Monument Maker, page 69
Moses—wrapped in swaddling clothes and sent down the river, in the blood of Egypt.
Mother of the Unknown Narrator During the Siege of Khartoum
delicate, impossible.
Mounted Policemen—choristers.
Charles Mouton—French lutenist and composer. Chorister.
Peter Mul(d)oon—artist. Painted the gods and gave them names.
Mummified Head That Speaks in the Voice of the Lion of Judah—silence, for belief to me is abhorrent.
Muttering Touched Woman—chorister.
Mysterious Girls—choristers.
Mysterious Girls Borne Upon a River—lover of the Irishman with the suspect tattoo and the ghost that imprisoned him.
Mystics—choristers.
Mythologists—life feeds on life.
Vladimir Nabokov—author of the classic Lolita, which ends, unsurprisingly, with the letter A.
Nameless Children Burned and Eaten by Wildlife in the Desert—choristers.
Nameless Hunk in the Night—was to be my own name, once.
Nameless Prostitutes—choristers.
Nazi Doctors in Auschwitz—choristers.
Nazi Officer in Crete—chorister.
Nazi Party Members in Düsseldorf—choristers.
Nazi Wives Backstage at Nuremberg—choristers.
Nazi Women at a Party—choristers.
Nazis—choristers.
Neophytes—choristers.
New Arrivals Being Fumigated and Deloused in an Italian Prisoner-of-War Camp—choristers.
New Prison Camp Arrival with Permanent Dark-Blue Stubble and Staring Round Eyes—chorister.
Friedrich Nietzsche—philosopher and author of the classic Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is. Claimed Christianity had failed to make suffering sacred.
The Nile—“Let not the dwellers in Thebai and the temples thereof prate ever of the Pillars of Hercules and the Ocean of the West. Is not the Nile a beautiful water?”
Nudist Painters Out in the Sticks—choristers.
Will O’Mullane—publicist.
Vincent O’Sullivan—writer of ghost stories, author of the classic Master of Fallen Years.
Obnoxiously Fat Woman with No Top On—chorister.
Obvious Drug Dealer Stood Next to His Bike Propped Up Against the Public Toilets—chorister.
The Odd Hot Daughter—chorister.
The Odd Young Couple—choristers.
The Oddity—Frater Jim, the man from the future.
Old Blonde in Silhouette—chorister.
Old Dear with a Grotesque Face—chorister.
Old Dog-Fucking Whore in Lecce—author of the photobook I Am the Best.
Old Grey-Haired Fishermen in Canoes Loaded with Bucketfuls of Live Bait—choristers.
Old Man with Blue Piss-Stained Trousers and a Beige Tank Top and a Drinker’s Nose Sat on a Bench—chorister.
Old Men in the Sun in Athens Back in the Day—choristers.
Old Priest Gathering Driftwood on the Sand—Frater Jim’s second rescuer, gifted him the name “Joshua.”
Old Uncles—choristers.
Old Woman Admiring a Lovely Dog—chorister.
Older Gentleman in the Street—chorister.
Older Man Wearing Nothing But a Pair of Pink Bikini Bottoms—chorister.
Older Swedish Couple—painters, retired doctor and chemist, resident in Grez-sur-Loing all those years ago now. Claimed to be distant relations of John Donne. Seemed unlikely.
Charles Olson—poet. Author of the classic The Maximus Poems.
Ecco Omar—from the Garden of Eden, to Khartoum, in order to secure the head of the Mahdi and re-fructify the garden with it. Leader of the Yezidis.
One-Legged Sun Watcher—wife of Biraggo Fonte.
Ook—dog.
Oracular Bookseller and Her Husband: collect books on islands and anything to do with penguins. Like King Crimson. I think they were originally from Germany.
Orderlies in an Improvised Field Hospital in Crete—choristers.
The Original Galactic Map Team—worked together on a three-dimensional imaging of the solar system and its environs that could be scaled up or down according to where it was to be installed: a gallery; a country park; a wilderness; the span of an entire country.
Organist with His Face Reflected in a Small Mirror—chorister.
Agha Khalil Orphali—Gordon of Khartoum’s bodyguard and top physician, a vegan and an ascetic.
