You know more about the Youngbloods than I do. As bad as Pitman was, they’re all destined to be the villains of my story so don’t count on me for an unbiased account. I never saw the truth of the situation until it was too late. It’s like walking into a bar in the worst part of town and never realizing how much danger you’re in because you’re two sheets to the wind and you need more booze and you want to get out of the cold and you like the sound of that music and it’s only a quarter to midnight. Or maybe you’re willfully blind because you get off on all that tension. If you spend as much time in bars as I did you’re bound to find a justification for your cynicism. Does this sound more credible? After all I’ve been through I think I’ve earned the right to be the hero of my story. What’s the worst thing you can accuse me of - aside from all that fantastic rubbish you’re dumping on me now? That I didn’t care about my country? That I didn’t… resist? What could anyone do at that point? Am I to blame for the death of democracy and the subversion of all our beloved institutions? My apathy was merely a default position. Or is it my indifference to your various household gods and goddesses cluttering the zeitgeist? Is it because I abandoned my family? Take another look at those transcripts from discovery. You know they were well provided for. My conscience is clear on that score. That was important to me. Loralei dragged me through all that shit just for the spite. Or maybe you can’t wrap your head around the idea of some pathetic shmuck rolling over and playing dead? You can’t bear the thought of someone who had it all… and gave it all away.
Those nerve-racking auditions! Shortly after the new addiction was introduced, a gallery of contemptible rogues stood in line for the demonstration, waiting for an opportunity to hear the new sound; to submit to the tone; to find out what it was really like to be as fucked up as Marleau. Yes, the Carnivores DID sample Herder's acoustic prototype, wary of the possible side effects. The Doctor gave them an earful. This servant of Morpheus didn't care one decibel about the problematic symptoms: general fatigue, sleepiness, lethargy, vertigo, nausea, muscle weakness...
Assessing all the risks, Faustus' cautious navigators made a decisive decision: The charming chairman of the bored would continue with their reckless experiment DAILY, hoping for amelioration. Louise Flasser did a pretty good impression of one who might oppose the idea, despite the master's request for accordance. I’ll say that for her.
Herder and Pitman gleefully watched their guinea pig squirm. Licking his lips and chomping at the bit, the floundering father flew solo. I could only pose as one of vengeful Medusa’s improvident victims - with a bug in my ear, Samsonite luggage hanging from my eyes. Pitman was delighted with the results. I could imagine him composing the eulogy in his mind:
"It is with a heavy heart that I inform you that Marleau’s brain has taken a permanent vacation."
"His instability must be carefully monitored throughout the winter."
"This patent will put Faustus on top of the world, Isaac."
"Pending Marleau's survival."
"He seems willing enough. What's the down side?"
"Nobody knows," Herder laughed. (He actually LAUGHED at the idea! I’m not likely to ever forget that.) "We're overriding his reality. Can you imagine how vulnerable he’d be… in such a state?"
"Yes. Yes I can, Doctor. We must do all we can... to help him."
And now it's oh so incredibly satisfying to know that everything I imagined they were saying behind my back was pretty damn close to the actual conversation.
These triquetrous usurpers amended me ever so increMENTALLY. As you can see, I knew what was happening. I heard their low mutterings. No one had to twist my arm. I was addicted in an instant. My real tormentor, the insensible golem of the cerebral cathedral, could only be thwarted when the cochlea was regulated by the computer, in conjunction with the tacit chimera, hand-crafted by suffering artisans like Louise Flasser and Mark Damon.
The Eden Program was restricted to a two-hour time limit, seven days a week. Hannah Wieland's security was positively impenetrable. No one could get into the game without her approval.
This was a perilous way to play the lead role. Again and again I would become AdamMarleau, crawling into his skin and getting lost in a labyrinth of my own device. (I guess they gave me that Rock Hudson mask to mess with my sense of identity.) I followed the tumultuous shoreline to the open sea, where the waves kept time while the gulls pecked away at dead fish in the sand. Wandering away from the breakers, I proceeded along the tangled trail into the forest.
First, there was only Nammu, the primeval sea.
Nammu gave birth to Shamash.
Then Nammu created the sky and the earth.
That would be An and Ki.
This coupling resulted in the birth of Enlil.
So now you had the wind, the rain, and the storms.
Enlil separated An from Ki and carried off the earth as his domain, while An carried off the sky.
My paradise was their playing field, always a work in progress. This was essentially a game of Snakes and Ladders.
At long last, a lonely man had been blessed with an agreeable partner. I found her concealed behind a tree, the inevitable serpent coiled around the trunk. This woman was so magnificently constructed - and she obeyed my every command. You can well imagine the warmth of these nights. Never had a male such amenable tail. The role of the henpecked husband was well within my limited range.
