Anth 10 Wrong Way Go Back 7.9.00

7/9/00 – 16/9/00 Thursday 7/9/00. Bas came to Stalactytes. He reckons the Victor Pelevin book I should read is ‘Clay Machinegun’. The waitress only charged me $13 for the souvlaki, coffee & 3 glasses of greek red. She said it was because I was a regular, or v.i.p. customer. Thats o.k. with me! Went on to the catholic bookshop and got the book I was looking for yesterday – the biography of Fr. Pio, the last ‘saint’ declared by the pope. Have started reading it. Dont know what to make of the saints (today I read a short summary of the life of Edith Stein) other than that they have chosen the intense life (& eccentric). Is that the essence of it? They would claim (& do) that its their devotion to christ that is the paramount thing. I have an open mind. One thing for sure : words are the least part of what makes them the way they are. Nor does the emphasis on physical austerity appear to have any connection with the example set by christ himself whose life appears to be neutral in this respect. I do not want to accept anything as being so just because thats the way its written up but neither do I want to close my mind to possibilities I have no personal evidence of. Helen is a bit upset tonight because Vi seems to be having trouble deciding whether she should have an operation for what has now been definitely described as cancer by the doctors. I think that if she is going to accept blood transfusions every few weeks she should have the operation because the prognosis is that the bowel will get blocked in a couple of months anyway. Personally I would choose not to have the op. and reduce the transfusions hoping to die without pain from loss of blood. Friday 8/9/00. Bought J.M. Coetzee’s ‘Disgrace’, Jean Rhys’ ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ and Joseph Roth’s ‘Right & Left’- at Borders. Rode on into town to eat at Nam Lung’s (Hong Kong is shut for renovations). Back to Ivanhoe where I had to buy a new back tyre for the bike. Todays ‘Australian’ has a picture of Dan in it. He says Kate came to the 8p.m. session of the fashion show (Spring Carnival) to watch him walk the cat walk. He’s gone off to see Ben whom no one can contact since he’s had the phone disconnected. Vi has decided to have the operation which will take place in the next couple of weeks which means for the first time in a long while Helen and me wont be going away during the third term holiday (which this year has been made to coincide with the Olympic games). Its off to the Bocadillo tonight as per usual and I’m taking the 3 ‘date’ stories to give to the women singing in the spot the ‘bad joke’ guy used to have. Saturday 9/9/00. Mrs Karazija rang to invite me to add my voice to the singing of some archaic litho christmas carols at the beginning of advent on the 25th of nov. Apparently Faustas says he’ll join if I do. So I said I would. Rang mum in the evening and told her about Vi. Helen rang Dean who once again assured her that money was not the slightest issue in making choices about Vi. That means that we have the option of offering the services of a full time nurse to the old peoples home if it allowed Vi to stay on should she need intensive extra care. Am reading a biography of Padre Pio by Jim Gallagher. It was published in 1955 which is before he was canonised. How is one to take these kind of assertions? Helen gave Dan a lift to Ben’s who apparently has spent the whole week at Vanessa’s . H. says Dan wants to save up enough money ($900 from the Spring Carnival) to go back to Sydney where he has a job on offer in a pub at $20 / hour. Sunday 10/9/00. Breakfast in Brunswick st. Finished the Padre Pio book; dont know what to make of a guy who pulled bigger crowds and did more miracles than jesus christ. Now I can resume Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘Philosophical Investigations’ which I at least understand. Blew a fuse so was able to show Helen how to replace one. Rang Andrew Saniga – he’s having a really good time; loving the uni, enjoying the work; Lynne has only 5 weeks to go. Monday 11/9/00. Ate at the Hong Kong. Kate rang in the arvo – she had been to the demo at the casino against the world eco congress. Helen had a minor car accident. The timing is not convenient as Vi will probably get operated on on Wednesday.

