The Butterfly Who Nearly Never Was

T

he Butterfly Who Nearly Never Was, the seventh story from my novel: The Monkey In The Tunnel revolves around the character of Nova-Jean, an un-motivated art student who rises to become the Head Kontroller of the Fabrik Zone, all within one day. The tale is the main part of the book focussing on the emergence of the powerful, ‘butterfly-form’ from within her cocoon which is a metaphor for growing embryo-logically within a shell before revealing oneself to the world in a splendid display of beauty and realisation.

The analogy is, of course built upon the existing analogy of a butterfly imago – or ‘adult form’ - becoming stronger and stronger the more it must fight to free itself from the cocoon it formulates in. It is therefore a re-imagining or a new version of the allegory within the context of The Fabrik Zone world.

Inherent to the story itself is a darkness which relates to the type of sleeping nightmare an addict is trapped in whilst hoping for a release from the self-imposed prison they find themselves locked within. 

The larva is semi-conscious and aware which is how Nova-Jean’s story begins when she goes on a hiking trip through The Sog Wood with friends from her university and, like all of the stories in the novel, Nova-Jean’s expedition takes on a parallel narrative. Firstly she is with her friendship group, the only people she is comfortable ‘hanging with’ from the university she is supposed to, at least attend. Even this group are annoying to her and she later tells Doctor Filippa, the psychiatrist she goes to see that she, in fact ‘hates them all’.

Secondly this meeting is where the bulk of the story takes place as well as the main thrust of the wider novel as Nova-Jean emerges, quite literally from her cocoon whilst, rather impulsively, as it turns out mixing her own natural, though also ‘inspired’ by the ingestion of magic mushrooms, philosophies with the words of The Doctor who, herself finds Nova-Jean to be a ‘quite remarkable character’.

For the typical alcohol drinker the analogy of a recovering alcoholic being like butterfly emerging from a cocoon of addiction is unlikely to be a relatable concept, although the story is intended as a representation of the process of realisation, acceptance and discovery which any individual or soul, even may take upon themselves – a ‘journey’ perhaps – of discovery towards finding a ‘truer’, more authentic, inner and, in some ways also outer, version of themselves.

In the book Nova-Jean, unlike the characters which populate the rest of the story isn’t primarily an ‘addict of anything’. In fact she is, quite specifically ‘an addict of nothing’.

Her addiction is inverse - indifference as addiction.

As the story itself continues throughout the book the life’s work of Doctor Filippa, and The Fabrik Zone in general, becomes about the ‘Forth Parallel’ which in itself is actually a rather abstract concept.

It could even be more akin to a ‘Fifth Parallel’, although this is a concept inherent to the flow of the story and unable to be discussed at length in this post.

Having said that the ‘Nothingness Focus’ or rather, perhaps ‘Sticky insistence’ of Nova-Jean that art is rather, or maybe even completely, pointless has become, in her own mind, and now also in The Doctor’s mind too, in fact her work.

In some ways, because all creative pieces are iterations of prior creative pieces Nova-Jean has lost inspiration at the outset of her creative journey by manifesting a pointlessness which echoes her life in general.

She is ‘beyond cynical’ and yet the creative energy and impulse somehow also remains stronger in her than in any one else living and working in The Wetlands. 

So it emerges that Nova-Jean is something of a ‘Proto-creator’ and eventually she may be akin to ‘The Goddess Of Sobriety’ due to the reversing of the energy of attachment and willingness to ingest fake substances for pointless pleasure.

The Monkey In The Tunnel isn’t intended as a love story to sobriety or addiction and this dynamic is manifested in the character of Nova-Jean by the beauty of her life energy which, in fact sees her as a shape-shifting character who takes on the appearance, substance and form of everyone and everything within in our own parallel which allows her to speak to and engage with the other parallel life stories our addictive pathways may take on.

The story of The Butterfly Who Nearly Never Was is a story about emerging as an emotionally evolved creature from a ‘formation period’ which may be ralatable to some journeys taken by some addicts and anyone who has experienced a difficult episode however long or short and lived to tell the tale.