Black arcadia / Kristine Ong Muslim

Acknowledgements -- Process notes -- Dear M, -- I. The underworld -- II. The colony -- III. The prophecies.

"I believe that books in mathematics are the only standalone books because their contents are not predicated on the existence of other books. Even mankind and society don’t have to exist for mathematical principles to hold true. And because Black Arcadia is not a math book, it should follow that it draws from other books. So I am writing this to serve as a rudimentary guide for reading, understanding, and enjoying Black Arcadia, as well as to disclose my sourcing methods and artistic goals.

I designed Black Arcadia to be read as the disgruntled mirror image of Lifeboat, my poetry collection with the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House. Their respective covers even reflect the dialectics I am trying to establish. Arcadia can be disambiguated to refer to the dominion of the Greek god Pan but I used the term more along the line of the pure pastoral state and its ideals."