Oh, we live in a glorious renaissance of the grand conspiracy tale, don’t we?
Fueled by the frightening uncertainty of where we’re headed as a culture, a country, a world – or, even closer to home, as an individual, conspiracies have taken root and exist in all corners of our day-to-day lives.
We used to listen to exotic conspiracies on “crazy” late night radio programs, watch them on stranger-than-fiction programs via television broadcasters or read about them in tomes found in the esoteric section of libraries, bookstores and fringe specialty shops. Now they’re all over our Twitter feeds. They’re beamed into our heads though targeted advertising. They’re invited into our lives through podcasts and are less and less surprisingly found in mainstream and alternative news and dinnertime conversations with loved ones.
Who doesn’t love a good yarn full of tidbits of non-fiction and a healthy helping of speculation that boils down to the lack of control we have over our own lives?
It’s compelling, isn’t it? Conspiracy theory is a tried-and-true entertainer: The J.F.K. assassination. UFO’s, Roswell and Area 51. The stolen election. Chemtrails. 5G. Reptilians. 15-minutes cities. Paul McCartney’s death. The illuminati.
I’m a buyer. Whether you love TV, film, music, comic books, novels, games, history, philosophy, outer space and science or the news, we all are.
Today sees the release of the conspiratorially dense and absolutely delightful underground (how appropriate) graphic novel, The Hidden River.
Written by Argentine author and filmmaker Diego Arandojo (Beatnik Buenos Aires) and illustrated by fellow Argentinian, Jorge Fantoni (Chapa Chapa Parasite, El lápiz Japonés, 50 Quadernos) and published by Fantagraphics Books, The Hidden River is an 80-page softcover graphic novel that delves deep into conspiracies that underpin the long and storied history of the city of Buenos Aires.
In the tradition of beloved author and semiotics professor, Umberto Eco and his wonderfully dense and entertaining novel from 1988, Foucoult’s Pendulum, The Hidden River also utilizes disparate truth, conjecture, signs, events, and furtive organizations in its intricate spider-web weaving of a riveting narrative.
The Hidden River tells the story of Fausto Dumrauf, close follower of the works of internationally renowned writers, a student of the esoteric classics and fascinated follower of world-wide secret societies. Dumrauf investigates and collects disparate anecdotes and information, piecing thin strands together into a bold and observable plot that has entangled even the greatest of the 20th century’s occultists. His research forms a cartography of a hidden river, whose waters can both cure and madden, depending upon the drinker!
Make the run to your local and better comic book shop or bookstore today and pick up the enthralling, conspiracy-ladled The Hidden Road – and better understand the malevolent and furtive currents that pull our own lives toward their every wicked whim!
