Текст книги "Letters"

Автор книги: John Barth

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It is now past midnight by my old Breguet, he concludes: my father’s timepiece, to which I cling as if it were the key to me. They do not know I know these marshes as I once knew my mother’s face, or your own dear flesh. Chère Andrée: if you receive this letter, it will signify that “Napoleon” has made good his 3rd escape, has survived the only sharks & alligators hereabouts (those of his treacherous imagination), & is headed home!

Receive it she does, we know, at year’s end, at this address. Andrée is 32; the twins are 9. Does she decipher, read, believe it? We do not know. Its author never appears, at least in his own person. For four years more his “widow” takes no action. Andrew’s former young acquaintance J. F. Cooper publishes his second novel, The Spy, and embarks on the Leatherstocking series. Great Romantics expire: Hoffmann, Shelley, Byron. Two French natural scientists, Prevost and Dumas, prove that the spermatozoan is essential to fertilization; Beethoven finishes the last of the nine symphonies.

At the urging of her friend John Jacob Astor, Betsy Patterson Bonaparte visits Rome from Geneva and is warmly received by the surviving family of the late emperor; the marriage of her son to Joseph’s daughter Charlotte is arranged but never comes to pass, perhaps owing to a quarrel between Betsy and Pauline Borghese! Chagrined, Mme B. returns with a traveling companion to Geneva, “Bo” to America, where to his mother’s exasperation he will marry for love a pretty and well-to-do New Englander named Susan May Williams, and settle happily in Baltimore. Betsy herself will not return until 1834, when her companion (then 54) succumbs, apparently to food poisoning. She never revisits Europe thereafter, but becomes the reclusive, snappish, coldly beautiful real-estate millionaire of Maryland legend, who in her 94th year – disappointed in her final dream of seeing her grandson crowned king of the South after the Civil War – is buried in a lonely plot of Greenmount Cemetery, in accordance with her wish “to be by [her]self.”

But that is the history, already lettered, of Henry and Henrietta Cook Burlingame V, called to their vocation by the letter and pocket-watch sent them in 1827 by “Ebenezer Burling of Richmond,” companion of young Edgar Poe. By then Andrée will have done what we have seen her do, and disappeared into the western fastness.

Thus the long chronicle of Andrew Cook IV trails off into the same marshy equivocation that engendered it. The fate of his Utopian “Louisiana Project,” as of his Indian Free State, is all too evident: the “militant” Indian nationalist movements of our time are to his and Tecumseh’s dream as was Napoleon III’s Second Empire – that grandiose, self-conscious paradigm of the Freudian “compulsion to repeat”—to the First: pitiable travesty.

Must we not conclude the same of the Second Cycle of Andrew’s life? Was not it, was not he, a failure? Has not our whole line been, Henry, from Ebenezer Cooke the first laureate of Maryland and his tutor Henry Burlingame down to you and me? For that is whom we are come to, having traversed, between Andrew’s prenatal and his posthumous letters, all the intervening Cooks and Burlingames: the genealogical bottom line. Am I not myself, in my courtship of Betsy Patterson’s descendant for the sake (I mean also for the sake) of our cause, become my namesake’s pallid parody, and in my own Second Cycle the impersonator of myself?

Before the untimely death of Andrew Cook VI – and the wedding of Jane Mack to Baron André Castine of Castines Hundred – you shall hear, upon these questions, from

Your loving father

C: Jerome Bray to Bea Golden. Inviting her to star in the first epic of Numerature.

Comalot, R.D. 2

Lily Dale, N.Y., U.S.A. 14752

8/5/69

Mrs. Bea Golden (a.k.a. “Bibi,” “Jeannine Mack,” etc.; t.b.k.a. Regina de Nominatrix)

Remobilization Farm

Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada

My dear Mrs. Golden,

Certainly a star of your magnitude must receive numbers of letters in each day’s post: solicitations to model as the heroine of somebody’s counterrevolutionary novel; to play the lead in somebody’s film derived from such a novel; et cetera. But a rising star reset should spurn such obsolescent media, soon to be superseded by coaxial television and laser holography, ultimately by a medium far more revolutionary, its essence the very key to and measure of the universe. This is to invite you to spray your past with dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and take wing to your golden future, a future impatient to be RESET Mariner-7 takes 1st close-ups of Mars surface Miami blacked out Niagara Falls helicopter crashes Oil leak in Lake Erie.

