Book I, Clip 3
The Vampyres Of New
York
A Novel
by
R.E. Prindle
If you
haven’t experienced that kind of mental agony you don’t know. I tossed and turned all afternoon and into
the night. My brain was racked but not
with pain. It was like all the
connections had come loose and I had no control of my mental processes. There was no way to concentrate, to organize
my thoughts to possibly think or be rational.
It was like three fevers without temperature racking around in my brain.
I was
exhausted and then possibly at one in the morning I heard a knocking. I sat up in bed wondering who in the world it
could be. Then I heard Gaines
again: Hello, I’m back. Let’s talk.
Well,
Gaines! Of course I knew what was
happening then. I was at that level of
experience and conditioning between the birth process and more conscious
experience. I had already cleared out
the most compelling of my childhood fixations at forty-two when I integrated my
personality. That freed me from
compulsions and inhibitions but I gradually learned that there was another
layer of control or influence yet beyond my reach. Gaines had now shown up so it was possible to
free myself from that psychological layer.
Small comfort at eighty but then few if any become so clear. Freud and Jung certainly never attained
it. I flattered myself that I could be
unique. The first of the New Men. Don’t smile, it was a pleasant thought.
This wasn’t
the first incident of interior dialogue my mind had spoken to itself. I heard what they call voices back in my
early teens. Of course like St.
Augustine I had been convinced that one could talk to God. Unlike Augustine I wasn’t crazy enough to
persist when God couldn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know when I asked.
And then
back then I heard voices telling me to do inappropriate things like Kill your
mother and Chuckles but I shut them up; I wasn’t to going to jail for any
reason. And now, here was Gaines a more
or less rational entity who would try to convince me to do evil I was
certain. As in primeval days I was
attached to the God Principle while Gaines was representing the Satanic
Principle.
He seemed to
be lodged in the right hemisphere just behind and above that ear. This puzzled me somewhat as I would have
thought he would have been part of my Animus or Ego that being the male side of
the brain; instead he was on my female side.
Then I
realized that when Gaines had taken up a primal position in my consciousness I
was sitting on the back steps of the Orphanage.
When my mother had put me in the Orphanage and had walked away she had
created this space in my mind, this psychological layer. Gaines and his evil comic books was therefore
associated with my mother. Oh yes, my
mother. Sometimes I wish I had heeded
those early voices and offed both her and Chuckles. Chuckles, that mean assed bastard, was her
second husband. They married when I was
ten and I then came out of the Orphanage.
Well, you
know, as I always told myself, you have to play the hand you’re dealt. I think I can say without comment that I
played that lousy hand well. Here I was
in New York City, the capital of the world, in a thirty million dollar
apartment. Gaines wasn’t going to be a
problem, after all, he was me and I was him.
I had the upper hand with the God Principle on my side while Gaines
might as well have been Abe Goldbladder of the Satanic Principle. I will discuss that more in my presentation
to the New Serapion Brethren.
I was inside
my skull with Gaines but my mind had cleared up, I might as well get started.
‘So, Gaines,
what brings you here?’ A silly question
because I already knew the answer.
Still, in order to extinguish him I had to play along. However I did think it necessary to call in
my old psycho-analyst Dr. Anton Polarion as an assist.
Who is Dr.
Anton? I’m embarrassed to say this
because then you might think I really am crazy.
But that’s alright, I may be.
Dr. Anton
Polarion came around several years ago when I was deep in my psychological
studies. I was working a number of
fields of study and I needed someone to handle the psychology for me when I was
working another field. It was then I
thought up Dr. Anton giving him the responsibility for memorizing and
developing psychology.
I know it
sounds kind of crazy but it’s not. Dr.
Anton was and is a memory aide. If you
read up on the art of memory you will learn that in Greek and Roman times
people constructed memory palaces of many rooms extensively furnished and then
assigned memories to various rooms and objects in order to more conveniently
record them, prodigious feats of memory are recorded. Oh alright, but I wasn’t going to wander
around a Memory Palace trying to find various rooms and objects with their
assigned memories so I just handed the job to an imagined Dr. Anton rather than
a Memory Palace. You can understand that
can’t you? Seems reasonable enough to me
but you never know what other people will think. Anyway Dr. Anton knows whereof he speaks. So when it comes to hearing voices it was now
two to one against Gaines and I had another Ace or two up my sleeve.
