression, but the gangsters manage to escape. At their arrival at the hotel, they find out that Itoh Kata is amongst the magicians invited. The others are telepath Al Kazar, hypnotist monk Capuccino and telekinesist Rethros Athana. Those are currently developing a magic trick based on teleportation. Fantasio is used as guinea-pig during the first representation but is abducted by the gangsters. Ankou reappears and suggests to Spirou and his friends not to try anything against the kidnappers. The latter exert blackmail on the magicians: they are to deliver a revolutionary product developed at the power station in exchange for Fantasio. Kata decides not to say anything to his friends and together, the magicians steal the product. Meanwhile, Fantasio manages to escape and warns the police with Spirou and Ororéa. The gangsters are arrested but the product stolen by the magicians threatens to explode. Fortunately, Spirou warns the magicians in time and Itoh Kata makes the product vanish. This event leads to the power station closing down. L''Ankou is thus grateful towards Spirou and his companions. <!--

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Country of the Blind

By H. G. Wells

Empire Star

By Samuel R. Delany

I was a Rat! or The Scarlet Slippers

By Philip Pullman

Shri GuruCharitra

No Author Listed

Spiral

By Koji Suzuki

Holy Wood

By Marilyn Manson

Children of This Earth

By Bruce Marshall

Always Hiding

By Sophia Romero

A Trick to Catch the Old One

By Thomas Middleton

Fire and Ice

By Victoria Holmes

The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong

By Stephen Graham Jones

L'Ankou

No Author Listed