Cynocephaly and GMOs in Atlantis

Diogenes

by 

Carter Kaplan

Reviewed by Aaron DeWeese

Aroooo!

There is much within Carter Kaplan's "Diogenes" that runs so deep as to escape my intellectual grasp, though this does not at all bog down the reader, nor detract from the, at times, scatological, fun. In fact, I always greatly appreciate the scatological more than anything else. It is essential to shamelessness and mocking, which are profound characteristics for Diogenes and all those dogs who have become angered by what man has become, to the point that they purvey their message to mankind by means of embodying it, exhibiting ill-timed plopping of ejecta publicly.

As I said, there is much Carter Kaplan has laid before us. The following is what sticks out in my strange mind: Diogenes is responsible for the union of Achilles and Chrysis, yet he seems to me to be, at least in part, responsible also for the initial disunion, his seed having been planted in Chrysis' fertile mind early on in the story. Even after Achilles and Chrysis fall in love, I've no doubt that Diogenes would have been quick--that old dirty dog--to plant another seed in Chrysis' nether regions. Hmm... I wonder what her mother, Chloe, looked like? I envision powerful, though comely country thighs...

This is interesting to me: Chrysis, unquestionably a member of the intelligentsia, whom Diogenes initiates, is drawn from her natural reality, or, depending if you are a cynic or not, her unnatural reality--she was drawn into the philosophic world of Diogenes, which fit her rebelliousness, as a key to a lock. What strange and occluded door has been opened to her? In the end, Chrysis embraces the true philosopher--new beginnings. Achilles however, (we last se him mesmerized by Atlantis' prism) seems stuck in immaturity, which may also be the case with Diogenes, though Diogenes' is much more paradoxical and interesting--his immaturity, or perhaps superannuated maturity, not centering around the aesthetic. I suddenly wonder who is more like Diogenes - Achilles or Chrysis. Is the utter rejection of materialism as silly as materialism? Achilles interests lay not in philosophy nor intellectual matters, but in his own body, reflected in the bodies of other men. He states something to the tune that he might enjoy a woman, were there only something to hold onto. Should Achilles and Chrysis have somehow survived the fall of Athens in the destruction of Atlantis, he would have found something to hold onto, viz., her intellectualism, her deep wells of consciousness. As fate would have it, seeing Chrysis dressed as a boy did it for Achilles in the present, which is well, as Diogenes relies on the present for all things.

I've presently been pointed in the direction of Foucault and Derrida. An image haunts me however. I wonder, if on full moons, Diogenes, in his barrel of exotic and pungent odors, does not take on the aspect of Saint Christopher before his baptism? For goodness sakes, Alexander, let the sunlight not dim, let the lantern not extinguish.

I thoroughly enjoyed Carter Kaplan's width and breadth and height within "Diogenes", and certainly plan to read his "Tally-Ho, Cornelius!".