Goat Mother and Others: The Collected Mythos Fiction of Pierre Comtois (54 page)

As the play begins, Melbourne has already crossed to the far shore. He has drunk the water and become silent. He has donned the mask of the inspired or enthused poet/prophet, and he preaches a negative poetics of silence — an aphonic evangel; the
White Codex
is his bible, or gospel of the Word’s dissolution. The author of the
Codex
is the divine breath or spirit, the
paraclete
, the third hypostasis of the Logos, who animates or inspires the body with the
pneuma
(breath, spirit) of the logos/Logos. It is the
Spiritus Sanctus
, and is represented as a burning tongue of fire, for it is the Spirit who gives the gift of tongues. Angelique is an
Angelus Domini
, a dark annunciator of the Incarnation, or the Logos’ birth into materiality.

The
Codex
comprises the Tetragrammaton, the transliteration of the ineffable, incomprehensible name of the fallen Logos, and therefore contains all the inherent enigmas, of the logos or textuality; it embodies the shifting ground of linguistic slippage itself as it becomes subject to the corps of pathologies (figural errancies, duplicitous tropes, grammatical displacements) which subvert the logos from within. The word betrays itself. The
Codex
unceasingly composes and decomposes itself beneath the reader’s gaze. It is Mallarme’s “pure work,” a work incorporating everything and nothing, incessantly raising and inhuming all meaning, and thus becoming meaningless or empty; in a metaphysical sense, the pages are blank, the vacant leaves comprehend or include nothing, or, to be more precise, are included by it. Reading such a text invariably produces a fracture in the logocentric unity of the subject. The spectacle of language simultaneously constituting itself shatters the Self’s monistic notion of identity. In the Chorus’ final speech, Vaughan represents that moment as a synesthetic transport or rapture.

The Chorus makes us witnesses to an anti-apocalypse, a negative revelation of Vaughan’s theosophy of whiteness. It begins in the darkling plane of illusions or dreams (
eikasia
). The somnambulist asleep in the cave of Self (both poet and reader, actor and audience) is engaged in a
revelatio
, a dream of prophetic vision. As in the
Somnium Scipionis
, the dreamer rises to a vantage point from which he will see the true working of the universe. As in the
Paradiso
, the visionary traveler journeys through various levels or
topoi
in order to return to the godhead. Yet the line in which a “lone voice” destroys the cosmic order with a whispered word (logos), signals a profound difference, an intrinsic transfiguration of the epistemology/ontology dichotomy. Cicero’s sleeper awakens to a vision of cataclysmic purification, the Ptolemaic cosmogony of Dante is obliterated, the cosmic orbs splinter, the stars are extinguished, the moon plunges into its own image, its mimetic representation — a conflagrant mirror, in a moment of annihilating self-perception (1 Corinthians 13:12 — “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”)

The ascending levels of the universe, the Platonic
topoi
, are called emanations by Plotinus. In his Enneads, the
nous
, or cosmic Mind (Berkeley’s God) of the Logos (or simply, the One), is an overflowing fountain of light. (In Vaughan, the reverse mirror image of the symbol becomes a paradoxical fountain of black fire of absent light). The overflow consist of descending levels of existence, which are called emanations of the One; the further down the overflow goes, the less light it contains. The final level is the phenomenal or terrestrial plane. After a time in the
boratos topos
the emanations ascend once again--in a process of apostrophe to the
nous
, where they are reunited or re-assimilated into the Mind of the One. The mind is an emanation of the Mind.

The Neo-Platonists developed two contending, yet complementary epistemological theories, both of which are echoed in Vaughan’s work. In one, the mind is an empty, polished tablet upon which the
nous
, inscribes itself, a mirror which passively reflects the illuminated emanations of the One. In the other, the mind is a lambent receptacle fueled by the lucid glow of the One, a lamp which shines its borrowed light upon the variegated emanations of the Logos. Vaughan was possessed by these images: mirrors resounding the logos, refracting the obscure light-source of consciousness; lamps casting their feeble beams into the tenebrous solitude of being, creating the objects they clarified.

