So I asked A.I.: Can you concoct a plot involving all three tales in one Godwinesque story?
"Absolutely, Gary. Let’s braid Lincoln in the Times of the Dead, Waiting for the Galactic Bus, and The Snake Oil Wars into one gloriously irreverent, metaphysically saturated, Godwinesque fantasia."
"Title: 'The Republic of Echoes'"
"Premise:
"A fracture in the fabric of posthumous reality opens a corridor between multiple metaphysical realms—one haunted by the ethical legacy of Abraham Lincoln, one satirically governed by cosmic bureaucrats (Coyul & Barion), and one embroiled in celestial litigation over the fate of belief itself."
"Plot Summary
"Act I: Lincoln’s Reckoning in the Agora of the Dead
"In the spectral city of Interrem, Lincoln sits beneath a flickering gas lamp surrounded by ghosts—some nameless, others familiar—challenging his decisions and mythologized persona. These dialogues awaken ancient resonances that destabilize the barrier between mortal legacy and cosmic irony."
"Act II: Coyul and Barion’s Return
Detecting a spiritual anomaly (caused by the over-concentration of moral gravity around Lincoln), Coyul and Barion arrive via dimensional backslide. Heaven and Hell’s bureaucratic systems begin collapsing into Lincoln’s realm, dragging televangelists, celebrities, and philosophers into the fray. The afterlife gets tangled in timelines, moral paradigms, and infinite paperwork."
"Act III: The Snake Oil Trial Redux
"A courtroom materializes inside the mausoleum of memory. Marcus Aurelius presides. Jesus appears as a hesitant witness. Dorothy Parker ghostwrites the opening statement for an undead attorney. Lincoln is subpoenaed to testify about the consequences of legacy-as-faith and belief-as-nationhood. L. Ron Hubbard, resurrected as a fax machine, insists he knows the way out."
"Act IV: Collapse & Convergence
"As the trial descends into philosophical chaos, Lincoln breaks with stoicism and confesses his longing—not for absolution, but for synthesis. The dead begin to fade, not from resolution but from recognition. Coyul and Barion debate whether moral ambiguity is a bug or feature of sentient evolution."
"Act V: Epilogue in the Galactic Bus Terminal
"Lincoln boards a phantom bus that only goes forward. The driver is anonymous, possibly divine. Coyul hands him a folded parchment: 'Legacy isn’t memory. It’s dialogue.' As the bus departs, Barion chuckles, 'And they called us gods.'”
"Themes Interlaced
- Memory Sovereignty vs. Mythic Repetition
- Ethical Satire as Cosmic Navigation
- Symbolic Resistance in Bureaucratized Afterlives
- Posthumous Identity as Social Infrastructure"
"If this strikes a chord with your speculative instincts, we could riff on structure—interweaving testimonial fragments, trial transcripts, metaphysical monologues, and godlike banter. Want to build out a scene? Or dive deeper into how this liminal republic might reflect your treatments on trauma engineering or narrative hauntings?"
How about incorporating Barion and Coyul's creation of Humanity?
"Let’s splice in the genesis thread—Barion and Coyul’s accidental creation of humanity—and refract it through the lens of Lincoln in the Times of the Dead and the Snake Oil cosmology. Here's an evolved take on the Godwinesque meta-narrative:
"Title: 'The Fault of Stars'”
"Premise:
"While bickering during a galactic spring break on prehistoric Earth, Barion and Coyul playfully tweak the brain chemistry of a tribe of upright apes—accidentally sparking abstract thought, self-awareness, and humanity’s existential thirst for purpose. What begins as a prank escalates across time into myth, religion, war… and eventually, the emergence of Lincoln."
"Plot Outline
"Act I: Creation as Comedy
"Barion mocks Coyul’s philosophy dissertation by creating a new species to test ethical systems. Coyul retaliates by adding sarcasm and poetic melancholy to the mix. Humanity is born. The aliens leave Earth assuming the experiment will self-extinguish. It doesn’t."
"Act II: Lincoln’s Emergence
"Centuries pass. Lincoln rises—not as messiah or anomaly, but as unintended consequence. His speeches carry residues of Coyul’s empathy and Barion’s biting irony. He dies, enters the liminal republic of the dead, and becomes a gravitational point for spiritual unrest."
"Act III: The Haunting Bureaucracy
"Coyul returns to Earth after hearing that his creation has started worshipping fax machines and declaring holy wars in his name. He finds Lincoln mid-dialogue with the ghosts of freedmen, generals, and philosophers. The afterlife collapses into celestial litigation: Who owns moral consequence?"
"Act IV: Cosmic Trial Redux
"The Galactic Tribunal charges Coyul and Barion with 'Unauthorized Soul Engineering.' Lincoln is called to testify not about his life, but about the spiritual architecture his existence left behind. Is he a product of divine pranksters? Or is conscience autonomous?"
"Act V: Synthesis at the End of Time
"As the metaphysical courtroom dissolves into memory, Lincoln walks with Coyul through the spectral remains of Gettysburg, now a museum of moral echoes. Coyul admits he never anticipated redemption as a side effect. Barion, annoyed, orders the galactic bus to arrive late so they can debate further."
"Lincoln turns to them both and says, 'In the end, we’re all creators. It’s the consequence we don’t control.'”
"Narrative Weave
- Creation as satire → Humanity as unintended allegory
- Legacy as metaphysics → Lincoln as fractal symbol of ethical recursion
- Bureaucracy of belief → The gods don’t understand their own gods
- Trial as storytelling → The courtroom becomes the canvas of cultural memory"
"This fusion gives you a scaffold for meditations on mythic causality, symbolic resistance, and the beautiful absurdity of unintended meaning. Want to sketch a scene from the tribunal or evolve this into a speculative film treatment?"
Now let's do a film treatment.