Tuesday 12/9/00. Left the key to H’s car in the mail box for the tow truck driver because I didnt want to be late to meet Walter in the library foyer but he didnt turn up. No doubt he was at the big demo where after lunch at Hong Kong I went also. Spent the whole arvo there but only met 2 people I knew. Kate was there fotographing also but I never saw her. Found it all very interesting. Agreed to meet Barry Mate for lunch on friday. Letter from Adriana Cozzolini. Make It Up Club. Egle rang from Sydney. By pure chance she met two litho tourists one of whom was taught at uni by our uncle – Vytenis Kabaila. Wednesday 13/9/00. Was going to the demo but met Brian Maclure going the other way. So we went to an ‘irish’ pub and he explained to me the significance that can be given to the word Hamman. The answer is in ‘The Book of Esther’ in the bible. Each year orthodox jews observe the Purim where they stamp their feet remembering Haman who was prevented from exterminating them by Esther. So Joachim Hamman can be read to mean “Yahweh prepares Haman”. The Purim is observed on the 14th and 15th of the month Adar. Thursday 14/9/00. As I was reading the paper over the coffee I have for breakfast I stopped with the thought “when is enough enough?” – how many signs are needed? Suddenly I remembered the name of the second contender for issuing Secret Order No. 3 : Vytautas Reivytis. Both the ‘vytis’ in the surname and the ‘Vyt’ in the first name come from Grand Duke Vytautas, the first king of lithuania to be crowned by the pope. The emblem of the shield on the ‘vytis’ which is the lithuanian national emblem is a reference to the christian cross. The emblem and the horseman with the raised sword is a fittingly aggressive and decisive image to be connected with the extermination of the jews – rather a better emblem than the swastika itself. I have a bunch of them all neatly arranged on a bookshelf and just as I was having a good look at them I remembered my roman coin that I had bought years ago as a present for Helen for $30 – yes! it is of the same Constantius Chlorus who as a young army officer married Helena (see entry for August 18th in ‘14/8/41’story). It has a bust of him on one side and on the other him receiving ‘victory’ on a globe from Jupiter. I had never previously looked at the coin closely enough to note any of this detail and certainly did not know the connection with the name Helen. I am explaining the significance of all this to Helen who is visibly shaken but has promised to remain calm. I also told her about the american submarine called ‘Corpus Christi’ which is the most powerful weapon on earth with about 100 missiles aboard each armed with 3 H-bomb warheads. I also explained to her how I know that every crew member aboard is insane. She had come home already upset because the hospital has told her they have to put off the operation for 3 weeks because the government has put a moratorium on non emergency surgery (the surgeons are probably at the olympic games). I told her it didn’t matter – Vi is 85. Previously the doctor had said the growth could block the bowel within 2 months. I am about to read ‘The Zahir’ by Borges which is about this kind of experience though without its specific significance. It occurs to me now that the sign I suggested was a kind of christian cross on the ‘vytis’ shield may be nothing of the sort but an emblem of the house of the Vytautas Dukes. Later the polish nobility (the litho aristocrats adopted polish as their language) claimed to be descended from the Samartians which the romans used to hire as mercenaries, one entire contingent of which incidentally (together with families) ended up in england soon after its conquest by Caesar. The Samartians were mounted horsemen in armour who have left no trace and about whom nothing else is known. In recent years with the excavation of ancient burial mounds some of the crests of the nobility or something similar have been dug up in these, perhaps Samartian mounds. It is thought that the picture weve developed of the classic mounted medieval knight originates from the earlier Samartians. Friday 15/9/00. Wrote a letter to Adriana. She said she found the empty chair in the photo arrangement on the back of the story “14/8/41” (she has the picture as a letter) disturbing. I told her that since writing the story and seeing as she has made the comment I also find it so – or at least intriguing. I realize now that the impact of the picture is to pose the question whether there is a mantle

to be accepted or taken up. It is a question I’ve been forced to ask myself. So when I went into town to meet Barry Mate for lunch I first dropped into the library to see whether Brian Maclure had found out what month Adar is. He referred me to the relevant section of the encyclopaedia judaica on the Purim festival. I was relieved to find that its not august or anywhere near it! I gave Brian one of the 3 large copper medallions I had from the 1987/88 world lithuanian youth congress. I think this kind of thing is rubbish but the medallion is an interesting collection of symbols – the vytis, map of Australia, globe, kangaroo over the globe. On the side opposite the kangaroo it says “the destiny of the tribe is our responsibility” - and its not referring to the aborigines. Brian is into such things. Ah yes, Adriana asked whether I would like my name and address in the lists of artists who participate in her Bajardo “Mountains” exhibition in 2002 but I didnt as the only way I want to be represented is with the logo – a…z @ O – which she is welcome to use. In the letter I was answering she had sent a portrait of Rubens and his second wife Helena, no doubt influenced by Helen’s poems at start & finish of the story “20/6/00”. When I wrote in yesterdays entry that every member of the crew of ‘Corpus Christi’ is insane I am using the word in the sense I used it when writing about the shooting of children. Anyone who allows himself to serve on a ship called the ‘body of christ’ knowing that its armaments are capable of destroying the world is so far removed from the symbolisms that have determined mans behaviour for thousands of years that his humanity is no longer recognizable. This is especially true of christians and jews for whom one of the ten commandments bluntly orders – Thou Shalt Not Kill. To put yourself in a position where you can kill everyone is an abomination. The capacity of the christian churches over the centuries to accommodate themselves to societies that insert exceptions to the commandment (which cannot be more clearly stated