One thing I like about "The Invisibles" is how much bizarre stuff it riffs off from. Before I read "The Invisibles" I knew nothing about people like Philip K. Dick or Robert Anton Wilson, so it was pretty cool to read those guys later and see where GM lifted some of his ideas (like in "valis", how Nixon is referred to "The King of Tears", and stuff like that). It seems that the more one reads the shit that inspired the comic, the more sense it all starts to make (and reading people like Grof and McKenna definetly help, trust me!)
As I've said many times before Sir Miles was one of my favorite characters from "The Invisibles". Over six months or so (at great expense!) I've been collecting many books by Kenneth Grant (Invisible fans should know that Grant's books were an inspiration for the Invisibles... GM says so himself)! To my surprise it seems GM lifted a heck of a lot of stuff out of Grant's books... In fact, Sir Miles "seems" to almost be modeled after Kenneth Grant himself!!!!
Before I point out the comparisons, a few quick facts on grant for the non-occult readers here:
He was one of Crowley's last students, was once a member of the OTO before forming his own branch in the 50's (the New Isis Lodge) and later the Typhonian OTO. Obsessed in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft (I'm not exagerating either). Best known for his Typhonian Trilogies, nine (expensive) occult books well known for their out-and-out bizarre contents (endless "germatria" digressions, hundreds of footnotes, rambling arguments, Lovecraftian weirdness, dodgy interpretations of the "Book of the Law", strange illustrations, qabalistic wordgames and all hell else). I highly recommend them, they can be difficult to read but they're all fascinating and reading one does put one in a very odd headspace... Forget the "Necronomicon" you can buy at any Barnes & Nobles or Borders, this stuff really does capture that Lovecraftian vibe!
Comparisons between the two:
Both are old.
Both are British.
Both were involved in the OTO (though Grant claims he's still the head of it to this day).
Both are unhealthingly obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft.
Both are trying to open a gate to let the Great Old Ones into our universe.
Both servants of forces from "The Reverse of the Tree of Life" or "The Abyss".
Both come across as very dry and don't seem to have much of a sense of humor.
I'm not sure if Sir Miles looks like Kenneth Grant as I've never seen a picture of Grant (trust me, I've googled!)
Of course, there are some differences (for example, Kenneth Grant doesn't believe in killing people, though quite a few of the magicians who joined his lodge died or went insane) and he is also obsessed with Maat, LAM and Set (three deities Sir Miles doesn't seem to care all that much about). Still, these are pretty interesting connections, I think.
Also of note:
GM recommends "Outside the Circles of Time" as Kenneth's best book. I'm not sure about that but I can see it was a huge influence on "The Invisibles": For example, according to Grant Oppenheimer's Manhattan experiment opened a door that let forces from Outside enter our universe; That one must "become a monster" to serve the "Forgotten Ones" (though it was actually Frater Nema who coined the term "Forgotten Ones"... as for "becoming a monster" just look at that scene between Miles and tarquin in Volume 3).
My favorite Grant book (of the 6 I've read, that is the first two Typhonian trilogies) is "Hecate's Fountain", which includes, among other things, rants about the "Kings of the Earth returning to assume the throne" and also descriptions of magic rituals conducted by Grant's own New Isis Lodge in the 50's and 60's (I believe these were what GM was referring to when he said that interested readers should look into Kenneth Grant's books to see what Miles, Tom and Mab were up to in the 50's... If this is true they were up to some weird shit!) The rituals described are mad... Baboons vanishing, live Vodou paintings, Hecate vomiting frogs, slugs having sex with lodge members, priestesses being consumed by Yog-Sothoth, another priestess sucking off a giant bat/squid thing in a crypt, another priestess being raped in an aquarium by giant phallic tentacles (h'mm, looks like New Isis Lodge didn't just transmit radiations from the "tenth" planet Isis, they also created hentai!). |