Asael - the villain of that level - refused to kowtow to us. He blamed me for all his problems and craved vengeance. (That was supposed to account for the deterioration of judgment.) This blocking agent was easy to beat, once you knew where to find the power-ups.
Cruel interloper! A more potent adversary had been injected into that level to make the game more challenging. I could sense her presence.
There was no moon that guiltless night. Forsaking Eve, I crept deeper into the woods and became hopelessly lost in the thorny brambles - until I heard the night creature summon me with her unique shriek. I found the dark woman in a glowing hollow, an owl perched on the branch above her, flapping its wings wildly. One of the Carnivores had been thoughtful enough to provide me with a toothsome mistress - she of the night, from Semitic legend - and long before that. I immediately surrendered my body to the swarthy succubus. (It would've been impolite to resist her.) Luscious Little Lulu may have been a bloodsucking bitch, but she never let me down. After much rolling and writhing, I heard the owl say:
Go to the Haluppu tree of Inanna.
"That's for me!" I told the other woman. "You must take me to this place."
She shook her head at the idea. "I will never reveal Inanna's secret to you. Go back to sleep."
Then Lulu pulled me down to the ground and buried me beneath the leaves.
Posing as a refugee from a Bosch triptych, I sat dourly in Jimmy Frazer's office, franatically sketching a portrait of the goddess from memory. Frazer examined it objectively, as only he could. The absinth of symmetry troubled the Babylonian buffoon, carving a relief map of Cambodia on his furrowed brow.
"Surely your dream girl enjoys a quick clinch."
"Haven't seen her yet. She's playing hard-to-get. I intend to flush her out of that comfortable brothel by the Euphrates."
"Good luck with that. Many men have tried… and all have failed."
Frazer interpreted the dream. The mystery woman was Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of love and war. She was just another queen of heaven: the governess of Venus, daughter of the sky-god An, or the moon-god Nanna. She belonged to the class of naked goddesses, although she was often shown with bright rays streaming out from her back.
She might have been The Queen of Heaven, for all that
At that juncture, I would've been content with Our Lady of the Immaculate Loo.
They knew her as Ishtar. No man could resist her. Someone (perhaps Frazer himself?) had dropped her name into my program.
"No way, Chris. The Garden is completely sealed off."
Would Frazer lie about something like that? I decided to write a ballad of this dream.
"Ahhh. Sounds like the real thing. What else can I do for you?" he asked.
"Let's create the Inanna File."
"Hmm. This could get very nasty if Isaac finds out."
"Who's in charge around here? I'll groom myself for the Great Mother's approval."
"In anticipation of her arrival?"
"I need her more than Lulu or Eve. What's the gist of the memorandum?"
"She descends to the underworld. In her absence, all procreation ceases on earth. She has many lovers... so you better perform well. Along with the erotic aspect, she has both warlike and astral functions. As ruler of Venus, she is the eight-pointed morning star.
"All men desire her light.... and heat."
"What makes YOU so special?" Frazer wondered.
“Me? I have absolutely nothing to lose.”
NOTES
The first monotheist human, Adam, was likely a god, in the Mesopotamian mythology, just as the Hebrew Genesis reluctantly revealed, and the assertive Quran slightly hinted. Specifically, he was the pre-monotheist, Sumerian god, Idim, who was also called GodEa and many other nicknames over the millenniums.
The names Idim and Adam are even linguistically related, according to early Arabic root words analysis. As a Mesopotamian god, Idim was the creator of the first human, and the father of his immediate generations, as he was sometimes referred to in the ancient literature. He was the preserver of life on earth, and the protector of humans against the evil designs of their, and his arch enemy, GodEnlil, the future monotheist Satan.
The names and roles of these two important divine characters, GodIdim and GodEnlil, were etched too deep in the collective folk memory of the peoples of the greater Mesopotamia and the Near East, to be completely erased by the new monotheist order. The early monotheists had likely eased in their new beliefs to the peoples of the region by incorporating these two second highest ranking gods under the supreme god of heavens, GodAnu (or GodAlu), as new altered divine characters.
The top god, GodAnu, was then given the post-monotheist role of the one and only god, Alhim or Allah, consistent with the key theme of the Monotheist faiths. Several important narrative details involving the events, characters, and roles in the Hebrew Genesis story of Adam must have predated it for many centuries. The story in the Quran omitted much of the details in Genesis, but included a few unique details on its own. However, all of these ancient stories seem to be independent, original stories borrowing only bits and pieces from each other.