Hum. Numerature!

Permit us to introduce our new self with apologies for our old. (Much better, LIL.) We are the former 10 2 2, a.k.a. Jerome B. Bray, of the former Lilyvac Farm, R.D. 2, Lily Dale, N.Y., U.S.A. 14752, born in the Backwater Wildlife Refuge and RESET Our ungallant pursuit of you; our apparent, even actual derangement since Passover and particularly since Independence Day use dash to indicate break in syntax and recommencement – these are owing to the overflow of my spirit’s vesicles as it were. Cf. W. Shakespeare’s seminal equation: lunatic = lover = poet; also the wreckage or frenzy of Greek mythic figures, in particular Io, after mating with gods and gadblanks. What indeed is inspiration if not the swelling that follows the Godflaw’s bite? The real star of the myth of Bellerophon is not RESET Who believes he can achieve mythic herohood by perfectly imitating the Heroic Pattern and who learns that by doing so what one becomes is a perfect imitation of a mythic hero no doubt a heroic mimicry in itself but not quite the same thing heh heh. It is not the triple beast Chimera nor is it the pinioned pony Pegasus (O LIL). It is the Gadflaw! And who was that poor mad fellow 10 2 2 a.k.a. RESET A lost chord on LILYVAC’s intromittent organ as it were, a stingee of the Godflew New paragraph.

M. Bernstein was but the mere anticipation of her ex-stepmother! LILYVAC will deal with her; in the meanwhile she deserves R. Prinz, who was never worth 1 grain of your pollen as it were. That’s a figure there heh semicolon a digit of speech RESET And Marsha Blank, number of our enemies, was but an unsuccessful tryout for your role, 1 of numerous understudies so to speak recruited and prepared during our Casting Season, which now approaches its culminating scenes: Rout of the Dromes, Fertilization of the Queen. No matter that in a kind of coma she let loose the goats and herself strayed from the fold; when the hour comes so shall she, plenty, see below, who 1st inspired our Gadblank Illuminations of 7/4 and later, playing at your destined role, gave LILYVAC’s domain its new and proper appellation see above. Final casting to be completed by 8/14, immediately whereafter, with the Fall Work Period, we commence “shooting” (a figure of RESET 1858 Cyrus Field completes 1st Atlantic cable and Queen Victoria exchanges greetings with President Buchanan. 1864 Union Admiral Farragut wins Battle of Mobile Bay. 1945 Hiroshima A-bombed. 1966 Giles Goat-Boy published, imperfect mimicry of a RESET Close parenthesis new ¶

Our proposal: Now that you are quit of your commitment to reactionary media and their representatives, we invite you to play a starring role in the 1st, revolutionary epic of Numerature! The details are too confidential for letters, but this much may be enumerated: (1) Its working title is 18 14 (formerly R.N.). (2) It requires a 1st-magnitude female to play Regina de Nominatrix (formerly Margana le Fay, a.k.a. y Fael), royal consort to Rex Numerator (formerly King Author, a.k.a. RESET To sit at his right hand at the Table of Multiplication, play Ordinate to his Abscissa, share the Pentagonal Bed, receive his innumerable seed, make royal jelly, and bring forth numerous golden heirs. To be the lock his key will fit, its cylinder and oiled tumblers, that together we may RESET No damn it that together they may reach the Treasure stop

Your instructions: (1) Give enclosed packet to M. Blank, your former rival, your present ally and understudy. She will share with you its coma-clearing contents and confirm the truth about yours truly, LILYVAC, and the role that awaits you in 18 14 (formerly NOVEL a.k.a. NOTES). (2) Come again to Comalot with her for 1 shining moment on Wednesday week 8/13 USS Essex captures Alert 1812 Berlin Wall 1961 to see for yourself and to make ready for Bellerophonic downfall of Author and Director by the stinging numbers of R(egina) D(enominatrix) II and her

R.N.

