Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy Part 19

But two nights later she opened in another Off-Off-Off Broadway, Hiros.h.i.+ma Werewolf Hiros.h.i.+ma Werewolf, and one critic described her as having "a special childlike quality reminiscent of Monroe." She felt a wave of vertigo on reading that: If the doctor and the critic were not in cahoots to drive her over the edge, then those words were the most sinister kind of synchronicity. But she maintained her cool.

Now she had a G.o.dd.a.m.ned loa loa on top of everything else. on top of everything else.

She maintained.

And Justin Case, deeper asleep, dapper as loop, was just waltzing along Owld Broadway with Judge Wis.h.i.+ngdone, past Punker Hall, and there was a patchy fog and a zoo city zoo, one nixson and a vegetable. And he was blowin to adams and tilling the tyler, Don Judge Lincoln, mercurial and zany and hoppy, that high on the thigh-angle of him, cruising the dollarwars and until he was caught with Topsy! in the barn!! on the farce of youlie!!! No martha! that's jokeson's guile for you, toomsayer.

But they were in the cherrytreeattric warld, an honest ape, he couldna tell a phone. One nukied individual, with Ma in her gurdjef and Pop in the easel, to the republic for witch's hands, by the Donzerly Light. And who comes up but Indrarambam and Rashowsunnier and s.h.i.+vabull, loads and toads of them, forty of them, with their fords and hords and their gauchos and cheekos and jumbos and harpoons inem (corpus whalem!) asking about the launches and donors and the thousand and ninety things they ask, irking and rooking and snooping, prying and preying, forty of them, all buyers cotter, infernal reamin you sodage, doubt's eternal fact, by all Chinatown howdials.

Justin moans in his sleep as the Iranian Rastuys s.h.i.+tes close in on him.

"Papa Legba, Papa Legba, Papa Legba," Joe Malik chants along with Carol Christmas, while the astral/ electrical/prajna/orgone/psionic/bioplasmic/odyle energy, or the Power of Imagination, in the room continues to escalate toward quantum wobble. Joe Malik chants along with Carol Christmas, while the astral/ electrical/prajna/orgone/psionic/bioplasmic/odyle energy, or the Power of Imagination, in the room continues to escalate toward quantum wobble.

Papa Legba was the Opener of the window, according to the Santaria Santaria metaphor. Like Maxwell's Demon, he could increase or decrease entropy at whim, and take you into alternative eigenstates. He was the Boss Honcho on the astral metaphor. Like Maxwell's Demon, he could increase or decrease entropy at whim, and take you into alternative eigenstates. He was the Boss Honcho on the astral potentia potentia level, the alpha male of the pack. He'd kick the a.s.s of any level, the alpha male of the pack. He'd kick the a.s.s of any loa loa intruding on his good friends, and Carol had learned to be one of his very good friends since living with Hugo de Naranja. intruding on his good friends, and Carol had learned to be one of his very good friends since living with Hugo de Naranja.

Joe Malik didn't know from Papa Legba, but he understood the exorcism in his own terms. Papa Legba was the guise in which Thoth, that master Quick Change Artist, appeared in the Santaria Santaria or or Voudon Voudon game. Joe knew about Thoth from Hagbard Celine, who always employed the Cabalistic/Golden Dawn metaprograms when attempting quantum alterations in the fabric of reality. Thoth commandered seventy-eight servitors, each one encoded in his Book of Signals to mankind, ordinarily known as the Tarot deck. Each Tarot card was synchronistic with a different quantum game. Joe knew about Thoth from Hagbard Celine, who always employed the Cabalistic/Golden Dawn metaprograms when attempting quantum alterations in the fabric of reality. Thoth commandered seventy-eight servitors, each one encoded in his Book of Signals to mankind, ordinarily known as the Tarot deck. Each Tarot card was synchronistic with a different quantum eigenvalue eigenvalue and the arrangement of the cards, when shuffled at random, revealed the Hidden Variable causing the "acausal" quantum jump to the next reality-mesh. and the arrangement of the cards, when shuffled at random, revealed the Hidden Variable causing the "acausal" quantum jump to the next reality-mesh.

Malik the Skeptic tended to regard that explanation as pseudoscientific balderdash, but Malik the Shaman found it useful as a working hypothesis when critters like Chronozon went b.u.mp in the night.

"Zeno of Elias on the other hand my dear reminds us that before the brick can ever hit Krazy it must first travel half of the distance from Ignatz's paw to Krazy's head, but before it can do that it must cover half of that that distance that is to say a quarter of the original distance ..." distance that is to say a quarter of the original distance ..."

