The Maharajagar deals with introspective themes, including relationships and social alienation that follow a pattern rooted into its original framework; The Mahabharata. However, with the book’s progress, the literary concepts have become more ambitious, addressing issues such as the evolution of technology, apocalypse, absolution and catastrophic war. It also focuses on themes of government oppression, uprising, love, and panspermia. Most of its world building is a derivative of my essay on The Synthetic Theory of The Universe, Humankind, and Religion mixed with elements I’ve gleaned from Lovecraft’s Dreamworld, painted upon the socio-historical canvas surrounding the First World War and its aftermath.
Just looking further into the artistically specter, we find The Muse, a British band formed in 1994. Their output evolves among similar themes they tend to bring in an alternative, little melancholic rock style combined with a reputation for energetic live performances accompanied by orchestra tracks.
Their most recent album, Simulation Theory (2018), prominently features synthesizers and was influenced by science fiction and the simulation hypothesis. Books that have influenced Muse’s lyrical themes include Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, The 12th Planet by Zecharia Sitchin, Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs and Trance Formation of America by Cathy O’Brien.
While the simulation hypothesis proposes that all of reality, including the Earth and the universe, is in fact an artificial computer simulation that seems realistic enough to convince its inhabitants the simulation is real, the synthetic theory advances a model of the reality as a projection of a cosmically horizon upon the time-space continuum whereby the tension field between chaos and order provides a vector where the free will can exercise some influence upon the outcome.
I strongly disagree with DIY writer Will Richards who stated “If a Muse album isn’t meant to make you laugh, gasp and double-take in its ridiculousness, then we don’t wanna hear it”. As if musicians or, by inclusion, all other artists have the sole mission of bringing brainless amusement for the masses. I wrote an opinion on this subject in my post The Teacher’s Obligation to Entertain vs. the Entertainer’s Obligation to Teach.
Shaharee Vyaas 