Welcome to a world of anxiety, anger and insecurity; a place where Abandonment Issues rule the day unknown.

Whether a first time visitor or previous—maybe even current—resident, The Medusa Protocol hopes to show as much as relate and commiserate.

So, what’s Medusa—age-old gorgon of Greek lore; violated and wronged beauty of Roman poetry—got to do with it all?

Go back far enough and near on every culture on the planet has at least one version of a ‘Grail story’.

In the book From Ritual to Romance Jessie Weston concludes that the Grail story—Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, etc—is itself a relatively new take on what was once a number of very similar stories originating from different parts of the British Isles.

The principle is straightforward

A perilous journey must be undertaken, its purpose being to retrieve something that will save the day back at the journey’s start point; with a more common than not aspect of the thing in need of retrieving being the head of something that therefore needs slaying.

Over time, the story has been reworked, given numerous new guises. So-much-so a connection is rarely realised, as the above Holy Grail/Gorgon Medusa example may serve to show.

Something as obvious as superficial differences are plenty enough to hide similarities from view.

Monty Python’s The Holy Grail is a modern remaking of the classic tale, albeit a ludicrous and hilarious one.

It might not appear to have much to do with the following three contemporary versions:

• The Lord of the Rings
• Star Wars
• Apocalypse Now*

(*at Kurtz’s compound From Ritual to Romance is shown in a collection of books belonging to the General)

But at the core beats the very same heart

Another trademark of the Grail tradition: temptation, resisting an urge – trying to, at least.

• Gollum succumbs to the One Ring and is grotesque for the fact.
• Likewise for Darth Vader and the Dark Side.
• Willard is warned he’s not the first to go after Kurtz; his predecessor having fallen in with the general instead of terminating his command.

Perseus is often described as fighting off an insatiable urge to look at the gorgon, despite her incredible ugliness and the consequence for doing so.

In the Holy Grail clip below, a knight is saved from temptations that if succumbed to would prevent him completing his quest.

Fundamentally his and Perseus’ predicaments are the same.

Superficially a hideous monster with snakes for hair vs. virginal nuns gagging for sex might leave the two appearing worlds apart.

But they’re not. They’re all part of the same thing, the oldest story humanity has ever known. One that we apparently can’t do without. Its principles feature somewhere in all major religions, while it equally thrives in a place where many of the adherents would consider themselves atheist: the ever growing Star Wars franchise.

Why?

By focusing obsessively on the individual and also considering the impact trauma might’ve had, The Medusa Protocol is a story that hopes to answer that question.

Book I Wish You Were Her starts with the main victim someway distracted from the truth of their situation:

Drunk in a dive bar.

Start as you mean to go on?

Other posts in this series:

• Small Town Conspiracy chapter one in full
• Welcome to Weston: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Quicksand and Curses
• For purchase information please click here

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