Book of Monkey
Animals of Crush Life
Yipee
Monkeys found a door in the secret garden. It was easy to open. They walked through. Nothing was conventional on the other side. It was a perfect playground for monkeys who like to go bananas, creating methods. The passage brought them healing, from the depths of their souls. They shared it with everyone.
Monkeys returned to the potent door and crossed until they understood their work was complete. It ended magnificently. They changed their proximity to the door and relocated to another part of the garden with new paths and portals. The land is lush with what else is possible. This is how the Book of Monkey began, long ago at the doorway to intensity.
Yikes
Reckless maybe, a different era at least. Playful creatures, optimistic, sometimes delusional, monkeys like edges and found themselves playing near the door to intensity. Such a powerful door, so subtle in its magnetic merge. It was reaching them, even from the other side, pulling them to painful places and other intoxications.
They did not fully understand, its medicine was working differently than how it started. Where are we? Now they were altered, losing their grip on what was happening. Quickly, it was beyond them. Monkeys don’t like these bananas. They didn’t want to go through the door again. High-intensity mayhem ensued, nothing like they’d known. Monkeys did their best.
Whoops
It was a disaster. Monkeys house burned to the ground. They did not know this was possible. No monkeys wanted to be burned. The truth, which is what monkeys play with, is not always easy to digest. The process is not always clean. Monkeys were injured and displaced. This is not the kind of monkey business they wanted. Now some things were broken. Monkeys went flat.
Bye
Monkeys needed to let go of each other. Recalibrate. They took a few walks together through the wreckage. It was a hard time for monkeys, to be together and not know what to say. To have feelings about each other and not turn towards each other, at least not in earth realms. Refreshing too, they felt, the distance from intensity. One problem between monkeys is that they don’t always notice pressure is getting too high, explosion imminent.
“Hedons,” says one god.
“Gluttons,” chimes in the next.
“Devotees,” the third.
Quiet now.
They have space, embodiment, replenishment.
The river is predictably the same and not the same.
Science, sorcery.
Gentle
In the distance, monkeys remember what they have learned all this time in the garden. Go slow. Surrender the poison. Be in love all the time. Stillness. There’s no sweat in the realm of holding close and loose. Monkeys attention turned with gratitude to the earth, the sacred garden, the cleanse.
“Very unhinged methods,” say the plants and the ancestors. The monkeys know, it’s the old ways they learned in their former lives that keep dying.
Monkeys use gentle methods now, they promise, sending the tears down the river, and sending the ghosts off to sea with some effortless hand gestures and infectious giggles. Back and forth, between grief and pleasure. They see the mossy space, a sanctuary, vibrant green in the forest even in the dead of winter.
It is spring now. Everything is changing. It’s supposed to be like this.
Grace
Guided by the wisdom of waters, winds, fires, and earth, with all the realms of good conspiring, the monkeys revisited the door to intensity. Its pull was present, destabilizing, unsafe for gentle monkeys who edge curious.
“Close the door,” monkeys requested.
“I’m closed,” said the door to intensity.
“Lock it,” monkeys requested.
And on the third request, it was locked, sealed, and adorned.
Hey Girl
They turn their backs on the locked door to intensity and look out at the garden. It is a vast open space with many different pathways, doors, and dimensions. Monkeys like hanging out. They keep walking.
Cosmic Dream caption: Behold the garden's heart, where every step is a journey into a world of vivid wonders and whimsical paths! 🌿🌸✨
Creative Direction
The Animals of Crush life is a long running project about relationship dynamics and life lessons. Anthropomorphic, need to go down that rabbit hole. Further research required.
This version was inspired and catalyzed by reading The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell (Author), Ned Asta (Illustrator), 1977. Started playing with fairy tales. Liked the cadence it brings to Crush Life, but ChatGPT’s writing was not able to convey complexity. The conflict arcs lacked nuance. Easy to solve with some real life learning and a character structure to play with.
Human sentences. Multiple iterations on visuals with ChatGPT. Art generated by Cosmic Dream, layout in Canva - done manually not using the Canva GPT, which has yet to prove helpful.
Song
Don't be afraid to be weak
Don't be too proud to be strong
Just look into your heart my friend
That will be the return to yourself
The return to innocence
