MAJOR ARCANA: Part Two, Chapter 2

Moral Wilderness

Major Arcana is a serialized novel for paid subscribers. For more details, both about the novel and about subscriber amenities, please see the Preface.

---

PART TWO

Chapter 2. | Moral Wilderness

Simon Magnus’s first love, as we know, was Valerie Karns. “Tell us about Valerie,” the interviewers from the comics press would say, after Simon Magnus had mentioned Valerie Karns in an answer to one of the fan letters—“Where do you get your ideas from?”—published in the back of Marsh Man. Valerie Karns’s story, or the version of Valerie Karns’s story Simon Magnus saw fit to tell, subsequently became a routine feature of Simon Magnus’s public persona. When Simon Magnus told the story live, the audience would laugh, clap, and stomp; then they would nod thoughtfully and titter nervously; and, finally, they would let out a sad, low hum.