The Catastrophic Age

The Table of Contents of an Otherwise Unknown Work

Philosophy of fiction requires some reflection on fiction itself — its formation, its nature, and its response to it — which is often easier to do if one dabbles in it oneself. Thus we will occasionally, in our exploration of various aspects of fiction, put up fiction as part of our exploration. This particular example, a fictional table of contents, is a form of fiction (1) that does not directly involve any assertions or propositions (and is thus an example of what is sometimes called, a bit misleadingly, a ‘zero-length literary work’; (2) that suggests but does not tell a story; (3) that has many components in which it is not possible to tell from the fiction whether they are to be taken literally or figuratively. All of these are relevant to various positions in philosophy of fiction.

The Catastrophic Age

Volume I: Events Up to the Second Catastrophe

Part I: Before the Furor

I.1 — The Early Life of Dalton Grimwell

I.1.1 — His Family

I.1.2 — His Birth

I.1.3 — The Mystery of His Right Eye

I.2 — The First Meeting of Grimwell and Garcia

I.2.1 — Salvador Garcia’s Background

I.2.2 — College Hijinks

I.2.3 — The Founding of The Banshee Club

I.3 — The First (“Little”) Catastrophe

I.3.1 — The Curious Case of the Dolmen

I.3.2 — “Strange Bad Luck!”

Part II: Factions in The Banshee Club

II.1 — Garcia’s First Robbery

II.1.1 — Garcia and Timoty Bardot

II.1.2 — Six Million Dollars and Two Jade Dragons

II.1.3 — “The Angelic Key to All Things”

II.2 — Discontent Among the “Gray Witches”

II.2.1 — Samhain Sunday

II.2.2 — Five Ounces of Plutonium

II.2.3 — The Early Achievements of Sara Avali against the Gray Witches

II.2.4 — Threats and Counter-threats

II.3 — Grimwell’s Original Plans

II.3.1 — “Not Prudence but Improv Comedy”

II.3.2 — The First “Grotesque Joke”

II.3.3 — Seven Thousand Dead, Two Cities in Flames

II.3.4 — The First Argument with Garcia

Interlude 1: The Background History of the Large Jade Dragon

Part III: Rising Tensions

III.1 — The Second “Grotesque Joke”

III.1.1 — “Shot and Chaser”

III.1.2 — Unsettling After-Effects

III.2 — A Plague of Mice and Locusts

III.2.1 — The Banshee Club’s First Free-for-all

III.2.2 — A Small Jade Dragon in a Box of Gold

III.2.3 — Avali Versus Bardot

III.2.4 — Lawsuits for Defamation

III.3 — The Discontent of the Small Jade Dragon

III.3.1 — The Original Argument

III.3.2 — Garcia Versus Grimwell on the Question of the Red Shoes

III.3.3 — The Small Jade Dragon’s Veto

Interlude 2: The Background History of the Small Jade Dragon

Part IV: “Not Even the Devil”

IV.1 — Revolt of the Gray Witches

IV.1.1 — Bombs and Umbrellas

IV.1.2 — Grimwell’s Forceful Response

IV.1.3 — The Unpleasant Incident of the Revenue Agent

IV.1.4 — Avali’s Visit to Buenos Aires

IV.2 — The Large Jade Dragon and the “Unbearable Retaliation”

IV.2.1 — The Iron Crown

IV.2.2 — Two Blinking Lights on a Switchboard

IV.2.3 — Saturn in Aquarius and the Road of Good Intentions

IV.3 — The Second (“Rubicund”) Catastrophe

IV.3.1 — The Third “Grotesque Joke”

IV.3.2 — More Plutonium than Expected

IV.3.3 — Events Initiated by the Small Jade Dragon

IV.3.4 — Grimwell Versus Garcia in “The Great Contest”

Interlude 3: The After-Effects of Devastation

Interlude 4: What Happened Afterward to the Iron Crown

Volume II: The Early Years of the Catastrophic Age

Part I: Events Up to the Third Catastrophe

I.1 — The War of the Large Jade Dragon

I.1.1 — The Small Jade Dragon’s First Gambit

I.1.2 — Grimwell’s Seizure of the Metropolitan Library

I.1.3 — “Not a Savior but a Salvador”

I.1.4 — Sundown in Phoenix, Forever

I.2 — The London Incident

I.2.1 — Too Many Problems

I.2.2 — The Large Jade Dragon’s Demands

I.2.3 — The Theft of the Small Jade Dragon

I.2.4 — Avali’s Narrow Escape

I.3 — The Third (“Easter”) Catastrophe

I.2.1 — That Which Governs and That Which Does Not

I.2.2 — Garcia’s Theft of the Dialectical Engine

I.2.3 — The “Everlasting Infamy”

Interlude 5: Barker Huntington’s “Ghostly Experiment”

Interlude 6: A Brief Primer on Applied Quantum Gravity

Part III: A Twist in the Third Catastrophe

III.1 — Grimwell’s Return

III.1.1 — “An Army of Devils and Whispers”

III.1.2 — The Aether of Pure Thought

III.1.3 — The Omnium Gatherum

III.2 — Grimwell’s Rout of Garcia

III.2.1 — The Gray Witches in Hiding

III.2.2 — The Third Jade Dragon

III.2.3 — “Not Plutonium but….”

