—Tellurian Edition—
—Tellurian Edition—
All photographs in this article were taken in currently existing Aristasian houses
I
am sitting in the drawing room of the current Aristasian Embassy to Telluria,
somewhere in North-east London. It is a fascinating room furnished in a curious
blend of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, which Aristasians would term Art Neo —
or at least one aspect of Art Neo.
The room, like most Aristasian rooms — and like most Aristasian girls — has more than one personality. Sometimes it is the common room of Avenbridge School for blondes and Brunettes, at other times it is a cinema. Today it is in its most formal and impressive mode as the Aristasian Ambassadress to Telluria, Her Excellency lhi Conitessa lia Marenkhela, makes a rare appearance to give an interview to The Morning Letter.
The Morning Letter: Your Excellency, may we begin at the beginning? To many people Aristasia seems simply like a fantasy world, yet you are actually here in London representing Aristasia. Can you explain a little about the Aristasian Embassy?
Lady Marenkhe: The concept of an Aristasian Embassy began many years ago. The cardinal idea was that of a house which would (like any Embassy) be a part of another country. In the Aristasian Embassy one is no longer in England, but in Aristasia. Of course there are now other Aristasian households, and each of them is a part, not of England or France or America, or wherever they may happen to be situated physically, but of the Celestial Empire of Aristasia. The Embassy now forms a sort of bridge between Telluria (that is, the physical world in which men exist where the 1950s and 1930s are places in the past) and Aristasia, the magical world of blondes and brunettes where Quirinelle and Trent are places we can visit now.
The Morning Letter: In fact, the Embassy, and the entire District of Avendale are on the border between Trent and Quirinelle.
Lady
Marenkhe: Yes, that is correct.
The Morning Letter: With the movement of the Embassy to a new location, you are founding a new colony. Can you tell us a little about Aristasian Colonies and Districts? Do Aristasians have their own communities?
Lady Marenkhe: Aristasia in Telluria is based on the principle of Autonomous Households. The household (or Hestia) is the fundamental unit of Aristasia. Each household has its own character. It may consist of just one or two girls, or of several. Households are bound together in Districts. Our district is called the District of Avendale. A Colony is a group of two or more Aristasian households that are near to each other. There used to be a large-ish Aristasian colony in Oxford. Your household doesn't have to be near to another one to be in the same District, but having households close together — in a colony — certainly makes things easier for cinema showings, schools, concerts, cafés and all the other activities of an Aristasian District.
The Morning Letter: So Aristasia is really a world in miniature?
Lady Marenkhe: That is correct. Aristasians feel that the world went so badly wrong after the Eclipse [the cultural collapse that followed the 1960s. See the Aristasian Glossary for further details editress] that it is necessary to create a new, civilised world in which to live. We call this secession. And since we are creating a world, we are free to make it as we like. And what we like is an elegant, all-feminine reality. That is a very brief summing-up of Aristasia-in-Telluria.
The
Morning Letter: We have seen The Adventures of
Tigrou which is a diary from a real Aristasian household. How typical is
this account?
Lady Marenkhe: Not typical at all; but then there really isn't a typical Aristasian household. Each one is individual and different from the others. This particular one is sometimes called the Tigers' Lair and is modelled on an exotic Eastern theme with a continual reiteration of the tiger motif. There is a good deal of very conscious kitsch in the design.
The stress on discipline and submission n that household is also perhaps somewhat Eastern and rather Tigerish too!
The Morning Letter: The new household — codenamed Castle Mushroom — is said to be planned on an Art-Neo castle theme. Could not some people suggest that these Aristasian designs are somewhat extravagant and perhaps lack seriousness, and that this might be considered a fault especially in the case of the Embassy household?
Lady Marenkhe: Aristasians can indeed be extravagant. We believe in expressing the richness of life. We react strongly against the drabness of the Pit.
The Morning Letter: But, if we may for a moment play devil's advocate, might not some people accuse this extravagance of resembling the absurdism and pseudo-eccentricity which is also a feature of the Pit.
Lady Marenkhe: They might, but they would be wrong. Let us take the Art-Neo Castle theme. In the first place the idea of the castle comes from the structure of the house, which presents a very closed exterior to the outer world and is centred round its own inner "courtyard". We take this to be a model of the enclosed and protected Hestia — the feminine household.
The
somewhat more martial (or, as Aristasians would say, Vikhelic) aspect of the
castle is particularly appropriate in view of the fact that the household is
surrounded by the Pit. Fortified without, homelike within: that is the essence
of the castle motif — and the fact that this theme will be reiterated
in the decor of the house is almost a ritual enactment of that protective essence.
Art Neo is necessary too, because our household is a modern Western one. Without going into the philosophy of Art Neo (which you will find set out in The Feminine Universe and elsewhere) it is, par excellence, the legitimate art of the machine age, lending depth and spirituality to an ethos which can otherwise be purely materialistic leading ultimately to the cultural breakdown of the Pit.
So you see, while the Art Neo Castle theme may seem purely frivolous and idiosyncratic (and I certainly expect the girls to have a lot of fun with it), it also embodies some very important Aristasian concepts.
The Morning Letter: So each Aristasian household contributes to the creation of an Aristasian world in which girls can live today, and each is an expression of Aristasian ideals and imagination.
Lady Marenkhe: Absolutely.
The Morning Letter: But isn't all this terribly expensive. Could ordinary people aspire to the creation of an Aristasian household?
Lady Marenkhe: There is nothing especially expensive about it. The new colony is being founded in a place where property prices are quite low, even though it is close to London. Many of the houses are Quirrie ex-council houses. Their very blankness and functionalism provides a tabula rasa on which the Aristasian can impress her special style. This can be done — and is being done — with a very small budget and a very large imagination.
Our whole aim is to found a colony in a place where girls can set up their own households as easily as possible. Our goal is a thriving, seceded feminine community made up of independent households. An oasis of elegance, civilisation and gaiety in an increasingly barbaric world.
The Morning Letter: Thank you so much for this interview your Excellency. I think we understand a little more now about the Aristasian household and colony.
Lady Marenkhe: The pleasure was all mine.
