I am going to get into the link between beliefs and some interpretations of this story and the efforts of some people to dirty the repute of the story (and perhaps the symbolism of the Butterfly Dragon). If you want to avoid a religious discussion, then don't read beyond this point and I will not hold that against you.
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This whole idea stems from an ignorance that is unfortunately founded around the idea of China being considered as the Dragon, by some of that faith, and that symbolically they will be the progenitors of Armageddon. A sort of racist interpretation if you will that pits the Far East as the bad and the Far West as the good.
There had always been a lot of resistance to my revelation of one of the main characters from the story being a Mandarin Chinese immigrant to Canada (though she's inspired by several Women ranging from Thailand, Vietnam, Korean, Hong Kong <Cantonese>, Hawaii and Japan). From the point that I'd revealed that, there had been a backlash of similar proportions to the Wytch hunt from A Lady's Prerogative.
The reason for it is once again connected to the ideas of this interpretation being related to the Dragon of the New Testament and the Mandarin Chinese community being pit as the Dragon of that Bible. Naturally the abusers locally try to use that to their advantage locally to paint my book as being satanic or anti-Christian. The cult that do this even try to paint me that way, in order to prop someone else up as the "Christ-like" person by comparison. Usually much abuse ensues and the people involved use that to create a contrast in behavior between myself and someone else in that regard.
My harassers did that with regard to A Lady's Prerogative II: Wounded Earth as well, trying to turn it around to imply it was a retelling of the Knight's Templar round up of the 1300s (which it is not). The story of A Lady's Prerogative II: Wounded Aerth more represents the Sanctum as being closer to the Catholic Church and the United Nations in terms of its goals and ideals. The Librum Universalis Codex would be similar to the Akashic record or even the Guff. The burden the members of the Sanctum carried in terms of history would equate to the conception of what Rosicrucianism (in relation to the Catholic Church) really represents and that is, the burden carried by others that is a measure of the balance of the world in terms of its present and past injustices and the weight thereof. When enough inequity arises and is part of the burden carried by the Roses, this weight manifests itself through their actions and reality, risking war or conflict that reality imposes as part of the balancing mechanisms presented by the Akashic record and the "Guff".
All the cultures of the world cooperate in the Sanctum and take part in this effort, each bringing to the fold their means of maintaining this balance and maintaining it to preserve the peace. The Culdar Rath and the Power lords represent a very direct threat to this balance and the story is driven around this conflict which could be related to real world allegory such as what I've mentioned. In the Sanctum though, there is no mention made of adherence to any specific belief system except a very obvious belief in human rights and the rights of other living creatures (as Nelony of the old and the new would most certainly take their stance).
In that book, every culture, including the Mandarin Chinese take part in that maintenance of balance in the world and none are singled out as being the "bad guys" (or girls) despite the fact that it does have link to mystic interpretation. The Sanctum is the inclusive and unifying force rather than the isolating.
The Butterfly Dragon has different roots and follows a story line with similar implications yet is more a voyage of those Women to find themselves and their stance in society while under extreme pressure and the threat of annihilation (which gets much bigger in implication in the future of the story).
In The Butterfly Dragon, Heylyn Yates' fashion company, West Meet East International, which takes takes on a much bigger role in the second book, is the "Sanctum" of the Butterfly Dragon. Her company (which has its fictitious headquarters in Toronto, Canada) though small in comparison to many other real fashion companies, is representation of the Toronto that I grew up in and the Toronto of present. A center for art and culture, which has had some growing pains in the last two decades. It acts as the place where she and Alicia (through Tynan And Associates) are able to take on the immense responsibility they'd stepped into through the events of the first book. The current book, Butterfly Dragon II: Dragon Butterfly focuses more on Heylyn Yates and the folklore revolving around her alter ego, the Butterfly Dragon. She reunites with her roots in China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam while finding her place and role in Canada, Toronto and North America while her company and several other fashion companies through a world wide tour have an impact upon world events.
Heylyn Yates (Ai Yuanlin Ying) was never meant to represent the Dragon of the New Testament just as the Chinese culture is not such a beast. That is a short sighted misinterpretation that is skewed by ignorance though the evidence for that does not appear all at once. In one recent story of the Butterfly Dragon, I turned the symbolic representation on its head with the use of the characters Warai and Weltherwithsp who is a mystical Dragon and in possession of atemporal awareness. Weltherwithsp can perceive all times at once and can remember the future much the same as it can remember the past.