THE FETUS PEOPLE.

John Disk had originally become involved in morality and ideology due to the Fetus People, as p.u.s.s.ycat p.u.s.s.ycat genially labeled the antiabortion movement of the 1970s. The Fetus People did not like this description; they called themselves the Right to Life Committee. genially labeled the antiabortion movement of the 1970s. The Fetus People did not like this description; they called themselves the Right to Life Committee.

Disk was in his teens then and had the usual hormones flowing through his adolescent primate body. He thought he was continually tormented by sinful desires, not understanding the role of testosterone in p.u.b.escent primates.

He was a member of the True Roman Catholic Church, a splinter group formed after Vatican II had taken the main body of the Romish religion off into heresy and modernism. The members were survivors of the Irish-American fascism that had once rallied behind Father Coughlin, Father Feeney, and Senator Joe McCarthy. They regarded the English Ma.s.s as being almost as sacrilegious as abortion and Social Security as only one step from Stalinism.

The Fetus People or the Right to Life Committee was an amalgamation of True Roman Catholics with the kind of Fundamentalists Protestants seldom seen north of Bad a.s.s, Texas. They were, like all primate ideologists and moralists, chiefly concerned with finding no-good s.h.i.+ts no-good s.h.i.+ts and and dumping dumping on them. on them.

They believed the abortionists were in league with all the other no-good s.h.i.+ts, including the Rockefellers, the international Communist s.e.x educators, life-extension researchers, cattle mutilators, NASA, and the intergalactic Black Magicians of the Illuminati, under the leaders.h.i.+p of the infamous Cagliostro the Great.

They also believed that the Unistat government had never waged an unjust war, that the hair of the seventh son of a seventh son cures warts, and most of what they read in Readers Digest. Readers Digest.

By 1982 the legal struggles over abortion were over and the whole issue seemed as remote as the War of the Roses. This was because a 100 percent effective morning-after morning-after contraceptive had been on the market since 1980 and had proven so effective that requests for abortions had dwindled to virtually zero. contraceptive had been on the market since 1980 and had proven so effective that requests for abortions had dwindled to virtually zero.

By 1983 the economic demand for abortions was about as microscopic as the demand for buggy whips in 1923, after every town in Unistat had switched from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles. Another quantum jump in sociology had occurred.

Actually, the morning-after pill was a chemical abortifacient, as any biochemist knew. The biochemists never talked about this in public, since they were all agnostic liberals and it was against their principles to either lie by denying the facts or to help the Fetus People by telling the truth.

As a result of this policy by the biochemists only a handful of the Fetus People turned their attack against the pill when abortion was no longer a live issue. Since the resultant of the morning-after pill was, to the human eye, no different from ordinary menstruation, opposing this seemed exceedingly eccentric even for Fetus People.

The majority of the Fetus People, deprived of their raison d'etre raison d'etre, began splitting amoebalike into factions and subfactions.

Some few of them, who had really been concerned with the rights of the unborn, became concerned at last with the rights of the born and launched new groups to oppose the surviving vestiges of war, capital punishment, or poverty in backward parts of the planet.

The majority, who had been mainly preoccupied with finding no-good s.h.i.+ts and dumping on them, joined organizations like NOODLE (National Organization Organized for Decent Literature and Entertainment) or the First Bank of Religiosophy.

John Disk drifted into White Heroes Opposing Red Extremism, a group mostly concerned with combating parapsychology, psychics, UFO demons, s.e.x educators, cattle mutilators, and, of course, the loathsome Cagliostro the Great.

ROSENFELT HAS DESTROYED ME.

In 1941 the Carter Brothers Carnival played Xenia, Ohio, and some students from Antioch College tried to throw Cagliostro a whammy with a dragon-headed j.a.panese condom. His handling of that challenge aroused the admiration and awe of old carny hands; and they were even more amazed by his friends.h.i.+p with Rambo, the lion.

Sandoz, the lion tamer, in particular, was astonished at Cagliostro's ability to sit for hours in the cage, he and the lion staring into each other's eyes like lovers.

"Are you hypnotizing him?" Sandoz asked once.

"Not at all," Cagliostro said, laughing. "He's hypnotizing me. me. Or maybe we're just learning to get outside our own skins. That's what life is all about, you know-making windows, breaking out of every box ..." Or maybe we're just learning to get outside our own skins. That's what life is all about, you know-making windows, breaking out of every box ..."

