103

I Gather the Limbs of Osiris

without hesitation, his next words were, “You’re sick!”
– Gary Larson, The Prehistory of the Far Side.


You start with a simple numerical sequence: 1, 2, 3, 4 keyed (approximately, not precisely – given the prevalence of taping-over) to accession date. The details are then transcribed into a little brown notebook for reference. But there grow, inevitably, to be more and more of them: films, mini-series, documentaries – some on the ends of tapes, others in the middle – so the need for a more case-sensitive index becomes apparent.

A computer data-base is the next attempt, the fields being:

Title: Gallowglass
Author: Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell)
Producer / Director: Tim Fywell / Phillippa Giles
Cast: Michael Shean, Paul Rhys, Arkie Whiteley
Description: Drama Serial
Date: UK, 1992
Taped: 23/10-6/11/94
Timing: 3 50-minute episodes
Classification: 209

With this, an alphabetical list can be generated, keyed to one (or all) of these headings. Tapes become worn, however. As you watch Groundhog Day for the fiftieth time, strange blips of light begin to appear in the sky – repetition-compulsion spreading beyond the screen. Certain phrases stand out: “Flashes of lightning showed hogs feeding on the ungathered dead,” in episode two of The Civil War; or the scene in Edge of Darkness where Craven stops his car on the rainy motorway and weeps for his (irradiated) dead daughter: “Emma sleeps on top – Mummy sleeps on the bottom,” counterpointed perfectly, poignantly by the heavy traffic coursing by.

‘O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!’ ‘What a treasure had he, my lord?’ ‘Why – one fair daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well …’

GO ON

OVER

106

Magus

Towards dawn sleep was at length possible. A man whom he did not recognize came to Genji in a dream.

“The court summons you.” He seemed to be reaching for Genji. “Why do you not go?”
– Lady Murasaki, Genji Monogatari


G. B. He was Giordano Bruno. And what does that mean? It means the fire. First, though, the river-journey. Orsù, disse il Nolano, andiamo e preghiamo Dio, che ne faccia accompagnare in questa sera oscura, a sì lungo Camino, per sì poco sicure strade. “Let’s go, then,” said the man from Nola, “though God help us on such a long journey, over such treacherous roads, through such a dark night.”

The city is a hermetic jewel
built of correspondences
looking through George Court’s
grille
no nothing

As the bus draws up at your central city stop, people begin to queue for it, a line stretching down the street. You are perhaps third or fourth among them. A blonde girl attempts to make her way into the queue from the opposite direction. She turns and gives you a ravishing smile as you stand back to let her in. She looks unsurprised, as if considering it her due, and yet the pure beauty, the simplicity of the gesture moves you strangely, seems to say something beyond itself. Il Nolano, il quale ha studiato ed ha pratticato ne le scuole più che noi, disse: – Mi par veder un porco passaggio; però seguitate a me. The Nolan, who had studied far more than any of us, said: – I think I see a way, a dirty way through; follow me, chaps.

Silence is a good thing
moving against the sky
(… never went to see
that Roger Hall comedy)

A drunk climbs onto the bus, with a large jingling package which he lays lovingly on the seat in front of him. “Don’t touch my iddle bibby baby’s bottle,” he announces to all of you. He loved a woman once, he confides, but she would have none of him. “I told her: ‘I’d like to get into your pants,’ but she said: “fuck off, you old bastard, you’ll never get into my pants.’ But then one day I saw her washing out on the line, so I went over and took a pair of her panties and put