In The Butterfly Dragon, Heylyn Yates' fashion company, West Meet East International, which takes takes on a much bigger role in the second book, is the "Sanctum" of the Butterfly Dragon. Her company (which has its fictitious headquarters in Toronto, Canada) though small in comparison to many other real fashion companies, is representation of the Toronto that I grew up in and the Toronto of present. A center for art and culture, which has had some growing pains in the last two decades. It acts as the place where she and Alicia (through Tynan And Associates) are able to take on the immense responsibility they'd stepped into through the events of the first book. The current book, Butterfly Dragon II: Dragon Butterfly focuses more on Heylyn Yates and the folklore revolving around her alter ego, the Butterfly Dragon. She reunites with her roots in China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam while finding her place and role in Canada, Toronto and North America while her company and several other fashion companies through a world wide tour have an impact upon world events.
Heylyn Yates (Ai Yuanlin Ying) was never meant to represent the Dragon of the New Testament just as the Chinese culture is not such a beast. That is a short sighted misinterpretation that is skewed by ignorance though the evidence for that does not appear all at once. In one recent story of the Butterfly Dragon, I turned the symbolic representation on its head with the use of the characters Warai and Weltherwithsp who is a mystical Dragon and in possession of atemporal awareness. Weltherwithsp can perceive all times at once and can remember the future much the same as it can remember the past.
Warai and this Dragon appear in the dream of a disabled lady, who has religious reservations about the symbolism of seeing a Dragon (the Biblical serpent?) in her dream and as a result of this interpretation she, misses out on an opportunity. She has the same dream many times over until one night before she goes to bed, she reads a medical center brochure which of course has a logo (the logo of the Canadian Medical Association which looks like the Dragon she dreamt about). It is also the logo of Tynan And Associates drawing from the double helix of DNA for its Dragon. She takes this new interpretation with her into her dream and when Warai pleads with her to take her hand, she gets over her stigmatic fear of the Dragon instead replacing it with the image from the brochure that she read. She overcomes her fear based upon an interpretive stigma and accepts the offer from Warai in the dream. Warai tells her to speak to her Doctor about the Tynan And Associates SY-369 program (the new treatment designed by Alicia's team). She does and within a year she's on her feet and walking. All because she overcame a stigmatic fear that told her to associate the Dragon she saw in her dream with the Biblical serpent and automatically distrust on that basis. Upon seeing another context that she did not realize, she then loses her fear and accepts Warai's hand. I am not trying to push forward any specific religion whatsoever, but there are dangers to avoiding the subject of stigmas related to interpretation and especially not talking about them. Sometimes just by being made aware of such stigmas, it is enough to open doors that the perceiver is able to make of their own volition (based upon their beliefs). Not to say that their beliefs are wrong, but to say: here's another way of looking at this.
That is the best allegory I can give to answer the abusive ignorance of those trying to cite the Mandarin Chinese character Heylyn Yates as being the Dragon of the New Testament and the Book of Revelations. Much like Weltherwithsp and the lady's dream, people can interpret the Dragon as being the serpent that tricked Eve into convincing Adam that it was alright to eat the apple (maybe a test to see if Adam was worthy of Eve because if Adam really loved her, then he'd not let her take the blame for the biggest mistake humans made according to that book).
Kind of like the test that one's parents might present a suitable partner for their daughter to measure a guy's merit and how much he'd protect their daughter or whether he'd abandon her? I'd go with that interpretation rather than putting the entire blame for the downfall of human kind on the first lady, so women could be used as garbage bags for guys for the rest of history? I don't think of women in any such way, so I'd go with the other interpretation, that it was a parental test by Eve's parents to see if Adam was the right guy for their daughter or Adam's parents to see if he would really protect Eve and inherit the "Garden". It doesn't say anything about what I believe because that's personal (I might not even believe in any religion at all, but ignorance thereof certainly means that when a group of people I care about come under attack from another group of people based upon their ideas and interpretations of their beliefs, by not knowing or maintaining my own ignorance, I'd be very incapable of defending those people). The truth is that I care about Heylyn Yates, as I do care about the cultures of the Far East and especially about any of them being cast in the role of the Beast of Apocalypse by any religion by any means of interpretation.