I was loaded
for bear and I was sure I could kick Gaines’ ass. Still, I had to hear Gaines out.
‘So Gaines,
as I said, what brings you here?’
‘I’ve got
some good advice for you,’ said Gaines.
‘Knowing who
you are Gaines I doubt it could be good.’
‘Oh ho, you
think you know who I am do you? Who am
I?’
‘This will
take some time Gaines but you’ve got as much as I do. I’ve been waiting for you for a long
time. Your showing up here, now, puts
things in place. I’m going to call in
Dr. Anton for support. You know who he
is don’t you Gaines?’
‘Of course,
of course. I know as well as you know
me. Hello Anton, welcome to the
conversation.’
Anton: Hello Gaines.
Well, let’s get started.
Partly: The key here is the Orphanage and me sitting
on the back step reading Tales From The Crypt.
That was one sado-masochistic piece Gaines with a certain portrayal of
women. Strangely that portrayal was
reminiscent of my mother. It is between
you and my mother that this psychology revolves around.
Anton: Yes, your mother transferred her hatred of
your father to you after she had put him away and tried to destroy any happiness
for you. It is no coincidence that after
she had your father committed to the asylum she committed you to the
Orphanage. Of course, she had ‘good
reasons’ for doing so but they weren’t the real reasons. When you turned eighteen she thought she had
you again, enlisting you in the Navy and having you shipped off somewhere where
she would never have to see you to remind her of her crime against your
father. Thus the association of your
mother, sado-masochism and Gaines.
Gaines also
provides your connection to the Jews although that application came later in
life. The content of Gaines’ comics, the
sado-masochism, is part of the Jewish Weltanschauung that Freud expressed so
well and it is that that Judaicized you,
making the Jewish culture part of your own.
It is that part, this Satanic consciousness that drags your spirit down
causing your chronic low depression.
We’ll try to shake it here but it may now be integral to your mentality.
Leaving
Gaines for a moment the pre-Gaines component was your mother’s extreme
selfishness. Of course your mother was
three months gone when she married your father.
This didn’t create so much guilt as anger. She held your father responsible preventing
her from doing whatever she thought she would be doing later. You were born in 1938 in the depths of the
Great Depression.
Jobs were
not easy to come by and although your father was a good provider, that is you
had a roof over your head and a shack to live in, even so your father ran out
of jobs so he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and went to work planting
forests. He was a good man; he sent most
of his money to your mother. She
unfortunately as you would learn was not a good woman.
It is
difficult at this point to retrieve her motivation but she got laid in the back
of a Chevrolet in the parking lot of a grocery store as you know well,
Perry. She became pregnant with the
little bastard palmed off to you as your brother. A child of sin he has always remained
so. A point came where the pregnancy
could no longer be concealed.
Needless to
say the realization made your father angry.
In an attempt to learn the culprit he began to punch her out. In the way of women she was stout refusing to
give up his name. Your father said
things like ‘I am out working CCC to provide for you and you’re out, words that
were unintelligible to you. Do you
remember that Partly?
Partly: Yes I do.
Anton: Less than two and half and you remember! What a memory Perry. The bastard was born,
your father left and you saw him only once more several months later. Do you know what happened to him?
Me: No. Never saw him again after that last time.
Dr.
Anton: Your mother had him committed to
the insane asylum and he lived there all his life and died there.
Gaines: Wait a minute, wait a minute. You can’t know anything he doesn’t
Anton. Where’s this coming from?
Dr.
Anton: Just as you have been suppressed
until now Gaines so has the knowledge I’m now revealing. It came in bits and pieces and I have put it
all together. Partly is just now
realizing it.
