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The Dream Geni: 13th century gets modernized in Deannuntis' Master Siger's Dream #fictionreview


The Dream Geni: 13th century gets modernized in Deannuntis' Master Siger's Dream

If you like your 13th philosophy and philosophers stoned, drunk, and mish-mashed with anachronistic technology ala steam-punk, oh yes, and emeshed in papal and religious conspiracies then A.W. Deannutis' Master Siger's Dream is up your cobblestone alley.

Deannutis turns historical fiction upside down by introducing us to his brilliant, bumbling, and libidinous Master Siger of Brabant, whom I had no idea was actually a person, much less a revolutionary of philosophy who pissed off the Catholic church. Siger was guilty of teaching “double truth,” saying that one idea could be found true via reason and the opposite through faith; whatever that means. It is argued and accepted that Siger was as important as Thomas Aquinas to Western faith. Now I'm no philosopher, but the tale Deannutis dreams up makes the heady intellectualism go down like candy. One of my favorite moments has Siger meeting Pope Nicholas at the golf course to discuss mankind's thirst and search for enlightenment while they smoke pot. Sometimes the anachronistic imagery is an excuse for Deannutis to pluck and plow ideas around via the character's dialogue, and that's part of the truth the author wants us to see; ideas matter, pushing boundaries matter. The raw basics of much of what Siger and his contemporaries argue over can be seen bubbling up in the Occupy movement: you can't kill an idea, you can't control everyone.

Siger bounces, drinks, and fornicates his way around Europe, investigating the death of Brother Thomas (Aquinas), all while moving and shaking with the elite minds of the 13th century; the Pope a shadowy menance, or ally, his eyes and ears everywhere.

Deannutis clearly has fun taking shots at man's desire, man's folly, the church, intellectualism, and his own prose. He announces and declares his chapters, and with grand gesture too; as grand as the ideas themselves were in the 13th century. It's hard not to see the author winking at us throughout the narrative as the 13th century is meshed with the cacophony and pornography of the 21st century.


And there is a dream, beyond the imagery and imagination of the anacrhonistic landscape, one where nuns are S&M Goddesses, and torture poor Siger with the truths of his future, the future of the church, and even his own influence. And like the dream, the novel is a tease, flirting both with entertainment and burden of great ideas, and that's part of the point; how can one really know anything?

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