H: Jerome Bray to his parents. An ultimatum.

Comalot, R.D. 2

Lily Dale, N.Y., U.S.A. 14752

8/26/69

Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Bray a.k.a. Gadflay III & Betsy Bonaparte Bray

c/o Monsieur Casteene

Castines 100, Ontario, Canada, &/or lloodsworth I., Md., U.S.A.

Ma y Da (y M.C.²):

Having a wonderful RESET Wish you were Here is our (final) report of business finished et unfinished ha ha since ours to you of 6/17 when in despair over LILYVAC’s printout and Merope/Margana y Fael’s defection we appealed to you for clear programming through 8/15/69 midpoint of our life and Phi-point 6 1 8 etc. of our 5-Year Plan (i.e. Mating Season between Years T & E of NOTES a.k.a. NOVEL): i.e. How translate all those numbers into letters? And whom hump from 7/4-8/14/69 inclusive?

No reply! We begin to wonder! Où et who êtes vous etc.? Et why have you forsaken us? Vous whom all our Leben we’ve thought our allies & protectors; whom our lifework has been but une long letter to, and who we have believed responded s’il vous plaît e.g. via LILYVAC’s leafy anagram! Now Hear This is our final RESET Arabs use rockets on Israeli positions British capture Penobscot Bay ditto Castine Me stop

Madre perdida, Père perdu: Our ally Comrade M. Casteene of Casteenes RESET Son of Ranger & Mme Burlingame and thus not unrelated à nous advises us to make this last attempt to report through LILYVAC through him to you our victorious Mating Season ’69 and revised new project based on Post-Perseid Illuminations see below and exhort you to affirm those latter pronto as we are gearing up for the Fall Work Period and will commence our 7-Year Plan on Tuesday 9/23 St. Thecla’s Day Autumnal Equinox R.S.V.P. or else.

Hum! In absence of Margana y Fael et faute de mieux we fetched to Comalot on 7/5 1 Pocahontas a.k.a. Marsha Blank for standby fertilization & general chores. From 7/12 to 7/21 the Mating Flight kept us in Maryland where under pretext of collaborating mil der Prinz-Mensch gang we carried forward the Season’s activities you would be surprised e reconnoitered Merope/Margana for evidence of rehabilitability no dice.

Back to Lily Dale 7/22 ☌☿☉ we found that in unser absence anti-Bonapartists had raided Comalot, abducted Marsha le Fay, and left the goats and LILYVAC to tend themselves! Quoi to do, Ma, Pa? Giles our prix buck passed on! Les nans reduced to browsing on LILYVAC’s language circuits! Mating Season in full flight and no Io for us to gad, no Blank to fill! Veh vas us! How we implored you und so weiter no reply. We were obliged to make do with nannies blah and go to work on LILYVAC’s nibbled circuits as if the Flight were flown and Fall upon us no help from ustedes no word no patter no pater no mate no mater no matter you shall RESET New ¶

Til LIL enfin got our program recycled enough to tell us in pained English not only that we were despite all appearances OK but that Marsha’s Blank was filled per program, ha ha, not to worry, the best yet is to come: by Phi-day 8/14 we would have the Queen a.k.a. Regina de Nominatrix maintenant we had a new y powerful ally M. Casteene who would monitor both females till the time was ripeness is all we had to do was make contact with him in Buffalo 8/1 Lammas Day Nixon in Pakistan ☽ on Equator More to come.

That night under pretext of collaborating mit der Prinz-Mensch RESET We exchanged credentials in Delaware Park a quick reciprocal demonstration of mimicries our own powers were of course at their peak by reason of the Season we embraced each other with the fervor of true comrades and he revealed himself as our long-lost elder foster brother von Backwater Wildlife Refuge! Son of Ranger & Mme Burlingame! Your elder nephew, sort of, Da, und playmate of your youth!

See chart! Next page!

