djw@lanl.ARPA (08/16/85)
Back in the late 50's I read a book that has heavily influenced my behavour
since. I'm not talking about the general stuff that everyone remembers;
I mean something personal, overwhelming, and helpful. I wonder if it would
be possible to have people who have such feelings towards a particular
book; give a review - tell what the book did to/for you. I actually have
two or three such pivotal works, but I thought I'ld start things off with
one by a man whose own generation spurned him and my generation overlooked
him but his works won't die.
The Journal of Albion Moonlight
_______________________________
by Kenneth Patchen
Copyright 1941
First published as New Directions Paperbook No. 99, 1961
New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin by
New Directions Publishing Corporation.
333 Sixth Avenue, New York 10014.
The book begins with images that were so incomprehensible to me that I had
to keep going to try to understand what was happening.
==============
May 2 The angel lay in a little thicket. It had no need of love;
there was nothing anywhere in the world could startle it--we can
lie here with the angel if we like; it couldn't have hurt much when
they slit its throat.
==============
I had read Ginsberg, Ferlingetti, and William Carlos Williams;
I thought I understood some of their ideas. But I had not yet been led
through Kenneth Patchen's rendition of a trip from the east coast to
the west with other "Beats" and some drugs during the days before America
joined in the Second World War.
I was quickly ensnared in Patchen's search for "roivas". Perhaps because
I was searching for a "savior" of my own just then... Doesn't everyone
do that when they are starting college? But his style, the way he told
simple story that wove me a new reality, all these things enthralled
me.
Fifteen years later I had my copy Hardbound ( it was only published in
paperback ) and loaned it to some friends who were about the age I was
when I first read the book. They had the same reaction I did! I was
surprised because these people hadn't been born until more than ten
years after WW II. They had never heard of "Beatniks" and certainly
hadn't listened to the records of poets reading to jazz. Ginsberg
still had a certain following because of his tie-in with Timothy Leary
and San Francisco; besides, they had seen him on The Today Show in the
mornings. These friends even went so far as to order some of Patchen's
other works. You've heard of "Memoirs of a Shy Pornographer" and
"Sleepers Awake"? "Memoirs" is in the city library nearest you as you read
this. But they aren't the same type of writing. Patchen was a craftsman,
his simple, direct style captivated you with the speed you could be led
through the mazes he erected.
For instance: the entry for June 22 contains this description ( page 37 and
you still don't know which character is Albion Moonlight's wife ).
=============
I have spent ten years becoming a saint. It was not easy because always the
man I was in got in the way. This man's name is Albion Moonlight. He has
been puzzled by my behavior. I feel that he is nearly dead now. You may
ask how I happen to be in him: I do not know. One day I was there. Since
then the struggle has been great. His wife has been my greatest enemy. I
do not want him to make love to her because it distracts me. Her
passionate nature has caused me great trouble. I cannot warn Moonlight
against this orgy of the flesh: I can only be the warning.
Last night she came into his bed. I made myself powerful.
Moonlight felt my hatred for her and he raised his arm and struck her.
Immediately I whispered, 'We shall be together always.'
That she is plotting against me I know. I have felt her eyes upon
him and IT IS ONLY ME SHE SEES. {* were in italics in text, djw *}
I understand her. It is the man she wants, not what her husband
is: you see, I am her husband now and she does not know how to conduct
herself with a saint. Why should I go to bed with her? My seed is not
for her. I wish to impregnate the world. I hate the man Christ lived in.
How little he understood Him, taking Him to the Cross because the problem
could not be solved. The problem of being a saint.
I have been very careful to make it clear that i am not God. I have
said that Christ was not God but a saint. God is opposed to saints. God
is only the idea of one saint. This idea is not mine. My great idea is
that man does not need God. God needs man for His existence, therefore:
how can there be God? When man perishes, God will perish--from the earth.
A saint is another matter. You will see that I am a better being than God.
I love Christ because He was the most successful saint.
I enjoy myself in Moonlight. I enjoy the books he reads, the
music he hears, the people he sees--I know something of his plan for
killing them. I found myself in him because of Tolstoy. There was place
for me to stand. I told him that Tolstoy was false because he tried to
renounce the world. A man must find the world. Dostoievsky knew what I
mean. He was a happy man: he wrote THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV.
I believe that man is God. It is yourself that you must worship.
There is danger that they will try to kill Moonlight; they are even now
gathering evidence for his guilt--"We accuse you of the willful,
premeditated murder of Chrystle Gambetta." I urge him to get his record
on paper before that sad hour arrives. You are God. I move the pen in
his hand. Worship yourself.
I AM ALBION MOONLIGHT. I DO NOT KNOW THE BEING THAT SAYS THESE
THINGS. I FEAR IT. IT WILL DESTROY ME. IT IS BUT ANOTHER TRICK OF OUR
ENEMIES. MY HEAD IS HEAVY WITH FIGHTING IT.
You can see that my victory is not complete. It is his fear of
me that hurts most. It is his belief in God. He does not understand
the wonder of being a saint. I actually offer him this. The fool prefers
his wife to me. Be quiet now. I am peace. With me all pain will end.
You are afraid because murder has become a commonplace, because your
friends in hating the murder have allowed murder into their hearts. You
are not so much afraid of Hitler as you are of the hatred for Hitler.
What a plaything you have been. It is so easy to be a soldier. Soldiers
are never alone.
===========================================================================
{* end of quote *}
I picked these two at random, I haven't read the book in years but I felt
that Kenneth Patchen deserved some more attention. If you're in San
Francisco; you can buy his books at "City Lights". He was one of the
resident poets of the 50's. And I assume you can get it from New
Directions in New York.
In the entry for August 25
============================================
The bitter voice of a foghorn speaks on the river.
"Albion."
"Huh?"
"What are you thinking of?"
"Nothing. Nothing much. I was only wondering hiw it should happen
that those who are blind can dream exactly as we do."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that dreaming they can see all the images which their
eyes have not seen."
"That is curious."
"Curious? It's religion enough to make a hundred Christs."
============================================
Dave Wade