The Kantian Understanding discerning existence through the sieve of the Logos’ script, the Cartesian mind elucidating its own topography with the dim rays of its I/Eye. The process of emanation and apostrophe is not a singular event; according to Proclus, it is cyclical and constant, an endless module of procession and return — an enclosed circle similar to the Nietzschean Eternal Return. The Logos recapitulates itself eternally. We are both mirrors and lamps, reflecting each other endlessly, imaging, echoing, reproducing, meditating ourselves to ourselves. The Archimadean spiral of “Daidalos” closes to become a perpetually self-actuating system. The Self is trapped in an immutable ring of recurrence. This absent One-whom Pascal defined as a “fearful sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” It is transfinite and omnipresent, a perfect circle, an incalculable cipher, a limitless nought, a cryptogram of the Logos” infinite nullity. The color of ultimate negation is white. It is the color of the
ptyx
, of the abyss and of the Masque.

It is the blinding white light of the cosmic unveiling, an apocalyptic dawning. It is the white robe of the hierophant of nothingness, and the white shroud, the winding sheet of the dead Word. The white mask is the searing visage of a vacuous chaos. The poet confronts the Word and beholds Kafka’s terminal observation: “Our art is a dazzled blindness before the truth: The light on the grotesque recoiling mask is true, but nothing else.”

I have included only those works which I consider relevant to my own discussion of Vaughan’s philosophical and poetic theories. The observant reader will note the paucity of studies in English. Although Vaughan has always elicited considerable scholarly interest abroad, he remains a relatively obscure figure in his homeland. Two forthcoming monographs, Alfred Sciarri’s
Aletheia: The Poetics of Charles Vaughan and Kathleen Day Hughes’
monumental two-volume biography, will hopefully begin to redress the egregious neglect of Vaughan within American academia.

1) Baumgart, Rudolf. Charles Vaughan:
Sein Leben und sein Werk
. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1968.

2) Calderon, Francisco de la Torre. “
Mimesis conflictiva: la violencia de los simbolos en las obras de C. Vaughan.
”
Anales (de la Facultad de Filosofia Y Ciencias de la Educacion de la Universidad Catolica de Chile
), 58 (1970): 85-102.

3) Delisle, Gustave.
Symboles du neoplatonisme dans lÕoeuvre de Vaughan
. Paris: Gallimard, 1994.

4) Diaz Millan, Eugenio.
El teatro metafisico ce Pirandello y Vaughan
. Barcelona: Seix Barral, Biblioteca de Bolsillo, 1983.

5) Festugierre, Georges. “
La dialectique du “moi” et de “l’autre” dans la pensee de Charles Vaughan.
”
L’Homme et Son Prochain: Actes du VIIIe Congres des Societes de Philosophie de Langue Francaise.
Toulouse: Presses Universitaires de France, 1956. 273-291.

6) Gardiner, Patricia.
The Isolation Chamber of the Self: An Essay on the Concept of Person in the Aesthetics of Charles Vaughan.
The Hague: Nijhoff, 1966.

7) Grenier, Barthelemy.
Charles Vaughan et la Methodologie de I’Inverifiable.
Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1980.

8) Lemoisne, Pierre Andre. “
Daidalos: une essai concernant l’entendement humain.
” Gazette des Belles-Lettres, XXXVI (1948): 9-33.

9) Muller, Bernhard.
Vaughans Erkenntnistheorie und Metaphysik, Wiesbaden: Insel-Verlag
, 1985.

10) Pringsheim, Joachim. “
Vaughans Dichtungstheorie.
”
Deutsche Verteljahszeitschrift fur Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte
, III (1952): 353-76.

11) Rodriguez Poncela, Guillermo. “
La palabra y el origen de la onciencia reflexiva en la poesia de Charles Vaughan
.” Revista Hispanica Moderna 36 (1970-1971): 145-57.

12) Sarmiento, Teodosio. “
La inseguridad ontologica, clave del mundo de Charles Vaughan.
” Sur, 184 (1950): 39-65.

