Bipolar II

"Bipolar II" is the title of an unfinished, unpublished work by The Angst Guy (TAG), dating from October 2002. The story was a series of interconnected vignettes following an up-and-down pattern in mood, the overall level of which descended chapter-by-chapter into horror and chaos. The intent was to mirror the actual course of the psychiatric illness called bipolar disorder, type II. The tale became too unwieldy to complete, but several of the vignettes and other parts were fleshed out into full stories, none of them connected. "Bipolar II" is the source for "April Is the Cruelest Month", "The Omega Jane," "Where No Light Breaks, Where No Sea Runs," and the third chapter of "Smoking Mirror," with the introductory literary call-outs reappearing in "Deus Jane."

The original form of "April Is the Cruelest Month" appeared early in "Bipolar II" and was meant to be one of the optimistic peaks. "The Omega Jane" was from the final vignette and originally ended with Jane clutching Daria's corpse as they are attacked by wild dogs.