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Michael of the Morning artist Matthew Brooks

Book II Scripture

from A TERRACE ON THE TOWER OF BABEL:

Book II
Mid 1998 - Early 1999

And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Revelations 17:18
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   Much has been written and debated about

 Revelations 17:18

 and just what, or where is, that Great City that rules over the kings of the earth.  Some have said Rome, and even more pointedly, the Catholic Church.  Others have decided it was the United States; others still, ancient Babylon in Iraq, waiting to be rebuilt - re-inhabited.

   For the author,

 Book II

 begins to unfold the deeper complexities, the enormity of interlocking ways, means, institutions, chaos, and souls which together weave the web of human life in the last of the 20th Century and the beginning of the next.  This collective life is at once a great city, an enormous construction, a vast assembly of agreements, from the subconcious through the overt, unspoken to the meticulously documented, between the citizens and their rulers, known or not, elected or not, willingly or not.  And then again its existence might be questioned, even denied.

   For though this city suredly is erect and ever-changing, and it's actual placement well-known, it is not marked, for no single person or group, though they fight to do so, can claim it as their sole possession. And yet they can say it's their dwelling place, for we all exist in this great city both in the metaphysical sense and in actuality.  We all enjoy or despair of its treasures and destitution.  We all contribute to its mighty edifices with their alloyed strengths and fatal flaws.  Now to pinpoint its capital . . . you read A TERRACE ON THE TOWER OF BABEL and be the judge: who, what, when, where, why, and how does she rule?