Part IV: The Fourth (“Unholy”) Catastrophe

IV.1 — Logical Sciences and Vacuum Energy

IV.1.1 — An Illusion of Control

IV.1.2 — Huntington’s “Divine” Meditations

IV.1.3 — Binding Energy

IV.2 — Deaths and Farewells

IV.2.1 — Too Many Problems Again

IV.2.2 — The Small Jade Dragon’s Return

IV.2.3 — The Third Jade Dragon’s Counterattack

IV.2.4 — Neither Jadeite nor Nephrite

Interlude 7: “The End’s Beginning” and the Truce Between Garcia and Grimwell

Volume IV: Catastrophes Beyond Count

Part I: Never, Never

I.1 — The “War” Between Angola and Malta

I.1.1 — Logica Naturalis et Quasi-Semiotica

I.1.2 — Grimwell’s Capture of Malta

I.1.3 — The Angolese Earthquake

I.2 — Garcia’s Breaking of New York

I.2.1 — Avali and the Small Jade Dragon

I.2.2 — From the Island to the Mountains

Interlude 8: The Dispute Over the Causes of the Angolese Earthquake

Part II: The Holy League

II.1 — Another Jade Dragon?

II.1.1 — The Newest but Oldest Player

II.1.2 — The Purported Time Travel Device

II.1.3 — A Hoax, yet Not a Hoax

II.1.4 — Gate to Other Worlds

II.2 — Chessboard Politics

II.2.1 — The Holy See’s Initial Victory

II.2.2 — “Six Layers of Cunning and Two of Folly”

II.2.3 — Huntington’s Betrayal

II.2.4 — Garcia’s Apparent Victory over the Holy See

II.3 — The Captivity of the Pope

II.3.1 — The Diagonal Squares

II.3.2 — Bishop Sacrifice for Check

II.4 — Winning by Losing

II.4.1 — “Sometimes Pope, Sometimes Bait”

II.4.2 — Grimwell Outmaneuvered

II.4.3 — The Rout of Garcia and the Loss of the Dialectical Engine

II.5 — The Turn of the Screw

II.5.1 — “That Devious Mitred Devil”

II.5.2 — The Holy See’s Victory over the Large Jade Dragon

II.5.3 — The Alliance of the Small Jade Dragon and the Third Jade Dragon

II.6 — The Breaking of the Holy League

II.6.1 — Avali’s Ploy

II.6.2 — Fire and Blood at the Vatican

II.6.3 — A Sky Darker Yet

II.6.4 — Intimations of the Survival of the Holy See

Interlude 9: The Papal Strategy and Its Limitations

Interlude 10: Analysis of the Second-Order Effects of the Dialectical Engine

Part III: Eastern Affairs

III.1 — The United Nations on the Ropes

III.1.1 — Three Earthquakes Off Tokyo

III.1.2 — Invisible Threats

III.1.3 — Vietnam’s Unexpected Good Fortune

III.1.4 — The Trumpet of the Third Angel

III.1.5 — The Silver Plague

III.2 — Garcia’s Return in Glory

III.2.1 — Six Crowns but Seven Thrones

III.2.2 — The Sad Downfall of Shijiazhuang

III.2.3 — Laos’s Near Escape

III.2.4 — An Unexpected Respite

III.3 — Shaksgam Valley

III.3.1 — Edge of War

III.3.2 — Grimwell’s Murder of the President of India

III.3.3 — “Not to Rule but to Transfigure”

Volume IV: The Transmundane Turn

Part I: “The Miracle of the Sundial”

I.1 — A Torii Gate Beneath the Waves

I.1.1 — Avali in Difficulties

I.1.2 — The Murder of Salvador Garcia

I.1.3 — “Like Dracula but Louder”

I.2 — Not Quite Flann O’Brien, Not Quite H. P. Lovecraft

I.2.1 — Unexpected Effects of an Unexpected Incantation

I.2.2 — The Failure of the Differential Equations

I.2.3 — A Parasite Takes out the Southern United States

I.3 — An Ambassador from Malawi

I.3.1 — Spanning Rather than Pertending

I.3.2 — A 3464-Year Prison Sentence

I.3.3 — An Air of Gravitas

I.3.4 — The Breaking of the Small Jade Dragon by the Holy See and Malawi

Interlude 11: Scholarly Disputes about Early Events in the World Beside

Part II: Grimwell Triumphant

II.1 — The Collapse of the Panama Canal

II.1.1 — The Dread Runes and Avali’s Gambit

II.1.2 — A Sentient Ship of Theseus

II.2 — A Metaphysical Crusade Against Contingency

II.2.1 — A Theater of Possibilities

II.2.2 — Ghosts on the Volga

II.2.3 — The Terrorizing of Cairo

II.3 — Losing by Winning

II.3.1 — “Clever Enough to Deceive Himself”

II.3.2 — The Vatican, yet Not the Vatican

II.3.3 — The Patriarch of Rome and the World Beside

II.3.4 — The Holy See’s Last Trap

II.3.5 — The Gruesome Death of Dalton Grimwell

Interlude 12: The Three Fatal Errors of Grimwell’s Final Strategy

Part III: The Fall of Avali

III.1 — The President of Malawi and Sara Avali

III.1.1 — Harmonic Resonance

III.1.2 — The Holy See Out of Play

III.1.3 — Words and Sword

III.2 — The Downfall of the Third Jade Dragon

III.2.1 — Avali Conclusively Defeated

III.2.2 — The Last Member of The Banshee Club

III.2.3 — The End of the Catastrophic Age

Epilogue: The World Undone and Redone