The Tale of the Pig Man, or Waking Up is a science fiction oddity about the various ways of coming to enlightenment, or “waking up.” It is also a satire of some Christian approaches to eroticism, and at the same time an upside down version of ‘The Prodigal Son’. Ultimately it is a sendup of James Joyce, who left Ireland as a young man never to return, and wrote his increasingly esoteric works about Dublin while he lived abroad. This story’s hero is an Irishman of simple soul who comes to reject philosophy, political and financial power, and a fabulous woman, so that he could trek all the way from China to return home to wife and sty.