Osiris—Egyptian god whose Body is scattered across time and whose Cock cannot be found.
P.D. Ouspensky—author of the classic The Symbolism of the Tarot: Philosophy of Occultism in Pictures and Numbers, Pen-Pictures of the Twenty-Two Tarot Cards by P.D. Ouspensky. Translated by R.L. Pogossky. St. Petersburg (Russia). 1913.
The Outlandish Knight—has drifted out of sight. Pierre’s father?
The Outlandish Man—who rose up from the waters only to be with you, my Love.
Overweight Men in Wigs—choristers.
Paimon—hermaphroditic goetic demon who rides on a camel across a desert of Africa.
Paimon—outsider real-people DIY blues psychonaut.
Paimon—pseudonym for the science fiction authors Pierre Melville and Maximilian Rehberg.
Paimon—a time traveller who has lost his memory in the book The Tomb of the Song.
Painting Class on the Opposite Bank of the River in Grez-sur-Loing—choristers.
Pair of Friendly Drunks—choristers.
Pair of Punks Trading Cigarettes—choristers.
Palaeolithic Man—takes his place in the stars.
Papus—aka Gérard Encausse, that occult fraud.
Parents—choristers.
Parents of a Young Dignitary—choristers.
Partying Idiots—choristers.
Pascal—you would not be looking for me had you not already found me.
Passing Stranger with Tattoos Around His Mouth in Khartoum—chorister.
The Path of the Birds Through the Air, Diving—chorister.
Paul—no inkling of Christ’s virgin birth whatsoever.
Peebles—chorister.
Pegasus—the flying horse.
Imogen Pelham—agent.
People Sleeping Upright on Crutches in the Night of Khartoum—choristers.
People Smashing Wooden Doors to Splinters for Firewood During the Siege of Khartoum—choristers.
People Whooping and Applauding—choristers.
People with the Words Nicht Auf Luna Lebensraum on Their Space Suits—choristers.
Perplexed Stallholders at the Fish Market in Athens—choristers.
Peterson—chorister.
Philosophers—choristers.
Pablo Picasso—the greatest artist, with no style, like God.
W.H. Pickering—astronomer who witnessed the movement of migrating life forms across Eratosthenes, in the Sea of Rains, on the Moon.
Pierre’s Old Headmaster—chorister.
Pierreists—a blind man sits on a bench next to the river on which a stone is held afloat. He raises his rifle to his blind eyes and takes a shot at it, regardless.
Arnaud Pierrepont—compiler of the epochal science fiction short story collection L’Age d’Aura.
Pill-Popping Nutjobs Working the Night Shift in Bakeries—choristers.
The Pink Panzer—author of Notes Towards an Introspective Vision of Subterranea, where he argued for something along the lines of extending, or rather inverting, the poet Charles Olson’s vision of projective verse and his notions of scale in time and space wherein he posited that Olson had failed to anticipate that the birth of his idea would result in a dark twin, which implied a contraction, an introspecting of language, a shortness of breath, a gulping, gasping-for-air poetry of being buried half-alive, and a language that had more to do with grammar—structural, organisational—a language that would be as implacable, now, as those first stone circles, in time, as inexplicable, too, and as unconcerned by meaning, as the tightening of a fist.
The Plug—subterranean, propagandist, co-founder of the revived Church of the Stone of First Witness aka The SIRK.
The Plug’s Daughter—agent provocateur.
The Plug’s Friends—combatants.
The Plug’s Parents—ghosts.
The Plug’s Wife—an aged crone.
Plumbers of the Depths—choristers.
Poetic Young Blonde Whore in Sunglasses—chorister.
Poets Who Stabbed Themselves and Lived to Tell the Tale—choristers.
The Police—choristers.
Police in Grez-sur-Loing—choristers.
Politicians—choristers.
Poofters—choristers.
The Poor Jews—choristers.
Pregnant Wife of a Ship’s Captain Lost at Sea—chorister.
Elvis Presley—still The King, on the wall of a bar, in Bourron-Marlotte.
Priest with a Philanthropic Taste for the Esoteric—chorister.
Priests—choristers.
Prison Guards—choristers.
