Argh. Yesterday, I wrote a long reply detailing all I know of Jodo and his dark sci-fi universe. Just at the time I hit the "Submit Reply" button, the nfs1 server at the university crashed. For those that don't understand what this mean, that means that all network-based applications (like a browser) crashed at the same time.
Disgusted.
Anyway.
To Anubis:
!
To Godofredo:
"si es chileno es bueno"
Si c'est chilien c'est bien", is that it ? I can't translate it in English, I don't find a rhyme. If it's chileat it's great ? If it's chilor it roxxor ? Nah, these aren't good.
Overview of the universe with the metabarons:
I've said before Jodo was influenced with buddhism. To be more correct, he was influenced heavily by
new age buddhism. Which is different.
His universe was created for the Incal serie. He latter made the "Before the Incal" prequel, and is actually working on a sequel, "the Second Dream". The Metabaron project, like the Technopriests project, is a side thing.
The world is a dark space-opera universe, with starships, psi powers, robots, mutants, and ETs. There are an infinite number of parrallel universe.
On the main planet, the one were John Difool (the (anti)hero of the Incal series) and the Metabaron send most of their time, 99.9% percent of the surface is occupied by automatic factories and farms. All humanity is concentrated in a pit city, each ground being poorer than the one above, and the bottom of the pit being occupied by a lake of toxic and highly corrosive waste.
The ruling caste is nominally the Aristopatrons, people who are genetically modified (but it's a secret) to have... I don't know the english term, an "auréole", the shining levitating circle above the head of saints and angels, you see ?
On pair with the Aristos is the Technoclergy. These people blend religious outlook and titles with a totally materialistic approach. They "worship" technology and don't have the slightiest mysticism, except when they were corrupted by the Necrodream and created the first Egg of Darkness to destroy the worlds. An egg of darkness works like a virus, but using a sun instead of a cell as victim. It blot out a star to replicate by thousands and gain the energy to reach other stars.
Below are the low people. Their life don't have the slightiest value, and they get killed frequently in lots of way. For the greatest pleasure of the survivor, who love nothing more than seeing people suffer and die for real on the TV.
A theme that runs throughout the Incal is dehumanization. Humans are all inhuman. The Technoclergy and robots heavily dislike all organic entities, that they call "biocrap", and finally end up creating, under the influence of the Necrodream, a virus that dissolves all organic creatures, forcing all those who want to survive to become transformed into robots.
In this world, John Difool, the hero, one day discover a strange sect of mutants, who grows a plant called "amourine". This plant grows when a mutant sacrifice himself for creating such a plant as a gift for awakening the other beings. Well, basically, he eats that thing and discover the Amarax, the power of love. From now on, he will continually, in his dreams, try to make the humanity realize it live an awful existence, and forsake cruely and heartlessness for love, friendship, happiness, yadda-yadda. Each time, he ends up (in his dream), dead, usually after the destruction of the world he tried to save. The funniest thing is that each time, he don't want to be a savior. Each time, other people (the Incal and its gardians initially) comes and force him to be a savior.
The Metabaron is a secondary character that first makes a cameo appearance, then end up helping Difool (in his dream, again). Latter, Jodorowski got convinced of creating a serie based on the Metabarons "caste".
The Technopriests is another serie set in the same universe, where a technocleric of pure soul, attracted to the technoclergy because he conceived videogames as a gate open on dreams and imagination, discover that they are in fact used as one of the innumerable way of brainwashing the masses and controlling their mind. After trying to rebel, he eventually end up leaving to another alternate universe with some followers to create a small paradise rather than heal the hell. This serie being not finished, I don't know how his attempt will end.
Psionic powers are extremely important to the world, as Jodo's ideas are fully in synch with the idea of mind over matter and spirituality over materialism. It is something that his technopriest hero understood, but Difool is to dumb to really understand it (even if he knows it unconsciously). And the metabarons... It's harder to say, but they don't seem to really care. They despise the other people, as both mentally, physically, materially and spiritually they are so much inferior, even inferior to what a human should be.
Jodo wanted to make of the Metabaron serie something like a greek tragedy. For this reason, the Metabaron is indeed full of pathos. Taboos are breached (most blatant, the oedipian kill of the father), true love are discovered, total insanity are experienced, while simultaneously the Metabaron grow in power, usually by acquiring a new "trick" (their was the first cybernetized metabaron, the first metabaron relying heavily on psionic powers, the first metabaron renouncing to all ties and emotions, etc.) that their descendant will share.
The story is a fun read, even if personally I'm a bit biased against Jodo's new-ageness, and even if these stories (incal, metabarons) are a bit repetitive.
Sorry, it's less detailed than the reply I first typed, but get lost due to the incompetence of our sysadmins.
being over, I can post again!)