Where was
I? Yes, committing him was a sadistic
act on the part of a guilty woman. But
it didn’t stop there Partly. To assuage her guilt while indulging her sadism she
had removed her husband but you, a reminder of her crime, remained. She transferred her affection to her bastard
and set out to torture and frustrate you.
You remember the nightmares you had in high school where your mother was
constantly betraying you? That was a
subconscious recognition of what you wouldn’t allow yourself to acknowledge but
still you knew.
The
Orphanage was just four blocks from your grandparents house where you were
living. She had to know the effect it
would have on your mentality, you certainly did, but just as she had put her
husband away in an asylum she put his memory away in another institution, the
Orphanage.
Do you
remember this Partly?
Me: Sure Anton, I remember but not as clearly and
well organized as you do.
Dr.
Anton: You’d be a better man for
learning it although at eighty who gives a shit. You’ll take it to your grave soon enough.
Me: That’s alright Anton, I’ll die, as you say, a
better man.
Anton: So your mother dropped you off and you were
led away just like in prison or the asylum but with slightly better
conditions. And thus you began to become
who you used to be before your personality integration that introduced this current
phase of your life at forty-two.
You became
quite independent in that harrowing situation of the Orphanage. Fate left that copy of Tales From The Crypt
lying on that little porch and a pain equal to your being abandoned seared your
soul again striking through your subconscious to the structural level
here. You were no longer a free man but
controlled from, for lack of a better term, your subconscious. I don’t know how you made it through but here
you are.
Your
mother’s remarriage to the maniac Chuckles who was a match for your mother’s sadism
nearly destroyed you during those eight long years until graduation. Enough of that for now. Let’s deal with Gaines here.
Me: Can we get rid of him?
Gaines: Hell no!
Dr.
Anton: He is unfortunately part of the
warp and woof of your personality but I’m pretty certain we can modify it and
reduce his Satanic level considerably.
Gaines: Over my dead body.
Dr.
Anton: Preferably Gaines, that is what
we’re shooting for.
With that I
collapsed back into my pillow exhausted but calmer with less of a feverish
feeling. I was breathing somewhat
heavily. I knew that this was a significant
psychological event that had not yet achieved resolution and I was afraid to
lose the thread. After about an hour Dr.
Polarion returned. Anton was not an
alter ego as Gaines but functioned more as a guardian angel, a good spirit so I
welcomed him.
‘We’ve got
to handle Gaines Partly.’
‘Yes. What is your suggestion Anton?’
‘This. It seems that Gaines is functioning as a node
for a constellation of similar events.
The two obvious strands of the constellation are he, that is your Jewish
experience, and your mother. The first
step must be to disentangle your mother and put her into her own constellation
to be dealt with later. You already have
a decent handle on her.
That leaves
Gaines and your Jewish experience which is a distinct constellation which when
knowledgeable about it you’ve done a lot a preparatory groundwork but certain
resolutions are still necessary. That
constellation has to be distended into its planetary elements so that each can
be identified and dispensed with.
In addition
there may be other elements concealed within or behind the constellation of
which we have yet no knowledge. Time
will tell.
And then
there is what Gaines wants you to do which is why he’s made his appearance
now. We’ll have to listen and go from
there. You and I do understand that what
he wants is going to be ridiculous and dangerous.
Me: OK Anton, your analysis is good and I do have
a good idea what Gaines wants; I’ve also got my arguments ready and can direct
him. But, God, this is painful.
Anton: Yes Partly, self-realization can be trying
and I’m sure you’re in agony. You
remember Hubert Selby the fellow who wrote his novel Last Exit To Brooklyn?
Me: Oh sure, Anton. Very interesting story. He was probing his mind to write his
story. That once when he came up against
a particularly painful remembrance it shattered him so that he had to take to
his bed for a week writhing in agony. I
can’t afford the time for that now. I
have things to do and fields to plow.
Anton: You may have more than you think Partly. Get some rest and I’ll get Gaines back here
in an hour or so. Control your feelings.
With images
of Jekyll and Hyde in my fitful dreams was the titanic struggle of the Shadow
with evil and the images of Superman and Clark Kent. Good must triumph over evil although it might
not be as clear cut a victory as one might hope.
