Cezanne and the Unisphere

The meeting of the two of them could have been completely innocent of course. The possibility of chance dealing a favourable hand guided by nothing other than the wind had not escaped the attention of Cicely who had planned to use the opportunity to finally draw a bold line under their former relationship which had ended without resolve. But chance does not exist in this story. It had been fated only minutes before, by the ineffable and nameless dictator of the unisphere, that the mind and palette of artist Paul Cezanne should construct the remaining chapters of the un-exhilirating life of Ernest Moss turning it into something bright and joyous. A challenge for both Cezanne, who, of late, painted with a broad gloomy brush and Moss who is unashamedly bland. A bombshell has been dropped.

Now the story innevitably bifurcates, not only to discuss the ridiculous notion that a famous, long since dead artist can single handedly transform the lives of innocent human beings with a brush stroke but also to confront the equally unfamiliar idea of the unisphere. Surely, the universe? Hark up reader! Your eye is fixed and your spine straight. What an interesting and cruel twist this is.

The definition of the universe understood by many and printed in the commonplace and authoritative text Adams' Dictionary of Matter and Concept describes the universe as being simply 'The idea that the system of life is predictable, one directional and immutable, governed by no force and written like a single piece of verse with a definite beginning and a definite end.' The unisphere on the other hand is defined as 'The irreducible fact of the system of life being unpredictable and cyclic with life being metaphysically recycled endlessly and governed by an anonymous dictator with a passion for 18/19th Century Impressionist/Post-Impressionist art and its proponents.' Every person it turns out is assigned a guardian artist that at some juncture, like a football manager deciding to bring on a substitute, intervenes at the behest of the dictator, because someone somewhere, usually on Earth, needs help. It just so happens that the universe is thankfully bunk, has always been bunk and the unisphere is alive with the future of its inhabitants at the mercy of the artists brush.

This leads us smoothly onto the initial point that Cezanne will transform the life of Ernest Moss.