The name of Kenneth Alan Moe’s series, Heretics in Occupied Eden, is an evocative phrase with many layers of meaning. Like all good titles, it raises questions in the minds of readers and entices them to delve into the story to make sense of it. Who are the heretics? Who is the occupying force? If Eden is under siege, will it take a heretic to save it? Does Eden need saving? You’ll have to read the series to understand the full context of the title, but Moe let us in on a little bit of the inspiration behind Heretics in Occupied Eden, as well as how the title influenced the cover art.
Ken reports that he devised a dozen or more possible titles that would represent the essence of the first three books before settling on Heretics in Occupied Eden. All of them included the words Eden and heretics. One of the goals of the novels is to explore the edges of theology and test the limits and implications of certain modes of religious thought and doctrines. His characters skirt back and forth across the boundaries of orthodoxy and conventionalism and speculate freely as they do so. Since the unifying vehicle for all this spiritual exploration is a naturist church, Eden is an apt metaphor. There is a return to Eden theme running throughout the series.
In The Dancing Church, a fundamentalist minister picketing the naturist church tells a reporter: “These heretics in this so-called nudist church are trying to occupy Eden! But God won’t allow it! God will expel them just the way he expelled Adam and Eve for running around naked!”
Since occupied in this context has a military sense to it, Moe’s son Ethan – the designer for Strange Angel Press as well as an author in his own right – used Stencil font for the title lettering to make the connection more clear, hopefully evoking the format the Armed Forces use to mark supply containers, footlockers, etc.
Start the Heretics in Occupied Eden journey with Book One: The Floating Boy.
What do you think of Moe’s series title? What sort of ideas and images does the phrase inspire in your mind? Comment below!
