Boble: Interlude II — Palms

 (Lost track of things?  Start with the first Interlude.)

Palms was a tough one to tackle.  Originally, I wrote almost 20 pages of really childish sex poetry.  Even at the time, I knew it was dreadful.  So, slowly, during the frequent edits of The Boble between 90 and 97, I replaced most of the Palms with an ongoing correspondence between Bob and the IRS, who had temporarily taken over copyright of the Palms until Bob paid back taxes.

It was still weak shit so, in 97, when I put in the narrative stuff set in Bob Heavens, Palms was the perfect hole to fill.  Some of the letters to the tax department remain, but Palms is now chock full of “interludes” which skip between Bob dealing with Kraal and me (as “Werdna,” the chief translator of the Boble) trying to fix the shit with the tax department so I can get Palms back.

For the interludes with Bob, it’s a dark time in Bob Heavens.  The great Undefined Supreme Totality Himself is having doubts, and the Blood Mistress Kraal is on the move.

In a desperate bid to defeat the Blood Mistress once and for all, the scheme to install Bob Jr. as the Son of Bob is put into place throughout Palms.  The authors of this great scheme are Bob, Binaca, and one of the two “aposolites” (not seen since the very beginning of Genesis), Dave Luscious.

Kraal disappears as fast as she arrived in the text.  Upon learning of the Bob Jr. plan, she basically shrugs it off and trusts that time will dissolve whatever cult Bob, Binaca and Luscious cook up.  Her prediction is that humanity will eventually embrace her pagan ways, one way or another.

With that, she’s gone, and we get ready to wrap up the Old Testicle.  The last three books – Subliminal Messages on the Cereal Box, Lack of Wisdom, and Assorted Prophets – are all largely untouched from the 1990-91 completion of the Old Testicle and, therefore, pre-date the Kraal/Bob Jr. storyline.