Just before
dawn Dr. Polarion returned and shortly thereafter I heard Gaines’ Hello, I’m here.
Me: Alright Gaines. I’m ready.
Anton had
already disentangled my mother from the constellational complex so he and I
were dealing with just the Gaines/Jewish constellation. In that obscured constellation other traumas wouldn’t
be clear at this time.
‘What’s up
Gaines?’ Anton asked quietly with an
implied menace that he wasn’t going to listen to nonsense.
Gaines: Why so hostile Doctor Polarion.
Anton: We know what you’re up to Gaines. I have to tell you that we know who you are
and where you’ve come from so your Satanic power is negated.
Gaines: Oh, aren’t we clever. What is my pedigree Dr. Polarion?
Anton: Simply this:
You infected Partly’s mind on that stoop of the Orphanage with your
sado-masochistic claptrap. Partly only
semi-consciously took in the sado-masochistic sexuality without knowledge of
sex, he had to repress your Satanic influence and with some few exceptions he
did. As he knew nothing of Jews and your
own Jewishness that puzzling aspect of your Satanity was filed away for future
reference. In the meantime following
Jewish propaganda he was conditioned to revere Jews and did so.
Then in
winter of nineteen fifty-eight in a fit of sado-masochistic lunacy the Jews
pre-empted all TV channels at the same time on Saturday prime time and
broadcast the most incredible pornographic sado-masochistic program
imaginable. An hour of graphic snuff
films depicting naked dead bodies being pushed about by bulldozers. The sexual implications were horrendous. While secretly fascinated Partly was
resentful of the Jews for pushing this atrocity on him. Without articulating it to himself he was
fatally disgusted. Also without noticing
it he associated the ‘entertainment’ with you Gaines.
Gaines: I’m disgusting?
Anton: Eminently.
Now, there comes an incident that was let slip by almost without
recognition. Partly’s wife, now
deceased, came from a Jewish background on her mother’s side; the father was nominally
Catholic. The mother wanted a Jewish
wedding while fearing that Partly would object.
The venue was unimportant to Partly, in fact, with his Jewish
conditioning he got a little thrill from it.
However to
the Jews the notion that a Jewish girl would marry a, what they considered
Christian boy, was anathema to them. Her
parents approached all the synagogues in the East Bay but there was only one
Rabbi in the East Bay that would consent to marry the couple. This was brought about by the intervention of
his wife’s mother’s sister whose family was a prominent supporter of the
synagogue. Even so the rabbi insisted on
an interview with Partly.
As I say,
Gaines, Partly had no religious scruples to marrying into a religious family,
not quite true, he would never have married Catholic, and thought to be amiable
with the rabbi. Both Partly and his wife
were above religion despising them as relics from a primitive age. While Partly tried to be amiable the rabbi
didn’t. Partly talked to the rabbi man
to man while the rabbi as all rabbis do exalted his position believing as a
Talmudic scholar that that worthless information placed him not only above
Partly or his fellow Jews but all humanity and most of the angels. Resenting Partly’s familiarity he insulted
Partly grievously as not worthy of a Jewish girl while being a Christian dog or
words to that effect. At that point his
respect for the Jews, intense conditioning or no, vanished.
This event
was constellated with you Gaines and the TV atrocity to negate any positive
feeling he had for the Jews. A couple
decades of propaganda was wiped out in an instant. Partly’s future unpleasant relations with
Jews will appear subsequently.
So that’s
who you are Gaines. Satan on a stick.
Gaines: Yeah, well Dr. Polarion I know where Partly
lives. I know he has suffered insults,
injuries and indignities from many quarters including the ones you mentioned
and I know this: He wants revenge. Who do you go to when you want revenge? Satan, baby, Satan. And here I am.
Anton: True, Partly?
Me: No.
It’s true I have a lot of resentments but they’re from assholes and
assholes can’t help being assholes; if they could they wouldn’t be assholes so
one has to ignore them. It’s their cross
to bear and I enjoy watching them be assholes.
