EPILOGUE: DISORDERED AND FLATULENT

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MIKHAEL SUBOTZKY 2022

EPILOGUE: DISORDERED AND FLATULENT, MIKHAEL SUBOTZKY 2022

SCENE I: THE DEAD MAN’S STOMACH

CHORUS

ASSUME THE ASPECT OF THE DEAD MAN, ARIS KINDT, CRIMINAL. LAY YOURSELF IN HIS POSITION AND LOOK UP PAST THE GOATEED CHINS JUTTING ACROSS THE GILDED CEILING OF THE ANATOMICAL THEATRE.

SON

DEAREST FATHER, You asked me recently why I maintain that I am afraid of you. As usual, I was unable to think of any answer to your question, partly for the very reason that I am afraid of you,

CHORUS

IGNORE DR. TULP, FOREVER MID-SENTENCE, AND ALL THE FINE BURGHERS WHO LISTEN RAPTLY WITH INSPECTING EYES.

HERMANUS

People is dead, you put his head there now... why you put people’s head there, already dead. What you do with that? The bones from the head.

CHORUS

GLANCE ONLY BRIEFLY AT THE PALE FIGURE WHO IS SLIGHTLY REMOVED, BRUSH AT EASEL, LOOKING AT YOU WITH A DIFFERENT KIND OF GREED.

HERMANUS

And when I wake up, I’m eight years old, small boy now.

CHORUS

ALLOW YOUR MIND TO DRIFT AS YOUR BODY WALKS THE ONE-COMMA-FOUR KILOMETERS BETWEEN THE ANATOMICAL THEATRE IN THE AMSTERDAM WAAG AND WESTERMARKT 6, WHERE DESCARTES IS COMPOSING HIS DISCOURSE ON THE METHOD, ON THE VERY SAME BLOCK WHERE ANNE FRANK AND HER FAMILY WILL ONE DAY HIDE. HOLD A COPY OF THE DISCOURSE AGAINST THE BUSTLE AROUND YOU, AS THE CITY INHALES SHIPLOADS OF SPICES AND EXCRETES CANALS, ELEGANTLY-PROPORTIONED COMPANY HEADQUARTERS, AND LORDS SEVENTEEN.

FATHER

I think it is about ten years since I first perceived my sight to weaken and become dull: at the same time my spleen and bowels were disordered, and flatulent;

CHORUS

LISTEN FURTHER, JOHN MILTON’S PURITAN GUT BUBBLES A DIFFERENT MISCHIEF UPWARD TO CLOUD THE POET’S SIGHT, TURNING HIS ATTENTION INWARDS TO FORM THE WORDS THAT STRUNG THE SENTENCES THAT FORMED THE (BLANK) VERSE THAT SPELT THE ACROSTICS THAT ARTICULATED THE VISION THAT FELLED THE MAN THAT GLORIFIED THE GOD THAT SHOOK THE ENTRAILS THAT CLAIMED THE EARTH (WHICH, PERHAPS, MY FATHER BOUGHT FOR TWO ZUZIM).

FATHER

as soon as I commenced reading in the morning, as usual, my eyes became very painful, and seemed opposed to the employment; but after moderate exercise of the body, they recovered ; when I looked at a candle a kind of iris surrounded it.

SON

Sometimes I imagine the map of the world spread out and you stretched diagonally across it. And I feel as if I could consider living in only those regions that either are not covered by you or are not within your reach.

CHORUS

CONSIDER (AS YOU WALK BACK TO THE WAAG VIA EAST INDIA HOUSE) WHETHER MILTON DID INDEED GO BLIND IN 1652 DUE TO THE VAPOURS OF HIS DIGESTION, A FEW MONTHS AFTER THE SHIPS HAD SAILED OUT OF ARIS KINDT’S DISSECTED STOMACH INTO THE BALGH, PAST TEXEL AND THE STRAITS OF DOVER,

HERMANUS

They throw me away all of them, but it’s alright.

CHORUS

HEADED FOR THE OPEN ATLANTIC AND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, WHERE THEY DISGORGED THE MAN WHO WOULD STEAL THE LAND NEXT TO THE CAMISSA RIVER FROM THE GORINGHAICONA PEOPLE ON BEHALF OF THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY.

