The Abduction of Miriam

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The Abduction of Miriam

The paperback edition of The Abduction of Miriam is a major power trip, but its gorgeous artwork and complex subtext make it a worthwhile read.

Book One — The Painful Others:

The Abduction of Miriam is a Lovecraftian horror story set in 1924 New York City during a nightmarish episode in a European gothic orgy. From a richly imagined perspective, this tale can be read as a dark and shuddering portrayal of the horrific culmination of a sexual encounter. This is the story of a young woman who sees a shadowy figure as she is trapped in the dying throes of a horrific ecstasy.

On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Abigail is drugged by an exotic dancer, left for dead, and set adrift in the river after ditching a British film crew in a Midwestern state. She is rescued by a tornado, and the group endures all manner of calamities in a car on the road to Houston. Their journey ends at the Naval Academy, and that is where the question of fate is addressed. The boy’s arm, dipped in red and scorching with fire, stares off into the distance in faraway marshes. The curve of its fang is crooked, shaped like an arrow, and the white streak of its tip illuminates the sky.

The school: Year 12 of the Code. The course: Mathematics. Life: Spring to Fall.

Their favorite foods are eggs and omelets. They celebrate sex with bloody drinking. They were not exactly interested in the beauties of earth, and said what they hate most is attention. It was a sad story.

They do not understand why the baseball team has nothing to do with the Christian religion. They believed that the Lord had deigned to come in the form of a baseball.

They all had a thing against the pitcher; his wife, Alina. But she kept encouraging them. Every time their team got knocked out, they all cried for Alina and forgave her for letting them down.

They say that at birth they all wanted to be ballplayers. They called themselves sportsman when they played in the small country teams that happened to win big games on the way to the capital. That was all they wanted. In the capital that’s exactly what you get. Your parents have left everything for you. They put your brothers, sisters and cousins in their army, and they’ll bring you to the capital, not to go to school but to see your brothers playing soccer and your sisters practicing in the swim class. They leave you alone in the capital without even an hour to go to school. There’s nobody you can talk to, nobody you can ask why you should go to the capital, but when you do, you may never go back. Once you’re there, nobody is supposed to talk to you anymore. That’s the whole reason I called the corps, because I heard something about there were problems with the paperwork, something about some guy calling bullshit. That’s all I knew until I got there, and here I am. I found a cop, this big, tough guy named Lyberel, and he’s freaking out at me.

He has to say something, and he says something, and it turns out he has a piece of paper that says my name. But when he gives it to me, it says Ryba Mattos. That doesn’t make sense. It’s really confusing.

Book Two — Excruciations:

In the second book, Abigail’s dissipation comes to a head when she is found naked, malnourished, and trapped in her ex-husband’s home by a lynch mob of neighborhood children. When she’s rescued, she decides to become a follower of the Clerics of Abydos to escape the demons from the house. Eventually, she begins to call herself “Abydos,” until Cyrus is able to convince her to remove the burning ring from her finger. Then, and only then, she changes her name to Abigail. The house is shown not having a roof over it, and the interior is filled with human skeletons.

When Abydos is destroyed in the explosion at the end of the opening credits, the film shows a blurry image of the Temple and the Hanging Gardens—thus hinting that the two are connected, or that Abydos is destroyed. This reveals another strange film callback: “We have seen [Solomon’s temple] … now we will see his City” (Jn 6:44). When “Alma’s people” discuss their battle with the Nephilim in the film, a Nephilim robot is seen riding a giant squid on the floating island, indicating that the temple and the City of the Nephilim are linked.

We should also note that the same synchronicity can be seen in King Noah’s judgment of the twenty-two elders, who are transformed in a few seconds into nineteen different ancestors. In the beginning, they are sinners who sin in relation to God and are subsequently guided toward God and “rescued” from Satan. Then one and the same day, the same judgment is entered, and the twenty-two elders become different mortals who sin in relation to God. This is similar to the passage where King Solomon judges several of the kings of Egypt and then in a few seconds “thirty thousand sons of God and a hundred thousand daughters” enter into their dwelling, but in this case, each is transformed into a different mortal king.

Book Three — Liberation of the Eye:

In the third and final book, Abigail’s discharge begins to have an effect on her. Through some supposed magic, her heart stops beating. She is carried to a confessional and begs forgiveness. Abigail tells herself that it is not her fault she was born this way, but the Mother says, “You know nothing of us… If you leave this place, I shall have my revenge.” The book ends with Abigail fleeing from hell. (The first section of Chapter 24 is a flashback, so I cannot confirm the full truth of Abigail’s rebirth, but it seems to be no more than an allegory for God’s wrath toward the sins of humanity.)

In the end, Abigail is transformed through sin into a daughter of the devil, but through this act she acquires a certain amount of human nobility, even a certain godly innocence.

First published in Formulations to Be Considered by the Church,

Second revised ed. of the 1870 edition, by

John Frame and

Louisa Knowlton.

Assets for graphic arts: Abigail in Renaissance dress