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Scene Beyond Dreams The Words in the Tones Prologue So where to begin? Let's start with a child And where will it end? Where the perfect guest meets his fate In a scene beyond dreams So where do we fit? Earthbound and chained Can this be it? Visions of prophets and kings From a scene beyond dreams The awaited appears Branded with lies He calls to his own Loved and despised From a scene beyond dreams And a mother cries And she cries So we watch And we wait And we watch Oh, and the hero dies -- The Call / Scene Beyond Dreams Lost amid the struggles / Cached in canted rhythms Beneficence still dwells / Cast from forgotten Home -- David Brin & Gregory Benford / Heart of the Comet It's nature's way of telling you / In a song It's nature's way of receiving you / It's nature's way of retrieving you It's nature's way of telling you / Something's wrong / Something's wrong -- Spirit / Nature's Way Adam and the Prodigal Son are both archetypal figures who appear in cultures throughout the world. There are many stories that intertwine these two figures like the Egyptian Atum, the Mesopotamian Adapa, Tammuz of the Semites, Adonis of the Greeks, and Odin of the Norsemen. The essential story is of a richly endowed hero, like the Syrian prince in the "Hymn of the Soul," who leaves the innocence of his paradise home and enters the world to recover a precious pearl. This pearl (his soul) is guarded by an evil serpent. But in the course of his travels the prince squanders his fortune in debauchery, forgets his family, who he is, and the nature of his quest. It is only when his parents send him a letter reminding him of his heritage and his mission that he awakens, recovers the pearl, and returns home enriched. -- Yatri / Unknown Man Transmit the message / To the receiver / Hope for an answer someday -- Talking Heads / Life During Wartime There was a numbness in his spirit, as though he had caroused himself into insensibility and now had a reckoning to pay... She reached for him across the table, and grasped him and held him, and after a long while said, "You have fallen from a high place, and now you must begin to climb back to it." He grinned, "A high place?" "The highest." "The highest place on Majipoor," he said lightly, "is the summit of Castle Mount. Is that where you would have me climb?" "There, yes." "A very steep ascent you lay upon me. I could spend my entire life reaching and climbing that place." "Nevertheless, Lord Valentine, that ascent awaits you, and it is not I who lays it on you." He gasped at her use of the royal title to him, then burst out laughing at the grossness of it... -- Robert Silverberg / Lord Valentine's Castle The mountain is high / The valley is low And you're confused / On which way to go So I've come here / To lend you a hand And lead you into / The Promised Land -- The Edgar Winter Group / Free Ride One