Wyndham Lewis' theological trilogy, begun in 1928 and continued with Monstre Gai and Malign Fiesta — in which Bob finds Hollywood's discarnate angels, the mythic ground beneath McLuhan's super angel. Bob reaches for it in dialogue 39 as a "pretty good obscure McLuhan reference."
Across the dialogues
Introduced as the mythic backdrop to the detour — Lewis' Hollywood angels supplied to explain where McLuhan's discarnate humanity came from
Bob reads Lewis' trilogy as an early anatomy of Hollywood as an anti-environment of "discarnate angelic humans," whose "astral angels" then invade and seize the "city of angels" — the mythic ground beneath McLuhan's super angel.
"wherein he explored Hollywood as anti-environment of discarnate angelic humans, which caused the original astral angels to invade and take over the city of angels."
Stops being a title in the Lewis bibliography and becomes something read — Bob finishes all three volumes and returns with the claim that the trilogy names the process iON named, and that its last weeks of news are already in the book
The trilogy passes from a work Bob knows about to one he has read through, which is what licenses every claim he makes for it in this session.
"I finished The Human Age, three volumes, and boy, we got a lot of discoveries from that."
The publication history Cameron doubts is confirmed and dated — a twenty-seven-year gap between the first volume and the rest, which is Bob's explanation for why the work has never been read as one thing.
"he did Childermass, volume one, in 1928."
Bob reads the trilogy as current reporting rather than prophecy, the same move he makes with McLuhan — the value claimed is descriptive accuracy about now, not foresight about then.
"this Human Age describes our world exactly this past couple of weeks about what's going on in Ukraine and what's flying over in the air."
Connections
Lewis' trilogy, begun in 1928; Monstre Gai and Malign Fiesta are parts two and three.
Lewis' discarnate Hollywood angels are the imaginative source of the super angel.