A Sojourn among the Avatars of Wisdom

The 1987 Metropolitan Museum exhibit, “American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School,” which I visited twice, had such a big impact on me that I decided to write my book, “A Sojourn Among the Avatars of Wisdom,” as an homage to the Hudson River School’s founder, Thomas Cole, and his “Voyage of Life” series of paintings.

The central character in the narrative, Chris Cole, is linked to Thomas Cole on page 95 through the latter’s quote, “Over all, rocks, wood, and water, brooded the spirit of repose, and the silent energy of nature stirred the soul to its inmost depths.”

Concerning the painter’s “Voyage of Life” series of paintings, those scenes are rendered as follows:

• Childhood:  “Below them (as viewed by Chris in an aircraft), a lone sailboat plies the lake’s serene waters.”
• Youth: “As the two head outside, Chris beholds towering citadels of condensation borne by summer breezes, floating silently across the
• Manhood: “Chris pauses to watch one such vessel (a grassy boat) hurtling downstream, which narrowly misses some large rocks until it rounds a bend and disappears from view.”

In addition to my book serving as an homage to Thomas Cole, my narrative has three other purposes. They are:

1. To entertain.
2. To impart not my wisdom, but the counsel of the world’s greatest sages verbatim, for those who seek it.
3. To employ various literary devices.
   • Symbolism:
     1. There is no greater symbol of change than the space shuttle, which accelerates from zero to 17,000 mph in a little over eight minutes, that’s depicted the first chapter.
     2. Lightning arcing through a network of clouds represents thought.
     3. The night of the launch represents ignorance and the light portrays knowledge: “The shuttle, rocketing northeast over the North Atlantic toward dawn over Europe …”
   • Irony
     1. That lack of gravity (resistance) makes us weaker, not stronger in the second chapter.
     2. That too much change during the shuttle’s fiery reentry is actually dangerous, and by extension, too much change for individuals leads to injury or death.
   • Foreshadowing

My story’s theme is about change in general and one man’s quest for change in particular. Once the avatars of wisdom, who usually appear one at a time, are unwittingly summoned by Chris Cole to rally to his cause, how does such a conversation between the former and latter play out? Consider that such a dialog is one between unequals, and it probably wouldn’t last too long because the former would give the latter five minutes of his or her time before moving on to something more important.

My story is unique in that I weave the wisdom of the world’s greatest sages across subjects into fiction. Accordingly, I’m hopeful that most readers will find my narrative entertaining and its underlying wisdom compelling. It’s been tough trying to get critical acclaim because literary critics only focus on my narrative’s entertainment value rather than the overall value of what is essentially a quadruple-use book.