Apr 8, 2012
The description of Angra-Maynu on page 189 of Cyclonopedia reminded me of this character from the first Hellboy movie. His name is Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. For those who haven't seen the movie (shame on you) he was a Nazi assassin for Hitler and kept alive through the magic of Rasputin, a famed Russian sorcerer. He had an addiction to surgery, having his eyelids, and lips removed.
Relating to another topic in the novel, his blood had long run dry and he was full of dust and run by clockwork gears. This brings to question the definitions of life, death, and will. If we are dust and return to dust do we merely act on the thing-power contained in the dust of which we are composed?