Well, I can quickly give you some of my own musings and suggestions on the subject, some from theory, some from practice.
Try translating other techniques of magick into a textual form; for example, I've had good luck with a technique I first noticed in (wait for it) The Invisibles. It is also quite obvious in the much-discussed Illuminatus Trilogy.
Basically, I recognized during the final sequences of the story that everything leading to the 'merging of opposites' can be treated as a kind of extended dialectic annihilation - basically, the Neti-Neti technique. Once I reread Spare on the Neti-Neti, I saw how it easy it was to use prose to extend the dialectic past the simple proposition-negation-synthesis cycle and into broader, longer, more intricately symbolic arguments.
Mutual annihilation releases energy...whatever remains absorbs that energy. Beliefs are bound together with, obviously, Belief; therefore, free Belief is released when you collide them. The suspension of disbelief necessary to a good story is also achieved through a cluster of binding Belief, and it can, under the right circumstances, be liberated. Build up two narrative heads-of-steam, ram them together and let whatever remains harvest the excess. That's the theory anyhow. Seems to work.
Of course, using the principle of sympathy is a given; put your characters into situations that reflect the changes you want to effect. Depending on your style, this connexion may be more or less 'encoded' into the narrative.
I try to make full use of the emotional effects of writing: intense anger, real arousal, genuine wonderment, calm aesthetic appreciation, outright anxiety, overpowering curiosity, all can be evoked by prose and poetry with a little forethought. Generally, if I experience the emotion while I'm doing the writing, at least some trace will present itself to the Reader. Learn how to uncover and polish that trace and you can use text to orchestrate an emotional symphony to whatever end you may have in mind.
I always try to remember that any conclusion the Reader reaches on their own is far more powerful than any secondhand statement I lay at their feet. This is the essence of good propaganda and a valuable tool. When you can lead the Reader to a specific thought, or constellate pre-existing material in a particular way, the effect can be quite striking - in a sense, their minds and realities are intersecting at a single point with your own and each other, and energy can be reached through it.
The extended contemplation of an unresolved paradox seems to release a slow trickle of energy; if you can actually cut the Gordian Knot, or better, get the Reader to cut it, the release can be explosive. This effect is easily and pleasingly incorporated into mysteries.
If you do plan to have readers besides yourself, remember that what you write becomes what they read, and they do so without the benefit of knowing what will happen next. This enables you to treat the progression of your text as a sort of ritual labyrinth, where the pages are a series of chambers designed to have a specific cumulative effect, like a statuary gallery with an artfully arranged counterpoint of images and dialogue. But keep them walking - use every dirty, low-art, sensationalist, pop culture special effect technique you need to keep it riveting and them moving forward without ruining the suspension of disbelief.
Prose is a brilliant delivery system because the near-synesthetic properties of words allow for simulated initiations, quasi-hallucinatory rituals, and unfiltered access to the raw clay of dreams. Whenever I'm working a hypersigil, I constantly try to remember that drama is the essence of our experiences, a sort of code equation at the heart of life... we naturally resolve memory and history into mythic struggles, dramas, and storytelling is a powerful way to directly and purposefully inject material into the Subconscious. |