Prisoner Who Looks a Bit Like Mussolini, Actually, “Giving Sex” to an Italian Guard—chorister.
Prisoners Shot in the Head—choristers.
Prisoners Trying On Clothes—choristers.
The Proprietor and His Wife—run the rip-off restaurant in
Grez-sur-Loing. Avoid.
Prostitutes in Düsseldorf—choristers.
Protesters on the Moon—choristers.
Proud Parents—choristers.
Marcel Proust—author of the classic Remembrance of Things Past.
Psychic Investigators—choristers.
The Pulque Gods—custodians of deep time.
Purple-Haired Old Women—choristers.
Qbxl—sexy star goddess.
The RAF—choristers.
Gerry Rafferty—singer of the classic “Baker Street.”
Raggle-Taggle Collection of Geodesics—choristers.
Randar and Fitchin—Yezidis from the Garden of Eden.
Raphael—archangel.
Rastafarians—Marcus Garvey has come to pass.
Jean-Féry Rebel—French baroque composer and violinist. Chorister.
Red-Faced, White-Haired Ex-Sailor—sells home brew from his cottage with a thatched roof in Villiers-sous-Grez.
Maximilian Rehberg—soldier of fortune, religious polemicist, co-founder of the Church of the Stone of First Witness, lover of Hildegard von Strophe, one half of the pseudonymous science fiction author Paimon, author of the pamphlets To Run Wild In It and Worship What You Burn and Burn What You Worship. Thank you for your persistence, Maxi x.
Maximilian Rehberg’s Aunt—chorister.
Maximilian Rehberg’s Father—begging Max to suicide him.
Maximilian Rehberg’s First Wife and Child—disappeared now, into history, in order, one presumes, to run wild in it.
Maximilian Rehberg’s Mother—naked and passed out unconscious in the bath, drunk and dying of cancer, Max curled there beside her, upside down.
Maximilian Rehberg’s Three Wives—two dead, one completely off her tits.
Religious Figures—choristers.
Rembrandt—the loneliest paintings in the history of religious art because they are suffused by the shadow of death, and none of its lighting.
Saint Remi of Reims—“Worship what you burn, and burn what you worship.”
Resistance Fighters in Greece—choristers.
Pierre Reverdy—French religious poet.
Kenneth Rexroth—poet of the Sierras.
Rhythm Guitarist—sings Bob Marley in a Rasta Hat.
Lionel Richie—starting to despair of ever getting a useable vocal take out of Dylan during the “We Are the World” recording session.
Rainer Maria Rilke—poet, author of the classic Diaries of a Young Poet.
Arthur Rimbaud—poet who cured himself of art at the age of seventeen and who walked out the other side into life and who on his deathbed lamented his exile from the sun, forever.
Justin Robertson—artist.
Robinson—chorister.
Angela Rippon—TV presenter, though she never presented Pebble Mill at One, as far as I can ascertain.
The Ruling Elite—choristers.
Father Sacraviscera—mentor to Robert Scott, in order that everything might be holy, even the most appalling soft organs of the body, those most vulnerable to clots and blows and sharp objects.
Saxophonist Out of Nowhere—clearly drunk.
Science Fiction-Addled Hippies—choristers.
Scientists—choristers.
Scientists—heat and cold come together on planet earth to create life.
Mr. Scotia—calligrapher, astronomer, local Airdrie historian, collector of maps, inveterate sniffer of bouquets.
Mr. Scotia—William Scotia, son of Mr. William Scotia, of Airdrie, school secretary, subterranean, co-founder of the revived Church of the Stone of First Witness aka The SIRK, lover, and redeemer, of The Grey Wolf aka Arthur McManus.
Mr. Scotia’s Uncle Sam—many men were in love with him.
Mrs. Scotia—Melanie Scotia, wife of the son of Mr. William Scotia, of Airdrie, abandoned by her husband long ago, dead now.
Mr. and Mrs. Scotia’s Daughter—abandoned by her father, long ago.
Scotsman with a Tanned Bollock in an Italian Prisoner-of-War Camp Near the End of the War—a tanned arsehole, too.
Barbara Scott—Robert Scott’s wife.
