The Demi-Gods · Chapter
X explained
The angels, resembling Patsy Mac Cann in their rejection of property and prejudice, travel with the Mac Canns through the Irish countryside, encountering vagabonds and outcasts rather than settled householders.
What happens
The angels, resembling Patsy Mac Cann in their rejection of property and prejudice, travel with the Mac Canns through the Irish countryside, encountering vagabonds and outcasts rather than settled householders. They engage in deep conversations about wisdom, truth, and human nature, finding shelter in barns, haystacks, and sheds, while the ass endures the elements. The chapter reflects on the ethics of possession and the projection of self onto others.
Themes in this chapter
Social Marginalization
The chapter contrasts the suspicion and fear of settled householders toward wandering folk, highlighting the outcast status of travelers like Mac Cann and the angels.
Storytelling and Wisdom
The angels' wisdom is described as ineffable, requiring a new language; the chapter explores the limitations of human discourse in conveying ultimate truths.
Characters to notice
- Patsy Mac Cann
Mac Cann and his daughter travel with the angels, sharing their rejection of property and prejudice; he views settled householders as rooted and inhuman.
- Mary Mac Cann
Mary travels with her father and the angels, participating in conversations and sharing their nomadic lifestyle.
- Caeltia Mac Dea
One of the angels, wise but struggling to express ultimate truths in human language; engages in discussions with the Mac Canns.
- Finaun Mac Dea
Another angel, part of the group traveling with the Mac Canns, sharing in the conversations and experiences.
Key passages
“Civilisation, having built itself at hazard upon the Rights of Property, has sought on many occasions to unbuild itself again in sheer desperation of any advance, but from the great Ethic of Possession there never has been any escape, and there never will be until the solidarity of man has been really created, and until each man ceases to see the wolf in his neighbour.”
Civilization, founded on property rights, has tried to reform itself but remains trapped by the ethics of ownership, which can only be overcome when humanity achieves true solidarity and stops viewing neighbors as threats.
This passage critiques the foundational role of property in society and advocates for a collective, non-fearful human connection.
“No truth in regard to space and time can retain virtue for longer than the beating of an artery; it too has its succession, its sidereal tide, and while you look upon it, round and hardy as a pebble, behold, it is split and fissured and transformed.”
Any truth about space and time is fleeting, changing as quickly as a heartbeat; even as you observe it, it cracks and shifts like a pebble under a cosmic tide.
This reflects the angels' view that wisdom is transient and must be constantly reexamined.