Confessions of the Gods, 'The Herodeia Decalogue' is the 7th volume of an encyclopedia of the New Literature, as a genre presenting an anagogic form of mythological poetry, such as sacred scripture, "or its analogues in other modes" as the literary critic Dr. Northrop Frye once described it in his classic study 'Anatomy of Criticism'. "Confession is Autobiography regarded as a form of prose fiction, or prose fiction cast in the form of autobiography." The Herodeia Decalogue is the overall title of 10 literary works by David Seals, written over many years (since he was a college student in Colorado in the 1960s), and this volume combines excerpts of two of the ten, in #6 - 'Abduction at Roswell' - beginning with its chapter three, and then cutting back and forth to the epic poetry from Book # 7 - 'Geodesy: The Creation Myth of the Colorado Plateau' - in heroic blank verse, and then alternately to the contemporary prose narrative of the factual UFO reminiscences of his U.S. Air Force family over the decades beginning in 1947 in Roswell New Mexico, and then in Japan, Libya, and his mother's hometown of Flagstaff, Arizona (where Seals lives with his family). This collection introduces "the High Mimetic mode" of gods and human characters who are often above our own level of power and authority, though within the order of nature and subject to social criticism. The Ten subjects of the Decalogue are: #1) 'Hymn to My Mother' [with synopsis and review at http: //www.witchvox.com/books/dt_bk.html?a=usaz&id=2175] A good review of it is also posted at www.scribd.com/davidseals; but the book was written years ago about his mother Mary. K. O'Brien Seals. and is only on typed paper in the olden days before the advent of hard disk. {343 pages single spaced, inquire of the author for a printed copy, dvdseals@yahoo.com} #2) 'Humnos Oides of Thoth: Slayer of Argus {ibid.} #3) 'Osiris' {420 pages} #4) 'Ausar Tehuti' [subtitle 'Someday, My Son'; 220 pages, ibid.] #5) 'The Libyad' [available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle] #6) 'Abduction at Roswell' [available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle] #7) 'Poems of the Pagan Revolution' [excerpted in this present book, but this is the first part only, of five, which goes much further into the biography of Herod Philip, the true life model of the fictional Jesus Christ, and hence the basis of the overall title referring to The Herodeia: but the remaining four long books of it in blank verse are available only on paper from the author] #8) 'Abduction at Flagstaff' {full-length stage play, only on paper from the author, unproduced} #9) 'The Veiled Grotto' {modern verse in 3 short cantos, on paper from the author, about Leroux Springs on the Sacred Flagstaff Mountain, and site of prehistoric ruins of Mu} #10) 'Les Voyageurs' {modern verse in-progress, about the High Heavens of outer space, where The Black Voice of The White God is the origin}
About the Author: Besides the vast poetry, prose, and drama of 'The Herodeia Decalogue', David Seals is best known for his 1979 comic allegory about the contemporary Cheyenne Indians, 'The Powwow Highway', which George Harrison of The Beatles produced as a feature film in 1989 of the same title. He had to self-publish it himself when numerous publishers rejected it; but after the popular feature film came out, publishers and agents made many {"rather modest" the Author has commented} offers, and it has since gone into 12 printings from New American Library/Plume. The sequel novel 'Sweet Medicine' was published by Crown/Random House in 1992, and it received rave reviews from the New York Times, Library Journal, and many others, comparing Seals to Mark Twain for "The comic masterpiece', said Booklist. Only a few essays have been published since, for he has been compared to Herman Melville (Los Angeles Times), for his "uncompromising Paganism, and anti-Americanism", such as seen in his essay 'The New Custerism' {The Nation, May 1992} anthologized as one of the best essays on film in the 20th century, in 'Cinema Nation' [Nation Books, 2000, NY]; 'Buffalo Medicine' in 'Genocide of the Mind' [Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003, NY]; and 'Nicaragua: what's Ward Churchill got against you?' ['Eating Fire, Tasting Blood: An Anthology of the American Indian Holocaust', Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006, NY, Marijo Moore and Vine Deloria jr. editors]. {ch. of 'Arizona Savagery'} He has also worked many years as an actor and playwright, but only 3 or 4 of his plays have been produced - 'Give Them Liberty' in 1976 at the semi-professional Shuler Theatre in Raton, New Mexico, which the local paper called "profoundly moving" [Raton Range, July 4, 1976]; 'King David' in 1978 in Santa Fe, produced by the New Mexico Arts Council at the NM Museum {"a noble effort" Albuquerque Journal}; 'Two-Men' in 1981 at the professional Steamboat Rep in Colorado about Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull {"Americans don't give a rat's ass about Sitting Bull" a visiting Lakota Sioux elder said ... }; 'Free Peltier', on Ciniweb in Ventura California 1999, Oyate Community Center in Rapid City, South Dakota, 1997; 'The Roswell Mysteries' in various Readings, 'Lobotomy' (later re-written and re-titled as 'Abduction at Flagstaff'), 2008, staged reading Theatrikos in Flagstaff. Currently working on a musical theatre version of 'The Powwow Highway', perhaps for the New York or London stages, if producers/funding can be found . . .