The failure of the students to shake up Cagliostro led a few professors to come over and try various scientific devices not likely to be included in any standard verbal code. He placidly identified rheostats, Wheatstone bridges, pH meters, Bunsen burners, and even a gyroscope. The next night they were back with a chemical formula never before synthesized.

"Are you presently able to see the particular object that I have been given at this time?" the girl asked.

And the blindfolded Cagliostro replied calmly, "A test tube. With some blue liquid in it. A copper sulphate compound."

"That's a d.a.m.ned d.a.m.ned good code," the professors agreed, more fervently this time, as they drove back to Antioch. good code," the professors agreed, more fervently this time, as they drove back to Antioch.

(There's no hope of salvaging anything-the suicide note had said-and you're going to have to make it on your own, just like I did. Rosenfelt has destroyed me and he'll destroy free enterprise.) The carnival was in Biloxi, Mississippi, that winter, and Cagliostro was trying his new gig, combining Houdini-style escapes with his mentalism act. He had been locked in a trunk, and the local police cooperatively used their best padlocks to secure the chains. He settled down to slow, regular yoga breathing-the escape actually took only a few minutes, but he was following Houdini's formula that the audience was more impressed if they had to wait a half hour for the miracle. The yoga conserved the oxygen in the trunk against any possibility that panic, toward the end, might force him into rapid breathing. He timed the breaths against a slow AUMMMMMM, his mind drifted back to Park Avenue and a black maid whose framed picture of a Catholic-looking Jesus sometimes in certain lights seemed to have horns, and he relaxed his hands and feet (there can be no muscle tension in the torso if the extremities are totally limp), bringing her face back clearly, and he heard a voice shouting, "We're at war! The j.a.panese went and bombed some place called Pearl Harbor in Honolulu!"

Cagliostro was always carrying around a book called h.o.m.o Ludens h.o.m.o Ludens in those days. in those days.

"Is that about f.a.ggots?" Sandoz asked him once.

Cagliostro laughed. "No," he said. "It's Latin. It means ... uh, you know it's hard to translate ... Man the Game Player Man the Game Player, I suppose."

Sandoz grinned. "You can learn all about that just by watching the marks," he said. "I been a carny d.a.m.n near twenty years now and I swear from the things I seen, you could sit down with a blackjack table and a sign saying 'THIS GAME IS CROOKED,' and half the marks would still sit down opposite you and try to beat you. A mark wants to lose," wants to lose," he concluded profoundly, almost with anger. he concluded profoundly, almost with anger.

"No," Cagliostro said. "The mark wants to be hypnotized. He wants to enter the world of magic, with mirrors and blue smoke and s.h.i.+fting shapes, and he's willing to be swindled, just to have a glimpse of that world."

"Is that what that book says?" Sandoz asked.

"More or less," Cagliostro said. "In sociological jargon."

JUMPED BY JESUS.

DECEMBER 24, 1983:.

Mary Margaret Wildeblood still couldn't get to sleep, and The Search for the Historical Vlad The Search for the Historical Vlad was pishposh. She got out of bed and padded over to the desk to glance at the latest volumes that had arrived for review. was pishposh. She got out of bed and padded over to the desk to glance at the latest volumes that had arrived for review.

FROM CALIGARI TO VLAD.

Another pretentious volume of neo-Freudian film criticism by George Dorn, obviously cas.h.i.+ng in on the current fad. Rot.

THE RADICAL EPISTEMOLOGY OF SMOKEY STOVER.

Hmm? Marshall McLuhan again. Try a page: and the Notary Sojac sign, communicating much by its very inscrutability, is not alphabetical but ideogrammic, bringing tribal mystery to the electronic continuum, just as Chief Cash U. Nutt, true shaman that he is Fiddlefaddle. What else have we got?

IN THE CASTLE OF VLAD.

Somebody else ripping off Marvin Gardens.

CONTEMPORARIES OF VLAD.

I smell a fad in the making.

PATTERNS OF FASCIST ART.

Who's being dissected? Wagner, Pound, Celine, Riefenstahl, Vonnegut ... Vonnegut? Vonnegut? Oh: It's by Kate Millett. Oh: It's by Kate Millett.

JACKIE DID IT!.

The latest Kennedy a.s.sa.s.sination expose. Bosh.

I AWAIT HIS RETURN.

By who? Rebecca Goodman. Didn't she write that anthropology book a few years back, Golden Apples of Golden Apples of something? What this time? Hm. Had her husband cryonically frozen at death. Hm. something? What this time? Hm. Had her husband cryonically frozen at death. Hm.

