The Initiates: A Comic Artist and a Wine Artisan Exchange Jobs (2nd Edition)

Product Information

A Spanish-speaking town where it rains perpetually is on its last legs as the acidic rain causes more and more deaths every day, and there’s no freshwater to drink. On top of that, people in the town have been disappearing continuously, without a trace, and the police are useless, although that’s not a surprise. The police are usually a tool at the disposal of the one who holds the scepter of power, so it’s no wonder that the police make no bones about investigating the increasing disappearances, nor do they bother to bring an end to the growing discord in the city. Frank Molina, a journalist-turned-drunkard who spent some time in a mental institution after a psychological breakdown, is struggling to find work, but news organizations don’t care about thought provoking editorial pieces. Media craves sensationalism, and raunchy pictures and pictures of dead bodies offer the morbid and sadistic pleasure that the media thrives off. When one such picture of a dead body comes to Frank’s attention, he decides to put his soul into getting to the bottom of the cancer that has gripped the city. Hence, I invite you to use this powerful book as a source of insight, as a window, and as a launch point. But I believe that what you discover within, as with the innards of any philosophical work, must serve as a goad to your own intimate study and experience.

The final shot of Parra’s Molina, encompassing what he does best, sums up the film perfectly. Is The Initiated (Los Iniciados) worth watching? This book is filled with sufficient torchlight to point you on the path of your journey—a place you must ultimately venture within the solitary channels of your own psyche and efforts. Let its flame point the way. As we think of the nations that are past, of Greece and Rome and the grandeur that was Egypt’s, we sigh as we recall the story of their fall; and we watch the nations of today, not knowing which will be the next to draw its shroud around itself and join that great ghostly file of peoples that are dead.Someone once told me: “Books are where stories go to die.” I do not agree with that. Books are where stories—or ideas—provide torchlight, as this enduring work does. But if you sit under the torch and get transfixed you do not proceed anywhere. You become a stagnant journeyer who believes that the circle of light and relative warmth of the torch are all there is, or are at least the safest place to dwell. This is not dissimilar to the predicament facing the cave-dwellers in Plato’s classic allegory.

At the very least, I hope that this book gives you an entry point of inquiry into the symbols that it analyzes. Like most of us, I build my search upon the work of people who came before me or whose efforts inspired me, including Manly P. Hall. But I do not personally seek to use their analyses or conclusions as recipes. Rather I regard precursory works as points of embarkment for my own experiments and questions to which I alone am subject and for which I am responsible.

System Requirements

The Initiated (Los Iniciados) is a good crime thriller with an excellent lead performance by the film’s star, Andrés Parra. The actor plays the role brilliantly here, slowly winding up the manic behavior in his performance. The turn goes way beyond general paranoia and having friends not believing him. Many puzzles hide within the world, can you find and solve them all? Look everywhere, listen to everything.