Mantog

As promised, we are going to delve into the very deranged and odd world of Richard Shaver (b.1907-d.1975). Richie dies in the year of the rabbit, which is the luckiest of all signs. People born in the year of the rabbit are articulate and have excellent taste. Those that die in the year of the rabbit are apparently insane.

Anyway, Shaver's first brush with notoriety came in the years following World War II as the author of controversial stories which were printed in science fiction magazines, (primarily Amazing Stories). The controversy stemmed from the fact that Shaver and his editor/publisher Ray Palmer claimed Shaver's writings, while presented in the guise of fiction, were fundamentally true.

Yikes. Seems Shaver first started to lose (or gain?) touch while he was working at an auto factory. Lord knows assembly line work is enough to force any man's cage to be rattled.

Little Dicky began to notice that one of the welding guns on his job site, 'by some freak of its coil's field atunements,' was allowing him to read the thoughts of the men working around him. More frighteningly, he then picked up the telepathic record of a torture session conducted by malign entities in caverns deep within the earth.

Me oh my.

The "Shaver Mystery" did not officially begin until 1943 when Shaver wrote a letter to Amazing. He claimed to have uncovered an ancient language he called "Mantog" which was the source of all Earthly language. In Mantog, each sound had a hidden meaning, and by applying this formula to any word in any language, one could decode a secret meaning to any word, name or phrase. Palmer applied the Mantog formula to several words, and said he realized Shaver was on to something.

Palmer wrote to Shaver, asking how he had learned of Mantog. Shaver responded with a 10,000 word document entitled "A Warning to Future Man." Shaver wrote of tremendously advanced prehistoric races who had built cavern cities inside Earth before abandoning Earth for another planet. Those ancients also abandoned some of their own diseased offspring here, who degenerated over time into a population of mentally impaired sadists known as Dero - short for detrimental robots.

These Dero still lived in the cave cities, according to Shaver, kidnapping surface-dwelling people by the thousand's for meat and using the fantastic "ray" machines that the great ancient races left behind to project tormenting thoughts and voices into our minds. Shaver claimed first-hand knowledge of the Dero and their caves, insisting he had been a prisoner for several years.

The relative success of "The Shaver Mystery" in acquiring adherents from science fiction may have influenced L. Ron Hubbard to invent Dianetics (this explains Tom Cruise=Dero) and promote it via SF magazines. The Japanese horror movie Marebito (As reviewed on c101), also references Shaver's work and the Deros.

There is reported to be an obscure connection between the Shaver Mystery and the German Thule Society. I could go on. And on. There's a lot here kiddies, just know that there are Deros living beneath you as we speak and they are watching every move you make and they want nothing more to brainwash you and then eat you.

On that note, let's rok Gorilaz "Kids with Guns" and "Smile Around the Face" by Four Tet, well, because my main man Tricky Dicky prolly had Deros smiling at him all the time.