Well, let's see. Millett, I guess.

Beneath the veneer of chic liberalism, Vonnegut's s.e.xist prejudice reveals hm skip a bit hm skip a bit refusal to recognize dialectic of capitalist refusal to recognize dialectic of capitalist blah blah blah blah blah blah a really sinister note enters with the chauvinist caricature of Montana Wildstack a really sinister note enters with the chauvinist caricature of Montana Wildstack blah blah blah blah beneath the sentimentality a ruthless determination to subjugate and humiliate women beneath the sentimentality a ruthless determination to subjugate and humiliate women Mary Margaret realized that she was getting h.o.r.n.y again; any reference to subjugation and humiliation was likely to trigger that response in her. She stealthily removed the vibrator from the bureau drawer again, climbed back into bed with Patterns of Fascist Art Patterns of Fascist Art, and then remembered a little bit of has.h.i.+sh left in the living room.

"Perhaps a diagram would help," Blake Williams said, getting a sketchpad and drawing rapidly: [image]

"This is ordinary causality, as we usually experience it," he said, as Natalie stifled a yawn. "A causes B, which causes C, and so on. I go to Wildeblood's party at A, and meet you, and we come here to B, and we discuss Krazy Kat at C, which leads to Schrodinger's Cat at D. Got it?"

"Yeah, the Gutenberg fix; the linear mode, as McLuhan calls it...."

"Right you are. Now quantum causality, before the appearance of the epiphenomena of s.p.a.ce and time, functions entirely differently if we trust Bell's Theorem. It looks more like this." And Williams sketches rapidly: [image]

"A 'causes' B, C, D, and E, but B also 'causes' A, C, D, and E, and C 'causes' A, B, D, and E ... and so on. Got it ...? All before the appearance of the s.p.a.ce-time manifold."

"You mean it works everywhichway in time ..."

"No, it happens before time itself appears along with s.p.a.ce as a by-product of the quantum mesh...."

Brrrzzzzzzmmmmbrz the vibrator purrs along as Mary Margaret surrenders again to Him (to Him!) starting to compose a poem almost "Crush me in your Dionysian biceps, Jesus Lord" but that was perhaps a bit too Hopkins and the reality of it was beyond poetry (heresy: she could never admit that in literary circles) but the thrust and the purr and the agony and the ecstasy of it Lord Lord lord because she was remembering an old Sufi proverb about the three stages of the Path which were "Lord, use me" and then "Lord, use me but don't break me" and then "Lord, I don't care if you break me"

and He was breaking her smas.h.i.+ng her annihilating her the Great Magician of the Tarot naked on the bed as She rammed hir c.o.c.k up his a.s.s

I AM CONFUSED.

To be is to be related.-Ca.s.sIUS KEYSER, Thinking About Thinking Thinking About Thinking DECEMBER 24, 1983:.

"So that the brick never moves, logically," Williams says.

"Yeah I had that in a cla.s.s at the New School, 'Paradox and Personality,' it's based on you know Relativistic Ego Therapy, we're all Empedoclean concepts in social topology." Natalie actually had received an A for the course.

"In territorial territorial topology my dear I um invented Relativ topology my dear I um invented Relativists Ego Therapy," Williams says, meaning: Ego Therapy," Williams says, meaning: 7 7 created the course. created the course.

"You're that that Professor Williams my G.o.d you're famous at the new School." Natalie was impressed. Professor Williams my G.o.d you're famous at the new School." Natalie was impressed.

"And at Esalen um yes my dear but to the world at large-" Williams demurs.

"Thank G.o.d I'm an atheist," Joe Malik said fervently. "If I considered for even a moment for even a microsecond that the pretense pretense of a demon might be functionally equivalent to the of a demon might be functionally equivalent to the presence presence of a demon ... Just change the of a demon ... Just change the t t to an to an s ..." s ..."

