The Significance of Calth

My very beaten up copy of the Mark of Calth anthology of short stories. The second book in the Battle for Calth stories.

Calth is a very unique situation for the Horus Heresy books. It stands as the first moment one of the traitor legions openly attacked a loyalist faction, and utilized the corrupted “powers of the warp”, or in other words used terrifying space demons for the first time in Chaos’s history fighting against the Imperium. It marks not only the true beginning of the civil war, but also the true fall of the traitor legions, and of humanity at large. What was once thought inhumane, and impossible to contemplate has now become the norm of operations for the galaxy in the plot.

It is not just that this is a civil war now, it is a clearly indentifiable struggle between good and evil, and the survival of humanity. Like Tolkein painted good and evil in broad strokes with the images of the twisted, and tortured elves he called orcs, here we see the “daemons of the warp”, and the physical corruption of the traitor legions as a signifier for evil, or a force that seeks to disrupt the progress of humanity.

Calth was a brutal battlefield that saw their sun become a super nova, and the already beleaguered forces of the loyalist Ultramarines(Caught completely off guard, and they believed they were about to set out with the Word Bearers legion, not be betrayed by them at the staging grounds.), once the largest legion ruling 500 worlds as their own mini empire, had to fight above ground in the radiation, or away for it in the darkest of the planets mining tunnels beneath. The fight stretches the length of two novels in the Horus Heresy series, and is considered the largest depicted engagement between “chaos” and the Imperium in the fictional history.

If you consider the Isstvan V drop site massacre as an allegory for the outright horror of an event like 9/11, then the battle of Calth is allegory for the second gulf war. An extended slog through unknown, and brutal terrain that saw both sides win nothing but a high body count.

Vulkan and Curze

Vulkan standing in dismay and anger over the body of one of his fallen sons at the Isstvan drop site massacre.

A pivotal moment in the plot line is when the Primarch Vulkan is kidnapped by his brother Conrad Curze. Curze tortures Vulkan endlessly, killing him over and over again only to find his brother(a little worse for wear mentally each time) alive and well due to Vulkan being a natural perpetual(undying being) like the Emperor.

Scars

Wolf Pack of Space Wolves, Leman Russ’s Legion. (Photo by Ken Maxwell.)

Let’s return to working with the Horus Heresy series of novels. Turning back to focus on one my personal favorites,  and one book I believe discusses the issues of the Horus Heresy from a “good guy” point of view, It is also told from the mentality of the rebel, the freedom seeking ‘cowboys’ of the American mid west, or the roaming Ronin of Japanese lore.

It’s a Halloween themed hi-jacking! The Shining

First edition of The Shining by Stephen King

 

Oh, how dare you. How can you even lump “The Shining” in with “mass market paper back” books? I know, I know.

It’s a Halloween theme hi-jacking! The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The Battle between light and dark.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was first published in 1886 by Robert Louise Stevenson. The novella tells the story, if you don’t know of it already, of a doctor who wanting to experience the vices he dreams of indulging in. Dr. Jekyll creates a potion that transforms him from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde is a version of Jekyll free from inhibitions or social conventions such as decency. This altered form of Jekyll has free reigns over the nights of his own life pursuing these vices Jekyll fantasized about freely, which often arouses suspicion and concern

A light-hearted break – Goosebumps movie!

Light one of these, and pull up a comfortable chair, its time for some “Ghost Stories”

Don’t worry dear reader I’m not going soft on you, and they’ll be plenty more Warhammer 40k Talk in the days ahead, but figured take a break this week from all the heavy topic matters of the first few posts to talk about a form of mass media paper back writing a lot more people may be familiar.

Paper Back Wisdom – Setting the Frame work for “Warhammer 40k”

Mass media paper back novels typically are, hence the name, mass produced by an, or a group of authors revolving around a core set of fictional mythologies. These mythologies are often ignored, or overlooked in mass media paper back novels

Everything starts somewhere…(Sept 11 2015)

So it begins….

…I hate starting things, it is always the hardest part. Once you start typing, once you go however is where the action of trying becomes the action of accomplishing, and thus does your stress level reduce itself as you usually find yourself enjoying the act of whatever you “had to start”. Its a self rewarding exercise, that I’m currently avoiding like the plague even while I’m starting.

This blog will focus on the cognitive structure of meaning found within specific passages, and even just a sentence or quote from novels, textbooks, and essays I’m reading or have drudge up from the dim corners of my minds recollection.

It seems suitable to start this off with the words of George Orwell from his essay Politics and the english language  This is not a blog to celebrate “fancy talk”, but instead one which will strive to disseminate the deeper meaning of common mass media such a paper back science fiction novels, or popular works of fiction about contemporary times. The topics will change, but the focus will not; this blog will strive to show wisdom in the cognitive structure of popular literature by examine its possible meaning.