Much more to come, quelle nuit, we’d never compromised a Rosengarten. We retested Merope too, not quite ripe, and M. le Baron C. explained that Marsha was in care of our colleague Horner at the Remobilization Farm. That we required her there for the present while he moved our operatives to Bloodsworth Island in the Chesapeake. That she would recome to us and LILYVAC without fail for her Final Fix at the Phi-point of the RESET That her agency now was but to deliver Queen Bea to us & LIL in time for mating kein sweat if we played our cards right and laid on the Honey Dust. That he looked forward to inspecting LILYVAC and discussing further our production of said H.D., the progress of our 5-Year Plan, and the revolutionary new medium Numerature, all which he would do at commencement of our Fall Work Period meanwhile he was off to Bermuda on a mating flight of his own au revoir mon (foster) frère.

On Tuesday 8/5 we duly invited Regina de Nominatrix a.k.a. Bibi etc. via LILYVAC & Marsha Blank to Comalot for 1 shining RESET On 8/13 Sharon Tate et alii buried she came i.e. Marsha fetched her here per program Dialogue Just Honey-Dust me 1st is all I ask Rexy-boy Bea murmured We did Me too Jer said Marsha you ever promised me a RESET We did Good night sweet ladies Time to fly now We did & did & did & did & did & did & RESET Done! PUNKT!

As meteors sprayed from Perseus like pollen or golden marks of punctuation, near midnight Th 8/14 Krafft-Ebing 1840 we completed the innumeration of Regina de Nominatrix, and at LILYVAC’s suggestion, for we were spent, and sore, and weary, we took a hit of Honey Dust ourself. Happy birthday sexy Rexy, Marsha mumbled; sorry about old Giles. O fie, said we, O phi, and then the hit hit: eureka, mirabile dictu, etc.!

The Post-Perseid Illuminations! That coincidence (of the mezzo del cammin de nostra vita and the Phi-point both of Year 1969 and of our original 5-Year Plan) was no coincidence! That fiasco that was NOT (i.e. the 1st ⅗ths of NOTES) was not! Achtung, Ma, Da! Inasmuch as that aforesaid conjunction of mid– and Phi-points was the turning point of notre vie and of LILYVAC’s program, could it be, aha, that the Golden Age originally projected to arrive in Spring 1971 (i.e. end of Year S, 5th of NOTES) would not actually commence till the Phi-point of our vita i.e. age 44.64 i.e. 618 etc. of my 3-score years and 12 i.e. 4/5/77? Hum!

What say, folks? we asked you. No reply! We began to RESET LILYVAC then vouchsafed 2 seminal suggestions by dawn’s early Licht. A (1) That perhaps a new plan was called for, evolving from NOTES like the Adult from the Pupil and commencing at the latter’s Phi-point i.e. A.S.A.P.; this to be not a 5– but a 7-Yearer culminating 7/4/76, on which fit date the 2nd Revolution would commence, to be followed per schedule by the New Golden Age. And a (2) That LILYVAC therefore needed entire reprogramming with 7’s in place of 5’s, even as foreshadowed by Merope/Margana last Passover 4/3 i.e. the eve of the eve of 4/5/69 or 7 years exactly ere the eve of the dawn of the N.G.A. When we did all those 7’s? See our lettre of 5/13 to Comrade Mack in LILYVAC’s memory bank if you have the key we’ll see! I.e., exactly the reprogramming scheduled for the upcoming Year E of NOTES (which see too in my letter to Todd Andrews of 7/4/67) but necessarily there unspecified. Ergo, Ma; also, Da: all has proceeded on schedule, but on a schedule only now coming clear! ¿No? Nicht wahr? R.S.V.P. instanter!

Queen B. then securely stashed and Dusted and Mating Season done, we returned Agent Blank to Canada and celebrated there our 36th by (disguised) participation in der Mensch-Prinz son-et-lumière memorial to the fallen American & Canadian Soldiers at Old Fort Erie. Wherein, as our voice sprach also from the rising cloud of the Great Magazine Explosion and we showered the scene with numbers like meteors spraying out like RESET We came to our final Post-Perseid Illumination: that nous-mème need not nor would not bring to its climax and dénouement that toilsome new 7-Year Plan! That having so scored this Mating Season, there remained for us only to complete LILYVAC’s reprogramming, whereafter LIL itself – with but the most routine attendance by some trusted agent like our dear Merope of old (who shares Bea’s precious erstwhile amber name) – could correct e refine its own program and accomplish both this 2nd plan and the 2nd Revolution!

