A Who’s Who of The Wicked + The Divine 1923: Dionysus, Neptune, The Norns

Alex: I’m not the first person to try linking all the ‘20s gods to their historical inspirations – just like Ozymandias, Pryderi did it 35 minutes ago – but the 1923 Special has sent me down a rabbit hole made of Wikipedia entries and half-remembered university lectures, so I thought I’d try and gather together a guide to the gods’ real-life equivalents, and what they represent.

I’m breaking it up into chunks, starting with what I’m terming The Republicans. Who wants to learn a bit about the Spanish Civil War?

Dionysus
Pablo Picasso. Because, his is the power of Cubism, but specifically because Dionysus is the god who first sees the future – the horrors of World War Two – in “a reimagining of human flesh”. To my eyes, that’s a pretty good description of Guernica, Picasso’s 1937 painting of the titular Basque town, during its bombing by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italian warplanes as part of the Spanish Civil War.

Of the three wars which hang heavy over this story, the Spanish Civil War is the least known, I guess on account of not being, y’know, a world war. But it ties together a number of the artists being referenced in this Special, as we shall see.

Neptune
Ernest Hemingway. Wounded in the First World War, on the Italian front. “The old/dead man and the sea.” Reported on the Spanish Civil War. Inspiring his novel For Whom The Bell Tolls.

The Spanish Civil War was an early warning of what would come in the following years in Europe. Spanish Republicans fought against fascist dictator Francisco Franco. Being very simplistic about it, it served as a proxy war, with Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy backing Franco, and the USSR supporting the Republicans.

Countries like the UK, US and France stayed neutral, but leftist civilians from those countries fought on the Republican side in the International Brigades. Hemingway didn’t fight, but he was involved in the production of The Spanish Earth, a (propaganda, arguably) film which encouraged support of the Republicans.

Given the Civil War took place between 1936-39, this 1923 Special is, obviously, set before it, but with the gods’ powers of precognition, it feels like there’s a bit of fudging there. So it’s interesting that Neptune doesn’t see the signs of future war as Dionysus and the Norns do – I confess, I don’t know enough about Hemingway to understand if this is a critique.

The Norns
Verðandi: George Orwell, he of Big (or in this case Little) Brother fame, who fought on the Republican side for reasons he himself summed up as: “I’ve come to fight against fascism”. Wrote Homage to Catalonia about his experiences. I’m basically borrowing all my understanding of the importance of the Spanish Civil War from Orwell, who wrote stuff like:

“The Spanish War and other events in 1936–37, turned the scale. Thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written directly or indirectly against totalitarianism and for Democratic Socialism as I understand it.”

And in 1984: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” Gillen is a dark ironic bastard.

Urðr: H.G. Wells, generally considered one of the fathers of science fiction. Arguably best remembered for War of the Worlds, a story about a alien invasion, featuring Martians who look a lot like Little Brother. 

(Fun side note: The radio adaptation of War of the Worlds was narrated by Orson Welles, as was Hemingway’s The Spanish Earth.)

Politically… it’s a bit complex, as I understand it. His books were burned and banned in Nazi Germany, and Wells was slated for arrest once the German invasion of Britain was under way. Churchill – who was a fan, which is not necessarily a mark in the positive column for Wells – borrowed the phrase “the gathering storm” from War of the Worlds to describe the rise of Nazi Germany.

Wrote some anti-semitic stuff, though he apologised in light of WWII. Wrote in favour of black Americans, and argued against the idea of “racial purity”, but also said some racist shit. I believe it’s a bit of an academic battleground, but it’s probably fair to say that, at very least, he held some dodgy views about eugenics.

The above might explain why Urðr was willing to side with the Great War Plot. Also worth noting that Welles was instrumental in the birth of war games, the kind played with miniatures, which might factor in – though he was generally speaking a pacifist, at least pre-WWI.

Skuld: Aldous Huxley, who I know by far the least about. Best known for Brave New World, a dystopian novel where people are indoctrinated through psychological methods, often compared to 1984. After that book’s publication, Huxley wrote to Orwell:

“Within the next generation I believe that the world’s leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons.”

See the Special’s line about Skuld thinking “the primary threat to civilisation is pacification via some manner of soporific culture or drugs” and Verðandi being concerned with “the impulse towards totalitarianism”.

Connection time: Huxley taught Orwell at Eton, and was loosely associated with the Bloomsbury set, a group which included Virginia Woolf. More on her next time.

Wikipedia informs me that there’s a weirdly hard-fought academic debate over Huxley’s vision. As in, his literal eyesight. Huxley was almost blind at one point but regained his vision, possibly? I mention this because it probably ties into the the Norns’ ‘milky but not totally white’ eyes, to quote from McKelvie’s design sketch.