NEWSREEL

Table Mountain formed an impressive backdrop to Cape Town’s great festival. The ship Drommedaris bringing the first Dutch settlers was the highlight of the opening. The landing from a longboat in Granger Bay of their leader Jan van Riebeeck was reenacted with realistic detail, recalling the historic occasion of 300 years ago.

CHORUS

JAN VAN RIEBEECK: A TERCENTENARY FESTIVAL WITH A WRONG-FACED STATUE FACING THE MOUNTAIN.

FATHER

I am sure that you can understand my disappointment. But let it go now. I am okay, but now have a tube in my belly – a very weird thing. Apart from the weakness in my muscles and everything that goes with that, my body is now not whole anymore. Getting fed through a tube is decidedly strange, no matter how necessary it is now.

SCENE II: THE DUTCH GANGSTER

CHORUS

JAN VAN RIEBEECK: RECENTLY DISGRACED MERCHANT NEPOTISING HIS WAY UP THE VOC LADDER. A TEPID MAN, THREE HUNDRED YEARS SHY OF THE FESTIVAL PARADE ON LAND RECLAIMED FROM THE SEA; A CHRYSOPOEIA TO REFIGURE HIM AS THE “FATHER OF A NATION” AND UNITE THE WHITE RACES WITH A FOUNDING MYTH.

JAN VAN RIEBEECK

[Reciting the dimensions of the fort to be built, from his diary]

Ende de binnenste poligonen off viercant op. [The inside polygons or squares]

FATHER

A mother, a city, guts spilled in birth:

JAN VAN RIEBEECK

De distantie der poligoon linien. [The length of their lines]

De keel linij is langh. [The length of the gorge]

FATHER

From colon to colonus (husbandman, tenant farmer, settler in new land),

JAN VAN RIEBEECK

De capitale linij. [The main lines]

FATHER

to colere (to cultivate, to till), then to inhabit; to frequent, practice, respect; tend, guard. Also used by the Romans to translate Greek apoikia, "people from home."

JAN VAN RIEBEECK

De flancq. [The flank]

FATHER

From Proto-Indo-European root *kwel - "revolve, move round; sojourn,

JAN VAN RIEBEECK

De secunde flancq. [The second flank]

FATHER

dwell".

CHORUS

JAN VAN RIEBEECK: ADAMASTER’S TRUE VICTIM, OBLIVIOUS THAT HIS LIKENESS WOULD BE EXCHANGED WITH THAT OF A FAR MORE HANDSOME MAN, BARTHOLOMEUS VERMUYDEN.

JAN VAN RIEBEECK: A MASKED ACCORD ON THE CURRENCY OF THE EMERGING APARTHEID STATE, A/‘I PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER ON DEMAND IN PRETORIA, TWO RAND’(’EK BELOOF OP AANRAAG TE BETAAL TOONDER TE PRETORIA TWEE RAND’).

HERMANUS

You see the two rand? The paper two rand, the blue one? He take it in half, you know what he do? He give me a ten cent, put in my pocket. That time a ten cent is too much cents for me to buy sweets, you can go to the fliek [cinema] also for ten cents. ”Where’s the money?” I say “I don’t know,” and he search me and he found that ten cents in my pocket. ”Where you get this?” Oh that people, hulle slaan my [they hit me] with a rottang [cane], with that thing, full of scars, he burnt my two hands here, up the stove, net so [just like this].

I said “hey no, now I’m gonna go now, no, I will never never come back again.” And I go, to Cape Town, and I stay here. From that time, I’m right here, always in Cape Town, always here in Cape Town. I get me a job, I go to jail, I come out, I get me another job, I go to jail again, You see? I receive five times small sentence, two years, two years six, five years. To the last one, he give me thirty years, the last one, then I came out. See the last one? I came out.

SCENE III: GEORGE FADING

CHORUS

OR, PUT YOURSELF IN THE BARE FEET OF THE FATHER, WALKING INTO TO THE SEA

HERMANUS

That thing is alive... hmm. Ya it’s alive you see? The sea is a woman. And she don’t like dirty things. You see all these dirty things, she throw them out, and make clean.