Where did that leave us? R.S.V.P.!

On 8/18 St. Helena’s Day notre semblable our (foster) frère M.C. good as his mot stopped by for a few shining moments en route from Backwater Refuge to Casteenes 100 and re-presented his credentials. Son and agent of our (foster) parents! Coordinator of Reenactment for 2nd Revolution! Wonderer like Yours Truly whatever happened to our true parents Gerald Bray Jr. a.k.a. Gadflew III & Betsy Bonaparte Bray i.e. vous 2 who for all he knew set us both adrift at birth in the bulrushes and buzzed off. R.S.V.P.!

With our permission he inspected LILYVAC, très interesting indeed, um hum, and firmly affirmed our P.-P. Illuminations, in particular the 7-Year Plan, which by no coincidence coincided precisely with his own. Had we considered that our destiny might be the triumphal reenactment of our ancestor Harold Bray’s apotheosis at the end of the Heroic Cycle, i.e. some mystical ascension whereof the Fort Erie Magazine Explosion was the dark prefigurement? Nein. Had we considered what considerable new funding our 7-Year Plan would require? Nyet. Hum. But sans doubt we had considered the possibility of increased production and underground distribution of Honey Dust as a means of financing the 2nd Revolution? Nay.

Well! We would consider all that! He suggested further that if all went per plan we might even hope for substantial new funding from the Tidewater Foundation. Might he examine Regina de Nominatrix, whom he understood to have given herself to our cause? We consulted LILYVAC: oui. Très très interesting! He affirmed the importance of our keeping her Dusted and stashed until she comes to term; also the usefulness of an experienced keeper like prelapsarian Comrade Merope. We would be interested to know that that once-dear faithless friend – having forsworn us as it were 1st with Rodriguez from CCNY, then with himself our (foster) brother, and then with R. Prinz – had like Peter at cockcrow so to speak recognized and begun to repent of her triple erreur: he M.C. had reason to believe she was about to abandon Prinz and petition us to let her come again to Comalot!

Ah so? Indeed, it was his opinion that Margana’s apostasy was loyalty camouflaged, a necessary cover for her infiltration of the Remobilization Farm and the Prinz-Mensch operation, both of which could be expected to have their share of counterrevolutionary anti-Bonapartists mimicking friends of la Deuxième R. N’est-ce pas? A word to the wise? In any case he knew that we knew that apparent allies may be obstacles if not actual enemies, e.g. Todd Andrews of the Tidewater Foundation, who might have to be removed as the Doctor hélas had had to be from the Remobilization Farm, a base of operations no longer necessary to us, and whose pro tem director, Morgan, had failed to develop as Casteene had hoped when he tapped him for our cause. Got all that, Ma, Da? He was beginning to have his doubts even about young Comrade Mack, who after all had never replied to ours of 5/13 see RESET And surely the reverse was equally true: none knew better than he the painful apparent treasons people in his profession must commit in the name of loyalty and vice versa viz. his relations with his son now lost and peut-être our (true) parents’ with us.

Whereof we spoke with the full confidentiality of (foster) brothers in arms. He would combine, he vowed, his search for his missing son with a search for news of you; mais he bid us consider, as we were (foster) siblings, the lamentable pattern of his line, wherein each generation made allies with its grandparents against its parents. Not to suggest et cet. but we had after all a common grandmother in Princess Kyuhaha Bray of the Tuscaroras, wife of Andrew Burlingame Cook V in the paleface record books and consort of Charles Joseph Bonaparte in the eyes of God and the Iroquois during that gentleman’s RESET Only a suggestion, Rex. He invited us to fly down to Bloodsworth Island the following week to observe and advise upon certain rehearsals for the 2nd Revolution in its military-media aspect to be carried out down there under pretext of filming sequences for the Prinz-Mensch project. We would confer further and have another look at Merope/Margana, non? By way of auf Wiedersehen he chipped in a few 7’s for LILYVAC Days of week Liberal arts Ages of man (Shakespeare) Tones of diatonic scale Orifices of (male human) body Colors of rainbow Seas. Muchas gracias (foster) frère! Happy St. Helena’s Day!