If Gaines thinks he’s going to lure me into criminal activity he’s not
here.
Gaines: Kiss my ass Partly. Social unrest is developing rapidly,
exponentially day to day. There are
hundreds of racial and religious, what the authorities are pleased to call
murders rather than the acts of war they are happening every week.
I know
Partly that you were trained by your experiences to be a serial killer. You know it.
I don’t know how you’ve resisted up to this time but now is the time to
indulge those resentments. Not only are
the cops overburdened trying to deal with all the killing and raping going on
but they’re afraid to leave the station.
Whole cities are no go zones for them.
They’ll never identify you, never track you down. Come on buddy, let your inner Mr. Hyde see
some light. Now’s the time for your
revenge.
Me: I think you’re right about the time being the
right time Gaines but remember that Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. I’ve learned that it is true.
Gaines: Vengeance is mine saith the Lord? Listen to this guy. Are you putting me on Partly?
Me: Certainly not Gaines, certainly not. Remember you were kicked out of heaven for
the religious offence of chutzpah. God
stuck his boot up your ass and down you came.
You always tempt men to their destruction by exploiting their own
weaknesses. If I were to act in revenge
I would surely be caught. Even at eighty
I don’t want to be thought of as a criminal.
Gaines: No, you don’t want to be thought of as a
criminal. Here’s a tip for you Partly…
Anton: I…
Gaines: You stay out of this Anton, this is between
Partly and me.
As above, so
below, right Partly? God’s will is
supposed to prevail on earth as in heaven, right?
Me: I’m not religious but the Bible does say
so. What’s your point?
Gaines: As a lawbreaker I was kicked out of heaven,
right. If so, then it is God’s will that I be persecuted on earth also, isn’t
it?
Me: Well, you have to believe the Bible.
Gaines: No, you don’t. Freud replaced the Bible but as a Jew he
follows the Bible’s rhetoric. Freud and
I are one and not only am I part of your mind but Freud is too. That’s one of my attributes that Anton the
so-called psychologist forgot to mention.
So, if it is God’s will that it is to be on earth as it is in heaven
then it is permissible to punish Satanic practices as he punished me isn’t
it? As a God fearing person it is
imperative that you do so.
Well, there
was a thought. The Jews consider
themselves God’s viceroys on Earth and that they are doing God’s will by
forcing his, or theirs really on the rest of mankind, punishing those who
resist, that is anti-Semites. It was a
tough argument to counter while Gaines had cleverly appealed to my suppressed
desires. Anton was no help at this
point.
Me: To punish is vengeance Gaines and as I say Vengeance
is the Lord’s. Therefore I cannot punish
Gaines, however there is the question of justice, lawbreakers should not be
allowed the fruit of their crimes with impunity.
As we know
God has no temporal means to effect his will on earth so he must use
intermediaries as his chosen vessels hence the Jews claim to be that
vessel. However if God spoke to the Jews
then he can speak to me. Thus if like
Saint Augustine I were to hear his voice enjoining me to administer His justice
on earth as he does in heaven, that is kicking Satan off the earth then I could
obey his will and be judge, jury and executioner here on earth as the Jews
consider themselves. Well, Gaines, that
is a thought I will have to give consideration.
Gaines: Yes it is.
Further…
Anton: Hold, hold it, stop Gaines. Be gone.
Hold up Partly, we have to think about this. Later Gaines, later. Go.
And with a
sly wink at me Gaines wandered away. He
would be back, of course. But he had
given me something to think about. I knew I was going to think about it too and
as Gaines knew I would rationalize his suggestion into reality but only in a
‘legal’ manner.
Anton just
looked at me and shook his head. He knew
what was coming. So did I but neither of
us could as yet admit it.
