In One Combined: Issue 1 - Creature Of Darkness

By PhantomFemme

Issue 1 of my zine In One Combined. Part Phanzine, part perzine, part evolving manifesto, this zine explores the power of The Phantom Of The Opera as "trauma magic" (see the work of Clementine Morrigan) for humanity in crisis, beginning with my own journey as a Disabled, Gender-Fluid, Neurodiverse Phan and expanding to the world we live in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781716244407

Book preview

"Pitiful creature of darkness,

what kind of life have you known?

God, give me courage to show you

you are not alone!"

(The Phantom of the Opera Act II scene 9)

Content/s

This zine is part Phanzine, part perzine, part evolving manifesto.  It embodies an on-going search for self and community, and an on-going process of seeking healing for self and world.  It is  an on-going effort, through sharing my own story, to try to make available to others what I wish to hell I’d had access to in my teens and twenties - a way of working through trauma, spirituality  and intersectionality that engages my deep love for and resonance with The Phantom Of The Opera.  It is a commitment to revolutionary trauma healing - to what brilliant witch and author Clementine Morrigan calls trauma magic!

As such, I write in as honest a way as I can about topics which may be upsetting or triggering.  These include ableism, medicalization, bullying, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, environmental destruction/climate/ecological crisis, religious fundamentalism, and ecstatic obsession.  So please read or not in whatever way is best for you!  And whatever that is, I hope this zine validates something for you and makes you feel less alone, whether your struggles are similar to mine or very different.

Creative Commons license (share alike) © 2021 PhantomFemme

ISBN 978-1-716-24440-7

Imprint: Lulu.com

Strange Angel

"Angel of Music, hide no longer!

Come to me, strange angel!"

(The Phantom Of The Opera Act I scene 3)

This zine was inspired by reading the brilliant zine Fucking Magic by awesome witch and rebel scholar Clementine Morrigan, and also by the occasion of my 30th Phanniversary.  But it really has its roots in my on-going desire to tell the story of what Phantom has meant to me - how it has helped me work through and with my own trauma, and how it has so powerfully shaped my values, spirituality and even politics.  Though, it has taken me an incredibly long time to figure out how to tell that story in ways that wouldn’t just be self-indulgent, but might actually (hopefully) be useful to others.  And that has involved a long, somewhat meandering, sometimes random-seeming search for the right words and tools.

As I’ve said elsewhere, my long inability to tell my story effectively was partly a failure of language.  Back when I first discovered Phantom - or rather when the Phantom first found me -