Hum! Hum! We spent the week hard at it with LILYVAC Months of Apollo’s gestation & of Leto’s flight from Hera’s Python Letters exchanged between Abelard & Héloïse not counting “Calamities of Abelard” Years of 3rd phase of War of Austrian Succession 1756-63 Weeks of Austro-Prussian War 1866 Gasterocheires Consonants of Hawaiian alphabet. We also considered what he’d bid us consider, monitored Regina de Nominatrix so far so good she was able now to do chores between Dustings, and reflected upon Elba & St. Helena, 1st & 2nd Exiles & Returns. For he had also invoked, our (f.) frère, another link between us, which he promised to illumine further on Bloodsworth Island: the heroical efforts of one of his ancestors on behalf of the noblest of ours on the island named for the saint on whose day we conversed. Ought we, we wondered, to consider a 2nd Exile of our own, once LIL was reprogrammed, to re-return at the Phi-point 6 et cet. for the Golden Age?

R.S.V.P.! No reply. Ma! Da!

The events of 8/24 & 25 confirm this prospect. M. le Baron C. assures us that he is more and more confident of funding for our 7-Year Plan, as yet unnamed. We are considering the neutralization of both Todd Andrews and Drew Mack, and preparing Merope for return to Comalot. By way of an exercise in turning our adversaries’ strengths to our RESET He arranged a U.S. Navy aerial target practice against “D.C.,” pointing out to us that we could as readily have used it to eliminate e.g. T.A. & D.M., and might in future. In the same exercise we took advantage of Merope’s disillusionment with obsolescent media and their representatives to approach her confidentially re the prospect of recoming to Comalot as Chief Programmer no sex no housework Bea G. to do all that between Honey-Dustings, and we were pleased to hear in her scream something tentative, a camouflaged Maybe. Finally, at our () brother’s suggestion we took the opportunity to re-rehearse the apotheosis foreshadowed by the Great Magazine Explosion: an entire success. From Merope we proceeded alone into the marsh during the aforementioned night-firing exercise, made a practice lift-off in the Prohibited Area that our ancestor would be proud of, eluded without difficulty the navy search party by mimicking 1 of its members, and surprised M. Casteene himself by appearing in his study next noon i.e. yesterday M 8/25 ☽ in perigee Swallows leave North country Kopechne exhumation doubtful as he was himself in mid-metamorphosis ha ha! Dialogue. Ha ha, he ejaculated, caught me there, didn’t you, mon semblable mon RESET Well well things are moving très swiftly indeed Do you think you can wind up LILYVAC’s reprogramming by the autumnal equinox Here are a few more I just thought of Continents Hills of Rome Sleepers of Ephesus Wonders of world Lamps of architecture (Ruskin) Voyages of Sinbad Snow White’s dwarfs. How in the world did you ever et cet. & can you possibly make it to our final rehearsal at Fort McHenry Baltimore Harbor 9/13 sharp. Narrative. His own intention he declared was to issue between now and then an ultimatum to his son: Appear as my ally or be regarded as mein enemy! Perhaps we should do likewise with our parents and, faute de reply, look beyond them for our (true) derivation, as he perhaps would be obliged to look past his son to his (unborn) grandchildren as the (true) heirs of the unfinished business of the 2nd Revolution Au revoir &: don’t forget to provide him with a full report on our ascension and evasion tactics out there in the marsh quite a trick et cet. In return he would see to Merope’s recoming at least for a few (trial) shining RESET But keep her off the Honey Dust and Bea on it, d’accord?

Done. Bea/Regina reports that 1 of T.A.‘s operatives came snooping about in my absence but she was between Dustings and able to handle him, no sweat. LILYVAC confirms. Hum! Urge you send Margana soonest so that we can Dust & stash Queen B. till term, complete repair of language circuits, finish reprogramming by equinox.

Last call, Ma, Da!AF*ØAppear as our ally or RESET Your loving son 10 2 a.k.a. Rex Numerator cc: MC

H: Ambrose Mensch to Yours Truly. His final such letter: the plan of his abandoned Perseus story, conformed to the plan of his own life.

