"From Hell" - a manifesto of Jack the Ripper -- Final End

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Date Posted: 15:34:45 07/13/02 Sat
Author: Drummond
Subject: "From Hell" - a manifesto of Jack the Ripper

Was Jack the Ripper a soldier in the war of the sexes?

Alan Moore, probably one of the greatest literary geniuses of our time, wrote From Hell. Haven't seen last year's movie based on the graphic novel, but I'm about 1/3 of the way through the latter. Moore premises his story on the notion that 4 of the prostitutes killed were actually killed by England's royalty as they were trying to blackmail the prince who had fathered a bastard son with a commoner. "Jack" is at the service of the queen, and fancies himself a soldier in the freemason cause, wanting to perpetuate the triumph of "Apollonian male rationality" over the irrational Goddess worship of old. The sun represents the light of reason, while the moon the chaotic passions of Dionysus, servant of Diana much as the horned male god serves the goddess in Celtic lore.

Early in the story, "Jack," an aristocratic physician reveals his manifesto.

"Sometimes an act of social magic's necessary; man's triumph over woman's insecure, the dust of history not yet settled. Changing times erase the pattern that constrains society's irrational female side. Our workers. Lately given VOTES, now talk of SOCIALISM, talk of RIGHTS, riot in Trafalgar Square, and won't quit �till they're shot, whereon their fury doubles! King Mob's clamour drowns out our Apollonian debates.

Reason's besieged: For all our science we are become an age of table rappers, tealeaf readers, and theosophists; where Dr. Westcott founds his "Golden Dawn," mistaking hokum for the wisdom of antiquity. The seance parlour's murmurings; the gutters' pandemonium... these threaten rationality itself.

Our suffragettes demand that women vote, and have equality! They'd drag us back to that primordial nursery, that rule of instinct and the tyranny of mother's milk.

We can't have that.

....

You see, man's pattern of control grows faint amidst the tumult of these times. The lunatic and female power of the moon must stay contained within its ring of seven males suns, those seven stars of rationality. The ancient symbols must be reinforced lest we should fall before the scythe-wheeled chariots of some new Boadicea {apparently the flag bearer for the last stand of Goddess worship on the British Isles against the Roman Empire}; perish on Diana's altars, reinstated and impatient for her reckoning.

How shall these sigils burn once more with clarity?

....

The only populations that are constant hereabouts, untouched by passing centuries, are those perpetual multitudes of beggars, criminals... and whores. Ah, whores, their lot's diminished like Diana's, whom they served as Temple prostitutes; priestesses, "Heros Gamos" or "Joy Maidens"... which recalls "Daughters of Joy," our current euphemism.

....

St. Paul, in First Corinthians 3:10 states, "As a Master Builder, I have laid foundations, and another builds thereon," whence some construe he was a Dionysiac architect. This staunch misogynist clashed with Diana, where her followers humiliated him. Here's his revenge {referring to St. Paul's Church of Christ, allegedly built on the site of Diana's Temple in London}; Diana shackled, her abode re-dedicated in his name.

...

Here is DIANA chained, the soul of womankind bound in a web of ancient signs, that woman might abandon useless dreams of liberty.... accept that she exists only to endlessly reflect the harsh male brilliance of a Father Sun."

"Jack" then reveals to his servant that Yahweh and Satan are one and the same, pillars of rationality in the face of chaos.

And so he kills the prostitutes.

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