Kind of like the test that one's parents might present a suitable partner for their daughter to measure a guy's merit and how much he'd protect their daughter or whether he'd abandon her? I'd go with that interpretation rather than putting the entire blame for the downfall of human kind on the first lady, so women could be used as garbage bags for guys for the rest of history? I don't think of women in any such way, so I'd go with the other interpretation, that it was a parental test by Eve's parents to see if Adam was the right guy for their daughter or Adam's parents to see if he would really protect Eve and inherit the "Garden". It doesn't say anything about what I believe because that's personal (I might not even believe in any religion at all, but ignorance thereof certainly means that when a group of people I care about come under attack from another group of people based upon their ideas and interpretations of their beliefs, by not knowing or maintaining my own ignorance, I'd be very incapable of defending those people). The truth is that I care about Heylyn Yates, as I do care about the cultures of the Far East and especially about any of them being cast in the role of the Beast of Apocalypse by any religion by any means of interpretation.
The difference in interpretation can make a world of difference for someone in that story, because it frees Women as the carriers of the burden for that event and opens new doors while the benevolent progenitor of events in the beginning retains their status and dignity (without making the believer or the believed the bad). Much like the disabled lady in her dream overcoming her fear based upon interpretation and accepting Warai's hand, which ultimately leads to that Woman's healing.
So the main character in a story about superheroes in North America being the daughter of a Mandarin Chinese family who immigrated here from China is far from being a hidden story to sneak the devil into the minds of people around the world.
Heylyn Yates is not the devil, nor are the Women who inspired her as a character in this and the prior book. This will become more clear in the future of the story, and all I have to say is that if you are doubting that on the grounds of religious ignorance with regard to Chinese culture or any culture of the Far East of Asia, I'd suggest that you don't accept Warai's hand and just read another story elsewhere because I don't want you around because just like Adam, you might try to make Women carry that load and I think that Women deserve a lot more and that.
Heylyn Yates is not the devil, nor are the Women who inspired her as a character in this and the prior book. This will become more clear in the future of the story, and all I have to say is that if you are doubting that on the grounds of religious ignorance with regard to Chinese culture or any culture of the Far East of Asia, I'd suggest that you don't accept Warai's hand and just read another story elsewhere because I don't want you around because just like Adam, you might try to make Women carry that load and I think that Women deserve a lot more and that.
There's more to come in the story and it will really take on these issues, but for now I'm going to lay low for a bit until the beatings stop. I defend my choice of culture for Heylyn's character just as I do for Warai and just as I do Alicia's initial weight sensitivity, just as I do Monique's harder start in life and Valerie's ability to overcome the mess that Torman made for her.
What I don't support is illegal eavesdropping upon my computer while I write these stories by my neighbours, hence presenting them with the opportunity to censor my work preemptively (often by harassment) because they know in advance what I'm typing before I post it. That's pretty bad if that kind of thing is going on in Toronto, Canada as that is supposed to be illegal and I'm hardly a criminal or terrorist risk or a risk of child exploitation. So there's no justification for anyone having such leeway upon myself as a writer and publisher. I file my taxes and I vote and believe in Government, infrastructure, having hospitals, schools, emergency medical protection, law enforcement and paved roads and most importantly human rights and not specifically in that order. I don't believe that civilians should have that right to spy on other civilians for the purposes of preemptive censorship or even theft of what one creates.
By the way, the first girl that I ever kissed was Jewish as was my first serious relationship. I've been told I am a good kisser, so she must have been a great teacher just in case you mistake me for being racist or misinterpret anything I've written here. I have a great love and respect for Germany as well (two of the greatest loves in my life came from there). My current love interest originates from the Far East and I stand by that without fail as well.
In addition, I stand by each and every one of the characters in my books and their stories and allegories.
What I don't support is illegal eavesdropping upon my computer while I write these stories by my neighbours, hence presenting them with the opportunity to censor my work preemptively (often by harassment) because they know in advance what I'm typing before I post it. That's pretty bad if that kind of thing is going on in Toronto, Canada as that is supposed to be illegal and I'm hardly a criminal or terrorist risk or a risk of child exploitation. So there's no justification for anyone having such leeway upon myself as a writer and publisher. I file my taxes and I vote and believe in Government, infrastructure, having hospitals, schools, emergency medical protection, law enforcement and paved roads and most importantly human rights and not specifically in that order. I don't believe that civilians should have that right to spy on other civilians for the purposes of preemptive censorship or even theft of what one creates.
By the way, the first girl that I ever kissed was Jewish as was my first serious relationship. I've been told I am a good kisser, so she must have been a great teacher just in case you mistake me for being racist or misinterpret anything I've written here. I have a great love and respect for Germany as well (two of the greatest loves in my life came from there). My current love interest originates from the Far East and I stand by that without fail as well.
In addition, I stand by each and every one of the characters in my books and their stories and allegories.
Brian Joseph Johns
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