Gregor Scott—here comes Robert’s brother in an ice cream van.
Robert Scott—hip priest.
Robert Scott’s Father—held the ambulance in his arms.
Alexander Scriabin—Russian composer of the classic “Étude in D-Sharp Minor,” performed perfectly, and differently, by the pianist Vladimir Horowitz near the beginning, and again, near the end, of his incredible career.
Seagulls Etched Hurriedly into the Air—choristers.
The Secret Service—choristers.
Alexander Selkirk—Scottish castaway who became the real-life inspiration for the classic Robinson Crusoe.
Sentries Lying Exhausted in the Sand—choristers.
Set—(tunnels of).
Seth—the disharmonious brother.
Seven Boys and a Single Girl in a Black Bikini Stood Around an Inflatable Ring, Waist-Deep in the Water—choristers.
Seven Independent Witnesses—choristers.
The Sex Pistols—punk group whose second single, “God Save the Queen,” was the soundtrack to the summer of 1977.
Sex Workers in the Dying Years of the 1940s—choristers.
William Shakespeare—author of the classic Scottish Play.
Ariel Sharon—Israeli military general who led an invasion of Egypt in 1973. Eleventh prime minister of Israel, 2001–06.
Sheik el Obeid—dervish master.
Shoppers—choristers.
Silhouette of a Man Holding What Looks Like a Small Child or a Monkey Maybe—chorister.
Silhouettes of Ice Cream Ladies—choristers.
Charles Sims—painter who ended up in the madhouse.
The SIRK—Secret Initiatory Realm of Knights.
The SIRK—Secret Interstellar Reconnaissance Kommando.
The SIRK—Society of Inveterate Recidivist Knights.
The SIRK—Society of Irregular Research and Knowledge.
Sister of All the Disappeared—chorister.
Sisters—choristers.
Sleepwalkers—certainties of.
Slowly Dancing Woman Through the Night of Khartoum—chorister.
Slum-Dwelling Occultists—choristers.
Small Black Dog with a Look of Cosmic Sympathy on Its Face—Frater Jim’s brother back from the dead.
Small Child Weeping in a Square in Athens After the War—chorister.
Small Children Gathered Around a Cross—choristers.
Small Conductor with All the Martial Kinetic Intensity of a Picasso—chorister.
Small Dog on a Pew—chorister.
Small Man with a Comedy Nose—chorister.
Richard Snow—the Januist that was left behind.
The So-Called Psychedelic Adventurers—choristers.
Social Misfits—choristers.
Soldiers Bursting into a Cell—choristers.
Soldiers in Protective Full-Body Suits—choristers.
Soldiers Separating Two Elderly Men—choristers.
Solitary Sleepers Pressed Up Against the Walls Through the Night of Khartoum—choristers.
Solomon—even he was not arrayed like the lilies in the field.
Some Athletic Meathead Leaping to Catch a White Rugby Ball—chorister.
Some Idiot in a Bunny Costume Acting the Goat—chorister.
Some Nut Who Looks Like a Junkie—chorister.
Some Old Bat—chorister.
Someone Leaping from a Bridge—splash!
Someone’s Mother on the Phone—chorister.
Sophisticated Older Woman—chorister.
Sophisticated Older Woman’s Dweeby Husband—chorister.
Soprano as White as a Mime—chorister.
Soprano Who Looks Like a Cross Between Germaine Greer and Barbara Dickson—chorister.
Austin Osman Spare—painted nightmares.
Albert Speer—Hitler’s architect. Prisoner Number Five in Spandau after the war, he was released in 1966 and died of a stroke in 1981, in London, where he had travelled to appear on the BBC Newsnight programme.
Spiritual Libertarians—choristers.
The SS—choristers.
John Stainer—English composer, organist and idiotic old fart.
The (Lovely) Star—dip a toe, and allow yourself to be swept away.
Star Gods—with sexy man-woman names, come down.
Starship—sang the classic “We Built This City.”
The Starved and the Dissolute Lying Entangled in Each Other in the Street in Khartoum—choristers.
Steely Generals Making Their Last Stand—choristers.
Stone Angel in the Cemetery at Église Saint-Martin de La Genevraye—chorister.
