With
Beast: The Lost Chronicles
, Paul Stubbs has fashioned a philosophical, theological, and visionary odyssey that follows W. B. Yeats' 'rough beast', as it strives to free itself from its creator and transcend him, while attempting to understand its purpose in the universe. Mirrored by the syntactical shifts of Stubbs' singular prosody, this elusive mythical figure traverses ancient to modern times, grappling with the ideas of each age as it encounters pivotal figures-such as Darwin, Mary, Noah, Nietzsche, Kant, Christ. This poetic journey across millennia forces a confrontation with evolving anthropological and metaphysical debates, from early Christian imagery to modern existential crises. Ultimately, the beast's narrative, brought to life by Stubbs' decisive gift for image-making, remains eerily contemporary with every era it inhabits, blending meditations on existence, sin, and the search for an unobtainable truth.