-IV-
Once again I
lay back exhausted. Still I had to get
to work. In an agitated state of mind I
reviewed the correcting of my piece for the New Serapion Brethren that I was
titling The Vampyres Of New York. I had
put some preliminary thoughts up on the internet so I was searching Vampyres Of
New York when I was startled to find that there was an actual group called The
Vampyres Of New York that claimed to be a worldwide organization. Its spokesman was some guy calling himself
Father Sebastian. He was a young guy who
would have been further ahead claiming to be Brother Sebastian; in another
thirty years he might pass for a father.
Anything
associating itself with vampirism had to be Satanic while the guy was
absolutely touting himself as a religion.
The crude Satanism of the nineteen sixties was obviously morphing into
an attempt at a universal religion. This
was a far cry from the historian Arnold Toynbee’s cry for a new universal
religion to replace Christianity. Gaines
was obviously right about the Satanism in Freud being a part of me but
apparently the drive was to make Freudianism the basis of a new religion. Thus as Christianity as a Jewish based
religion had represented the Godly Principle so Freud as a Jewish based
religion would represent the Satanic Principle.
This was a
revelation to me that while new I would have to try to work into my essay. I had to think about it a little so while I
was thinking I tinkered around working out disguises. Having seen street activity for a couple
weeks now I was uneasy walking around in my own skin; I didn’t want to become
that well known.
So, as I
thought I tried out mustaches, wigs, glasses, different outfits, so I could
walk the streets so as not to become obvious.
But, time was passing and I was driven back to my writing desk. I wanted to avoid Gaines as long as possible
so I put in some long sessions hoping I would be so tired when I went to sleep
that that bastard Gaines wouldn’t be called up.
I was successful for the week left before going to Farquhar’s.
I was a day
ahead of the deadline so I went out to get a couple two or three bottles of
wine to take along. Wanted to show I was
a regular guy. I am a regular guy but
usually not that regular. Boy, NYC is an
alkie’s paradise. What a fabulous
selection of spirits. I don’t drink much
but in my earlier days I could do a limited justice to the bottle. In those days I favored brandy. Really good stuff if you’re going to
drink. Oh lord, if I had known then what
New York showed my now I might have been the man who never returned.
I wasn’t
after liquor though I wanted wine so I asked for and got bottles of Ramey’s
Claret. Ramey is a good Napa Valley
vintner while his claret is moderately priced and more than good enough,
excellent in fact. The vintage was 2014 that
particularly dry year and of small berries.
Excellent, I thought it should go over.
I’d had it before and it really is a great vintage.
For dress I
wore a 1960 vintage sport coat I bought at a second hand store. Nothing was ready at James Carter and I had
tried Lord and Taylor and other stores but none was showing other than those
idiotic short jackets cut small and I thought I looked a heck of a lot
better. Charles Tyrwhitt shirt, one of
their higher priced dark blue and white mini stripes, black in a low light. So what’s a boy to do? Ralph Lauren had turned ludicrous after he
left.
Ragnar drove
me and my bottles of wine up to fifty-second street off Madison to Farquhar’s
condo, very good, twelfth floor. As I
entered the building an explosion went off maybe three blocks away in some
direction I couldn’t determine. Somebody
was acting up, hard to tell who. It was
beginning to happen fairly regularly.
Cops weren’t catching anybody. So
many people and organizations were claiming credit for these things it must
have been a nightmare investigating these things using only electronics.
As these
things were getting more frequent they didn’t even make the headlines in New
York while except for certain sites on the
internet the rest of the country was totally ignorant of them. The
permanent Obama administration was still trying to explain them away as the
work of domestic terrorists, actually by now the terrorists were domestic
although not so-called White Supremacists.
If by Global terrorists it was only just that we should be bombed as was
said and that brought the thought of Gaines back as Lessing was rattling the
locks on the other side of the door.
Once that
ritual was completed I was admitted into a small foyer with a second door and a
number of locks which were only locked at night or when Lessing was away. The door was now open for which I was
grateful.
Through the
second door one entered directly into a large living room, perhaps eight
hundred square feet cutting straight through the apartment to the floor to
ceiling windows that looked into the windows across the street unfortunately.
The room was
comfortably decorated with expensive furniture but not the costliest. The usual New York abstracts, tasteful, were
on the wall facing lovely floor to ceiling bookshelves admirably stocked. Books do furnish a room, don’t they?