and is not broken by the example of anyone in the new testaments and was interpreted everywhere by early Christians even more stringently to mean turn the other cheek) has invalidated its legitimacy as a church (since the crusades). This is now true of the jews too. I am not aware of even any controversy having risen over the naming of the boat. What does that show about us? No one cares, not even the church which claims to inherit christs mantle. The pope has said nothing (but he has a letter!). Why is everyone silent now? Are we still the same people? Just remembered that the cassette of archaic lithuanian nativity songs and words that Mrs Karazija said I would get during the week to learn for an event she is organizing for nov. 25th at litho house hasn’t arrived. (So. ??) Off to the ‘street’ – wonder if the two girls singing opposite the Bocadillo to whom I gave the stories will be there? Saturday 16/9/00. Rode into town while Helen was visiting Michael to buy a set of sony earphones. Dont want to stop listening to “Colours Fulfilled” by Mujician – what a great piece of music. Got them at the sony shop in Elizabeth st for $20. As I was about to pay the young salesman went into an automatic spiel (though almost like normal speech) saying how for an extra $11 I could get an insurance that gave me a 3-year guarantee in case of malfunction. I suggested that he was forced into this nonsensical babble by his bosses. Its sad that he should have so easily humiliated himself but then maybe if he doesnt sell a set number he is docked pay (or loses the job as in some banks). $11 for insurance for $20 earphones! These things dont have any moving parts (probably cost about $1 to produce + 20c for the packaging) and last more than 3 years anyway. What does it do to a mans behaviour (soul?) to spout what he knows is nonsense to another man that he knows also knows its nonsense? If two people collaborate in this procedure while pretending that they are talking normally sufficiently often does it change the way they talk in other situations e.g. when debating or love making? Anyway I told him that if it wasnt nonsense it would have been included in the price and there would have been no need for him to have to humiliate himself but on reflection it seems to me that it could be included in the price anyway and that, at source, the aim of the practice is solely to humiliate the salesperson, the small man. Bosses never have to talk like that. The end result is that they end up with a more confident manner, subtly different bearing, a more firmly held confidence in their integrity. In this case the salesman countered with the claim that he had one of these insurances himself but I could tell he said it to save face though he was probably trained to do that too. I shouldnt be too harsh on the bosses, others do worse. Young boys in catholic schools torment themselves with guilt and contrition because priests have told them that if they masturbate theyll go to hell (or purgatory or

whatever) for eternity and theyre not allowed to muck around with girls either except in certain strictly proscribed manners that they get explained to them (in a round about way and often from little booklets) in religious education classes. The priests are of course experts as they spend hours in confessionals (in cassocks) listening to kids recounting the number of times that they had done it so as to know how many hail marys they would need to say not to have to go to hell. I went to a Jesuit school when I was that age and got into such a state that for a short time (before I wised up) I went to church every day. After giving Helen an account of that over a coffee in the main street of Ivanhoe just across the road from the commonwealth bank and reviewing various experiences we’ve had with big companies, we parted company - Helen to check Vi out while I crossed the road to withdraw $200 from the atm. There are two of them and I used the one on the right. Went through the process but the machine returned my card without either the $200 or a statement card. So I repeated it and the same thing happened again. So I swore and asked the guy at the other machine if he would be a witness to the possibility of me having been done for $400. He suggested that I do it a third time with him watching (but not while I entered the PIN) so I did. The machine kicked into whirring and clicking thought mode and returned my card with $200 and a statement card (no. 560279217, time 3:44). Which still didnt answer the question if my account had had the previous $400 deducted from it. So the witness was kind enough to write his name and phone on the back of the statement. So far so good but when I was about to explain it all here and got the statement card out of the wallet I remembered that a card I have to our joint account needed to be destroyed and I also found an old statement card to get rid of. So I went to the rubbish bin in the kitchen with all three items in hand and cut up the old bankcard and statement card together with the kitchen scissors letting the small pieces scatter into a very full bin. Problem is that inadvertently the statement card I cut up with the bankcard was todays and the intact one I was left with was the useless one. I started scrabbling about in the rubbish some of which was soggy vegetable matter and then I thought bugger that do I really need to humiliate myself like this (I had done a thorough job of the cutting and scattering) and maybe it was meant to happen so as to be included in the story as an example of how a bank can reduce a guy to rooting through his own rubbish. And maybe I had erred in my first two attempts and whats $400 anyway. But then I thought, shit, it is $400 and if I let them get away with it this time it will make it easier for them to screw me next time. So I did humiliate myself searching through soggy paper and vegies and even managed to put enough of the pieces together to reconstruct the statement number and time but not enough to get the witness’ phone (his name is Vlad). Monday I go to the bank. Oh yes, forgot to mention that the girls sang beautifully last night. I gave them 50c. Also had a closer look at the roman coin. On the packet it says Constantius I, 293-305 A E Anoninianus. Rev. Constantius stg. r. Receiving Victory on a Globe from Jupiter. S.3565. I’ll have to check it out at a coin dealer. I suppose the number is its catalogue no. (It occurs to me that the point at which the church betrayed christ was long before the crusades when it became the state religion with Constantine the Great).