Lord Amherst Motor Hotel

5000 Main Street

Buffalo, New York 14226

Monday 8/4/69

TO:

Yours Truly

FROM:

The Once & Future Ambrose Mensch, lately “Arthur Morton King,” Whom It Ceases to Concern

RE:

Your letter to me of May 12, 1940

Y:

Hello and good-bye. Inasmuch as in the course of

I. My life’s First Cycle

A. On Carl Jung’s 94th birthday (6/26/69) our friend Magda Giulianova underwent uterine surgery. By her own account, a hysterectomy.

B. Fitzroy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan, mythologist and descendant of the Crimean War field marshal after whom the raglan sleeve, analyzed the biography of the typical mythic hero into 22 several events or features, to wit:

1. The hero’s mother is a royal virgin;

2. His father is a king, and

3. Often a near relative of his mother, but

4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and

5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god.

6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grandfather, to kill him, but

7. He is spirited away, and

8. Reared by foster parents in a far country.

9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but

10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future kingdom.

11. After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,

12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and

13. Becomes king.

14. For a time he reigns uneventfully, and

15. Prescribes laws, but

16. Later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and

17. Is driven from the throne and the city, after which

18. He meets with a mysterious death,

19. Often at the top of a hill.

20. His children, if any, do not succeed him.

21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless

22. He has one or more holy sepulchers.*

C. Joseph Campbell, mythologist and comparative religionist, drawing upon Lord Raglan’s analysis and the theories of Carl Jung, arranged these events into a cycle of 9 (or 23) several events or features, thus: †

D. I, whom these matters have long and obsessively concerned, find such divisions, while illuminating, as finally arguable as the measurement of an irregular coastline (Bertrand Russell’s example). Is the perimeter of Bloodsworth Island 10 miles? 100 miles? 1,000 miles? The answer depends upon how much particularity one ignores: the larger and smaller coves (Okahanikan, Tigs, Pone); the larger and smaller creeks (Long, Muddy, Fin); the bights and bends; the several points and spits that grow and shrink with the tide; the individual tussocks, hummocks, and fingers of each of these; the separate spartina stalks, oyster shells, and sand grains that comprise them, themselves irregular down past their molecules to the limits of definition. The coastline of Bloodsworth Island is infinite!

Likewise the itemization of, say, Perseus’s career, which I can as reasonably divide into 2, 8, 28, or 49 coordinate parts as into Campbell’s 9 or Raglan’s 22. Many of the 49, even, in my tidy 7x7 diagram thereof (which never mind), could be separated further or combined with their neighbors. Ought its items C5, C6, and C7, for example (Espial of Andromeda on Cliff at Joppa, Slaying of Sea Monster, Marriage to Andromeda), to be a single item (Rescue and Marriage)? Or ought its C7 to be divided into Rivalry with Phineus, Wedding Feast, Battle in the Banquet Hall, etc.?

All which considerations are but homely reminders of what mystics and logicians know (and mythic heroes at the Axis Mundi): that our concepts, categories, and classifications are ours, not the World’s, and are as finally arbitrary as they are provisionally useful. Including, to be sure, the distinction between ours and the World’s.

E. If therefore, for formal elegance, I divide the story of Perseus the Golden Destroyer first into 2 “cycles” (e.g., I: The official myth; II: My projected fiction about his later adventures: his midlife crisis and its resolution); and if I further divide each of those cycles into, say, 7 parts or stages, of which the 6th in each case is the climax; and if I still further divide each of those climactic 6th stages into 7 parts, of which ditto, my division will be about as defensible as those of Lord R. & Co.

F. Such an analysis might give us, for example,

1. In the First Cycle, like scenes in a mural,

I. The official myth

A. Perseus’s conception in Argos upon virgin Danaë in the brass contraceptive tower, by Zeus in the form of a shower of gold.

B. His rescue, with Mother Danaë, from the brassbound box in which his maternal grandfather has set them adrift in order to escape the usual oracle: grand-infanticide or grand-parricide.