Chamblee54

PG read Epiphany, by Dr. Ferrol Sams. He lived, and wrote, the Sambo trilogy. Epiphany is three stories, either novellas or short novels. All deal with listening, and the concept of subject-subject consciousness. While Dr. Sams knows about listening, it is unlikely that he has heard about SSC, at least under that new agey name. This post will have some spoilers, so if you want to read the book, it might be best to skip ahead to the pictures. These pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
The first story is about a doctor, who listens to a patient, Gregry McHune. It seems as though the man killed someone, went to prison, and now the family of the man he killed want revenge. A plan was made to kill some people, leave town, and start a new life. When it came time to pull the trigger, Gregry couldn’t do it. “I remembered the hate in the eyes of they daddy. It’s the worst look I have ever seen in my life, and I don’t never want to see it again the longest day I live. Especially if I’m the cause of it. Not in no human being, don’t matter what color he is”
This paragraph took PG back to his days at Redo Blue, with the professional Jesus worshiper. The man would pump himself full of pressure, and then explode in anger. It was a quite a sight to see an allegedly grown man become completely unglued, because he had lost his temper. The worst part of those temper tantrums was the hate in his eyes. PG would like to go the rest of his life without seeing that sight. In a perfect life, PG would never hear the word Jesus again, but that is asking too much.
The doctor in this story took the time to listen, and came to see Medical Record Number 079214 as more than a prozac user. A subplot of the story is a conflict between the doctor, and the clinic administrator. The doctor likes to quote poetry when he dictates notes of his work, and the administrator worries about the legal ramifications. At the end of the story there is an uneasy truce. The doctor signs off the notes of the last visit from 079214 by saying “Yours for better medicine and for the poetry that lives in all of us”.
The second story shows what happens when you don’t listen. Or rather, what happens when you let the words go in one ear, and out the other, and do what you want to do anyway. Sometimes, it only takes a second or two to make a mistake that take hours of time to fix. This is another story about a doctor, and it can be safely assumed that this doctor is the author.
The third story is about the oldest man in the county, and three high school students who come to interview him. There is a school project of some sort. A four players have pre conceived notions about the others at the start of the story, some of which have gone away by the end. One of the old man’s stories has a doctor in it, which is possibly a guest appearance by Sambo.
The old man, Mr, McEachern, showed the younguns a document. “Georgia Clayton County. Know all men by these presents that we grant bargain sell and convey to the said Bogus Mask a Negro man named Charles twenty seven years of age for and in consideration of the sum of twelve hundred dollars to them in hand paid warranted to be sound this the 20 day of December 1860” Foreheads were furrowed, and panties were wadded.
This is the part of this discussion where we get into subject subject consciousness. At some point in the postwar period, Robert Pirsig wrote a book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. It is long and convoluted, and perhaps best encountered with the help of a teacher. PG took in on, and made an effort to put his eyes on every word of the text.
One of the themes of ZATAOMM is how we see things as being separated into subject and object. This division can take the form of me and you, us and them, G-d and man, and a few others. This is a western concept, and it runs counter to the concept that all things are connected, that “thou art that”. Like the Buddhist monk went to a hot dog vendor, and said, make me one with everything.
In ZATAOMM (which might be pronounce zaDOWmm, in which case it might work as a mantra.The spell check suggestion for zaDOWmm is meadow.), the author invites the readers to a Chautauqua, where he expounds on the notion of “thou art that”. A Chautauqua was a traveling show, featuring speakers on different subjects. They were popular in the twentieth century before the depression. It was a traveling summer circuit, with first day performers, second day performers, and third day performers going from town to town.
Mr. McEachern went to a Chautauqua in Tennessee, at the Monteagle Sunday School assembly. There was a speaker on the subject of relative morality. First, he asked the crowd if it was wrong to kill someone, and everyone said yes. Then he asked if it was ok to kill someone to prevent your daughter from being raped. The same Bible that says “Thou Shalt Not Kill” later gives specific instructions on when, and how, to kill. The speaker told the crowd not to just believe the first thing anyone says, but to think. When Mr McEachern told this story, there was a similar silence.
PG enjoyed Epiphany, and felt he was not harmed by reading it. One amazon reviewer felt otherwise.
Horrible, Racist Trash February 16, 2008 By J. Moore (Washington, DC United States)
I’m not sure how anyone can speak of this book as well-written, and I’m even more horrified that the racist tirades contained in it are described as a complex secondary narrative. No way. This is poorly written self-congratulatory racism, homophobia, and (much more subtle) sexism. The author doesn’t have the skill necessary to spin a complex secondary narrative, much less one that is critical of its narrator; this racism is heartfelt, and it should not be ignored or overlooked. It turns my stomach.