I was the
last to arrive. Seated, looking at me
with expectant bemused expressions were Max Savings, Mark Giusty and Baron
Cammell the other members of the New Serapion Brethren. Lessing was apparently a bachelor or, as I
was to find, a widower.
As I could see
I was the oldest of the four. Lessing
was seventy-two but still in his prime.
How well I remember being fourteen and finding the age of seventy
incomprehensible as young people still do.
While even people in their thirties and forties expect people of seventy
or eighty to be decrepit. Most of us
aren’t. Certainly Lessing and I were in
full vigor. Diet helps, three or four
years earlier I had been compelled to give up my sugar diet, and I mean I love
sugar, and that and an improved diet recharged me considerably.
Lessing was
more robust than I being taller, probably six-two and bigger boned. He was filled out but not fat or even heavy
looking, his face like mine was unlined while he had a full head of white hair
as did I although mine was removable and his wasn’t. He showed a little surprise as I was nearly
bald at our two previous encounters.
Lessing
introduced me to Max Savings who was small, perhaps five-six, and slight. Max was the youngest at sixty-two. He was dressed like an undertaker, had a
slightly weasely face with a pointed nose.
He had a sharp intelligence.
Marc Giusty
was Italian standing a half inch or so below me, seventy years old, still
athletic looking, spent a couple hours a day in the gym as I was to learn, lean
and long headed in the Italian manner, thin mustache and good features.
Last to be
introduced was Baron Cammell. Baron was
his first name and not a title. He would
prove to be the most difficult member of the group for me.
By the time
I was finished with the introductions Max had a bottle of claret open and the
glasses filled. Well, you know, two
fingers. One sips, this was a cultured
group no full water glasses at one gulp.
We accepted our glasses and looking at each other took a sip.
Lessing: Oh, very nice.
Marc: Yes.
Haven’t seen the label before.
Baron: (Sniffing slightly.) Yes, quite distinctive.
Max:
(Smiling.) Enough said.
Me: Yes, well, Ramey apprenticed for many years
in France before setting up in Napa. I
like Bordeaux style blend and claret hits the spot for me after reading all
those old English novels where claret and wine were synonymous. I like this one. So, we’re all ETA Hoffmann admirers, um?
Lessing: Yes, we are that. By way of curiosity Perry, how did you come
to Hoffmann.
Me: Oh, you want my origin story as the comic
books say? OK Lessing, I’ve got
one. I’ll do this in the best comic book
style. It was a dark and stormy day back
in the middle of the last century when a thirty-six year man shoulders hunched
against the cold and rain looked into a shop window. Perceiving it was a book store he being a
bibliophile pushed the door open. A
blast of warm air hit him as heads turned to look at the stranger. The man glanced casually about at the few
inside, mostly help, with no particular object in mind. His attention was caught by a slip cased set
of two. Always a sucker for so-called
special editions he picked it up to examine it.
‘Hmm…’ he mused to himself, ‘Selected Writings Of Hoffmann? Hoffmann who?’ Extracted, Vol. I read from the title page,
E.T.A. Hoffmann The Tales. The man had
heard of ETA Hoffmann spoken of most highly and of course he knew of Offenbach’s
opera Tales Of Hoffmann. Twelve dollars
and fifty cents. OK.
Tucking the
parcel under his arm under his coat and lowering his head against the blast he
proceeded down the street. I was that
man.
Me: There you go Lessing and an identical copy
can be found on your bookshelf right over there.
Ha, ha, ha
came as a chorus from the four men:
Nicely done, Perry, nicely done.
‘The lad
shows promise, doesn’t he?’ said Lessing.
Max
Savings: This could prove interesting.
Me: And since then then I’ve added a dozen
volumes filling out, I think, what’s available in English except for that
magnificent nineteenth century volume you have on your shelf.’
Lessing: That one.
I’m quite proud of that find. I
tramped London looking for that one. But
you have never reviewed Hoffmann on your site Perry, how come?