CHORUS

AS YOUR BODY GIVES WAY FROM WITHIN, NERVE BY NERVE, AND YOUR SON STANDS BEHIND YOU IN A FUTILE ATTEMPT TO TRAP YOUR SINS IN THE TARTARIC SILVER HALIDES OF HIS PHOTOGRAPH,

MIKHAEL

My sister and my mother didn’t want to go to the funeral [...] and I said nothing, I just sat there.

HERMANUS

You go up?

MIKHAEL

I go up, ya, and I say “I was George’s son.” And I take out this book with this poem [...] one of my father’s favourite poets.

CHORUS

A CIPHER TO BE SCRATCHED AWAY EIGHT YEARS AFTER YOUR DEATH, TO REVEAL... WHAT? WHITE CANVAS (NOT BLANK), SCRUBBED TO THE BONE OF THE INK’S MEMORY, FRAME BY STOP-MOTION FRAME.

MIKHAEL

The eyes are not here

There are no eyes here

In this valley of dying stars

In this hollow valley

This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places

We grope together

And avoid speech

[...]

Sightless, unless The eyes reappear

As the perpetual star

Multifoliate rose

Of death's twilight kingdom

The hope only

Of empty men.

SCENE IV: CHORALE

JULIUS MALEMA

We all know that the Dutch gangsters arrived here and took our land by force. And the struggle has since been about the return of the land into the hands of rightful owners. Yet those who went to negotiate on behalf of our people during the negotiations sold out this fundamental principal which constituted the struggle against colonialism.

CHORUS

BURY THE DEAD MAN, RETIRE THE SHIPS, CUT THE VERSE AND UN-BEAUTIFY THE GANGSTER, PERHAPS EVEN KILL THE FATHER (IF HE IS NOT ALREADY DEAD).

HERMANUS

Now we grew up tough, hard. He’s alright, his family is alright, he bought houses, he look right for his kids. I’m still on the road, with nothing. Where’s he now? He’s underground. I’m alone here, like a piece of... this tree’s flower... just like that the wind throw him away. This way, this way, that way, you see now?

CHORUS

PUT DOWN THE CIVIL WAR IN THE POET’S STOMACH AND REMEMBER THAT YOUR “GOLDEN AGE” WAS BUILT ON THE BACKS OF BATAVIAN SLAVES, SOME OF WHOM WERE BURIED IN UNMARKED GRAVES NEAR WHERE YOU WERE BORN AND RAISED IN CONSTANTIA, CAPE TOWN.

NEWSREEL

There followed a mile-long procession of floats through the streets of the city, every important event in the early history of the country being fully illustrated. The pioneers who came out from Holland and from Britain, every outstanding episode in the exploration and occupation of South Africa, all were included in the pageant of this great drama.

SUMMON THE GHOSTS OF PHILOSOPHERS AND SLAVES TO HELP YOU DISAMBIGUATE “ENLIGHTENMENT” AS YOU CUT TOGETHER TWENTY-FIVE FRAMES-PER-SECOND OF ANIMATED PAINTING UNDER THE USEFUL DELUSION THAT IT IS MEANINGFUL TO SCRATCH AT THE CRUSTY SCABS OF YOUR WHITE MASCULINITY. AS IF PUBLIC SELF-FLAGELLATION IN THE POST-COLONY COULD SUTURE OUR COLLECTIVE CARTESIAN WOUND.

SON

Dear George,

I’m your son.

And I’m ashamed of you.

FATHER

Shame on you, Mikhael.

SON

Shame on you for all these things, but most of all for turning away from your own shadows and wounds.

FATHER

You say you miss me and love me. Yet you have chosen to exclude me. You have no idea of the pain and outrage that this has caused me. As my sight diminishes daily, a perfect blackness flows in, mingled with the color of ashes. Often bringing to mind the words of Phineus—

‘Him vapours dark

Enveloped, and the earth appeared to roll

Beneath him, sinking in a lifeless trance.'

HERMANUS

When I get him in my hands, I say “Ya, you’re my boy! Don’t worry, you will grow up, same like me, big like me, like this. You are small now.” You see now? There was a, something in my heart, man. I was small, also, like this.