13) Suddermann, Karl Justus.
Motiv und Gestaltung bei Charles Vaughan.
Berlin Wagenback, 1973.

14) Taylor, G. H.
The Staging Area of Revelation: An Introduction of the Dramaturgy of Vaughan.
London: Faber & Faber, 1979.

15) Witt, Robert Kilburne. “
Vaughan, Epistemology, and the Other.
” In Hypatia: Essays in Classics, Comparative Literature and Philosophy. Edited by William Calder III, Ulrich I. Goldsmith and Phyllis B. Kenevan. Boulder: Colorado Associated University Press, 1985,. 171-206.

16) Zimolo, Alessandro.
L’anima e l’uomo: Ill pensiero filosofico di Charles Vaughan.
Rome: Ateneo & Bizzarri, 1991.

17) Vaughan, Charles. “
The Pallid Masque.
” Complete One Act Plays. Perseus Press, New York, NY. 1968.

18) Vaughan, Charles. “Narcissi,” “Daidalos,” “Hibernia,” “Albus,” “Philology.”
Collected Poems 1920-1964
, Penguin.

irst of all, I want you to understand that all this has been a mistake. I’m not the kind of man who usually takes to the field. I leave that to others who like to get their hands dirty. Who like to go digging around in old ruins. I’m happiest in a classroom setting where I can address issues in an academic rather than an experiential level. So you see, everything that’s happened since that day Gerald Walker asked me to visit the hospital has been unintentional. A misunderstanding. There’s no need for you to concern yourselves with issues of confidentiality because I have no reason to bring any of this up with anyone.

Look, maybe if I explain how it all happened from the beginning you’ll see that I really can be trusted. As I told you before, the whole thing began that day when Walker, he was the head of the Archeology Department at Miskatonic University, walked into my office while I was at lunch.

By coincidence, I’d been reading the
Arkham Advertiser
. More specifically, I was reading a story about a man who claimed to be the last surviving member of the Hughbanks Expedition that had been exploring a site in the El Cacao region of Belize when its work was interrupted by a local drug cartel. That was during the 1994 season when the University of Pennsylvania had been a major sponsor of the dig and that later released Dr. Paul Hughbanks from its faculty when it became known that four students who had been members of his expedition were killed in an exchange of gunfire with the drug dealers. It was quite a messy affair at the time including the full range of expected lawsuits and settlements. When the dust settled, Hughbanks was disgraced and everyone else connected with the affair either died or fell into obscurity. All except for one Kyle Woodson who pursued his interest in the Belize ruins until his own untimely death some years ago. Such was the case until one last survivor of the expedition recently surfaced.

According the article in the
Advertiser
, Armand Sanders was committed to the Pickerton Rehabilitation Hospital in Arkham in 2010 by members of his family after his rantings about the Hughbanks Expedition became too much to bear. It seems that after the scandal, Sanders had retired to his home in Dean’s Corners and although at first reluctant to talk about his experiences in Belize, he suddenly began to open up about them a few years ago. However, the subject became a full-blown obsession as his claims grew more wild and so frightened the female members of the family, that they were compelled to seek-out professional help. Finally, it was decided to send him to the Pickerton Hospital for observation and rehabilitation if only for his own protection as several times he had threatened to end his own life.

As I said, it was only coincidence that Walker came into my office just as I was reading that article because what he wanted of me was to ask if I’d make a trip up to the Pickerton Hospital to interview Sanders!

“Me?” I asked. “What for?”

“Because you’re the department’s expert in Mayan history and culture and might be able to make some sense out of the things Sanders has been saying,” Walker replied. “Besides, it’s been a while since you’ve taken some time off. When was the last time you had a vacation?”

“Two years ago I…”

“There you go. Consider this assignment as a little R and R. Now. The request was made through our colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania who’ve only recently been informed of Sander’s case. Due to the negative ramifications surrounding the Hughbanks Expedition, officials at the university are understandably reluctant to send someone on their own faculty for fear of word getting out and local newspapers making a fuss and dredging up the whole sordid affair all over again.”