Me. I don’t feel adequately prepared
Lessing. I have added a number of
Romantic writers to my library in the last four years, Kleist, Tieck and like
that but nothing in the way of critical reviews so I don’t think I’m prepared
to speak authoritatively. And I still
have to read Goethe, the key Romantic.
If you’ve read my stuff you probably are aware that I speak without
concern of contradiction. I can’t do
that with Hoffmann yet. So, if I may
ask, give me a thumbnail of yourselves.
Lessing: I’m host so I might as well go first. The salient point is that I spent my career
practicing law, mainly real estate and financial issues. That is an area where much of the money
sticks to the lawyer and I am in a comfortable situation as you can see having
made my share or more of the money stick to me.
Although remunerative I found the law and its cases fairly loathsome so
as soon as I felt financially independent I left all that behind and turned my
attention to what I loved much as you have Perry. Much more rewarding.
Max
Savings: I’m not quite so financially
independent as Lessing and still at my desk at Chase. I certainly am not so accomplished literarily
as you and Lessing but I squeeze in time in an effort to keep up.
Marc
Giusty: I was a university prof all my
working life, loved it at Columbia uptown here.
History was my subject.
Unfortunately I was just a yeoman and not a star. I wrote a few papers for academic publications
and a couple slim volumes that disappeared down the memory hole but allowed me
to keep my position. By the way, this is
a nice wine.
Me: Glad I chose to your taste. And you Baron.
Baron: I’m somewhat of a polymath, expert in several
fields. I’m working on a unified field
theory to arrange the liberal arts in a chronology with commentary. That’s all you need know of me.
Me: Quite so, quite so. Now that we’ve been introduced and had a
little wine what say I begin my presentation?
I’m anxious for your opinion and hope to please.
Lessing: That sounds right. What is the title of your presentation Perry?
Me: I call it The Vampyres Of New York.
I noticed a
little uneasiness in the Brethren at the title.
Lessing spoke:
Is this a
vampire story, Perry? I thought the
understanding was that we present historical essays.
Me: Exactly Lessing. But lesser known aspects, other sides so to
speak and that is what mine is. Don’t
let the title throw you. By the way as
you’re not looking at the paper I spell vampire v-a-m-p-y-r-e. I chose the spelling to indicate a difference
from a Dracula type blood vampire. My
essay will concern what is known as psychic vampires. When I was searching Vampyres Of New York on
the internet to see if my first couple of posts had registered yet I was
surprised to find that there is actually an organization called The Vampyres Of
New York, spelled with a Y.
I was
further astonished that it claims to be worldwide although the claim seems a
little dubious. At any rate the possible
leader is a guy calling himself Father Sebastian who divides his time between
New York and Paris.
As you know
since the first Disney version of Star Wars a recent religion has sprung up
based on the concept of the Force and whatever.
It seems probable that the Vampyre organization is a type of Satanic
religion too. This brings to mind that
after the challenge to the Jewish religion in the West after the Scientific
Revolution following the Enlightenment the Western Jewish religion under the
Scientific challenge dissolved into a number of splinter religions seeking a
center. The center of course came from
the East and was called Zionism so that Judaism with some atavism and Zion are
one.
Christianity
has taken longer to find a new center but under the influence of nineteenth and
twentieth century Satanism we may be seeing a jelling into some form of a universal
Satanic religion. It is something to
bear in mind. So my historical
investigation is concerned with the Jewish and Christian religious
disintegration of the previous two centuries under some sort of vampiric
influence. Is that alright? It won’t offend any sensibilities?
Lessing: If it is historical we have no objections.
Me: Alright.
I’m pretty sure this will be a different approach to what you’re used to
so I have a prologue explaining the difference between a Dracula type Vampirism
and psychic Vampyrism which will concern us.
This is longish but not hugely long so fill your glasses and sit
back. It is written out so feel free to
interrupt at any time for explanations or comments, discussions or whatever.
OK? I begin:
The Vampyres Of New York.
Clip 4
following contains the text of Vampyres Of New York.