But Marvin abandons the Britannica Britannica (never find what you really want in there) and undressing for bed fumbles at the radio for something bearable, only to hear (never find what you really want in there) and undressing for bed fumbles at the radio for something bearable, only to hear I'm in love with Vlad the ImpalerWith Hitler and Nixon and Ahab the Whaler He quickly turns the dial (after a moment of pride at new-won fame and wincing at the cacophony of The Civic Monster), finding a cla.s.sical station the end of the Ninth Ninth all those heavenly choirs singringinging at the Omega Point over a century before science discovered it (always read Nietzsche and listen to Ludwig, was one of his adages, for the long-range evolutionary perspective), pops a downer to take the edge off the c.o.ke jitters before they come, and slips under the covers remembering Linda's mouth two inches four inches six inches nine G.o.dd.a.m.ned inches gorgeous splat splat splat always splitting but always one, is it really? as Ludwig answers yes I will yes all those heavenly choirs singringinging at the Omega Point over a century before science discovered it (always read Nietzsche and listen to Ludwig, was one of his adages, for the long-range evolutionary perspective), pops a downer to take the edge off the c.o.ke jitters before they come, and slips under the covers remembering Linda's mouth two inches four inches six inches nine G.o.dd.a.m.ned inches gorgeous splat splat splat always splitting but always one, is it really? as Ludwig answers yes I will yes I never died said he "But the crowning insult to our simple-minded realism comes, of course, from our friends the physicists," Williams explains. "If Krazy is Schrodinger's Cat in the famous demonstration then my dear then then we are really up the ontological creek without a paddle because when the brick is hurled she may be in any of several eigenstates, several mathematical probability matrices, in some of which the brick will certainly hit her and in some of which it will not." we are really up the ontological creek without a paddle because when the brick is hurled she may be in any of several eigenstates, several mathematical probability matrices, in some of which the brick will certainly hit her and in some of which it will not."

"Oh, wow."

"Wow, indeed. To paraphrase Descartes: 'I think; therefore, I am confused.'"

ESCAPISM.

The first fame of Cagliostro began while he was touring with the U.S.O. during the war. He had entirely abandoned mentalism by then and his act depended entirely on escaping from everything the M.P.'s could devise to restrain him.

Variety called him "the new Houdini" in 1945, just a few months before Hiros.h.i.+ma. called him "the new Houdini" in 1945, just a few months before Hiros.h.i.+ma.

His first arrest occurred in the fall of that year, possession of marijuana, the charges dismissed without a trial. (His agent's connections, the Crane family lawyer, the fact that the Crane fortune had not been wiped out entirely entirely when o.r.g.a.s.mOR dropped to the bottom of the Big Board, and judicious oiling of what Show Biz and underworld people call "tin mittens"-officials on the take-contributed to this happy consummation.) He was one of the first guests on when o.r.g.a.s.mOR dropped to the bottom of the Big Board, and judicious oiling of what Show Biz and underworld people call "tin mittens"-officials on the take-contributed to this happy consummation.) He was one of the first guests on The Ed Sullivan Show The Ed Sullivan Show, but was never asked to return due to a 1948 "morals" arrest: the girl was quite young and an "act against nature" was alleged. Once again, money changed hands and there was no trial.

His career was mostly "in the clubs" after that; Hollywood and TV were both in one of their chronic contractions of cowardice at the end of the decade.

A second morals arrest, followed rapidly by a second pot bust, made him a little too hot for most club owners. Still-the crowds turned out wherever he appeared. The mob decided to set immediate money against caution, and he was allowed to go on working. Until his disastrous appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1950.

"You're not not a Communist, you hardly a Communist, you hardly know know any Communists, you could have sung like a bird without hurting yourself," his agent said afterward. "Why did you have to do it, baby?" any Communists, you could have sung like a bird without hurting yourself," his agent said afterward. "Why did you have to do it, baby?"

"Listen," Crane said angrily. "Do you think I can get out of a f.u.c.king set of Junior G-Man handcuffs Junior G-Man handcuffs if I let one single jot of fear get into my head? You don't understand. I can't let anything scare me-especially not s.h.i.+t-heads like them." if I let one single jot of fear get into my head? You don't understand. I can't let anything scare me-especially not s.h.i.+t-heads like them."

"It's your own funeral," the agent replied glumly. "I'll tell you the plain and varnished facts. You're gonna end up like Chaplin. Two s.e.x scandals, two drug scandals, and now this. You're gonna end up worse than Chaplin. You're box-office poison, baby. From this day forward."

THE HEAD REVOLUTION.

GALACTIC ARCHIVES:.

Although the HEAD Revolution transformed the Terran primates at the time of this ancient Romance, n.o.body knows when it actually began. Some trace it to certain Alchemical cults of the early Dark Ages; some say it did not properly start as an organized movement until neuropharmacology began to replace old-fas.h.i.+oned "psychology" in the late Dark Ages (i.e. (i.e., just before the time of this epic novel); some try to find its origins in primitive shamanism and yoga.