9/01/2006
8/09/2006
An HSS assignment, if you please..
The Patient
Excerpts from the personal psychiatrist’s notes of Dr. Josephine Canard, at the Arkham asylum for the criminally insane:
“Hello, my name is Dr. Josephine Canard and I will be treating you and hopefully in time, we will be able to cure you enough to shift you out of our facility and into a high security prison. What’s your name?”
(Silence)
“Look you have to tell me your name or I’ll have to address you as 132. Now that’s hardly nice, is it? You can trust me, whatever we say will remain within the confines of these four walls. So come on, tell me your name.”
“Narcissus.”
“Now come on, be cooperative and tell me your real name.”
“I am. I did.”
“Very well then, Narcissus. Are you aware of the crimes you’ve committed?”
“I committed no crimes. I exacted the revenge that was mine.”
“Revenge? Do you remember what exactly you did?”
“Yes. I punished them for imprisoning me. And for killing one who tried to help me.”
“Why did they imprison you? Who tried to help you? Look, there –was- no connection between the people you killed. They were all in different states of the country for God’s sake. Now I ask you again; are you aware of the crimes you committed?”
“They were not crimes.”
He kept up with this and we made no further headway today. Subject seemed detached, self-absorbed, seemed not to really be paying attention to what I was saying. Most likely the patient just suffers from acute schizophrenia. Delusional. Perhaps we will find his true identity tomorrow.
____
Tuesday, August 1
“Hello 132, and how are you today?”
(Silence)
“Alright then, Narcissus, how are you?”
“Fine thank you, Dr. Duck.”
“So, Narcissus, tell me something about yourself. Where were you born, what were your parents like?”
“I believe you call it
“Were what?”
“Just were. They aren’t now. No one remembers them anymore.”
“Oh, so sorry… So tell me, what were the like?”
“It doesn’t matter. They did me no harm.”
“So, Narcissus, Why do you choose to call yourself that? Do you love mythology?”
(A low guttural laugh, slowly building to a crackling crescendo)
“Did I say something funny?”
(Dying laughter) “No, not really.. well, in a sense. You won’t understand.”
“Yes I will, Narcissus. They pay me to do just that, you know? Tell me, and even if I don’t, I will try my best, that’s a promise.”
“I am him.”
“Come again?”
“I am him. I am it. I am the embodiment of the myth. I am Narcissus.”
“I’m sorry, I find that hard to believe, but I did promise that I will try my best to. So tell me, if you really are Narcissus, then how’re you still alive? The myth, I’m led to believe is at least two millennia old.”
“Dr. Canard, ‘let’s say you believe me’. Do you really know who my parents were? I’m sure the myth tells you that as well.”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to tell me, I’m not much of a mythology buff.”
“My father was Cephisus, and my mother was Leiriope. Do you know what you would call them today? Gods. Divine beings. Anthropomorphic beings. And that really is the truth.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you are still alive today.”
“You answered your own question. You knew me. You knew of me. It’s the same thing. No one remembers my parents anymore. They don’t embody the rivers, the idea of spirits anymore. No one remembers them. No one believes in them. I, on the other hand am the very embodiment of narcissism. I am built right into your characters to varying degrees, but I am there. My existence as a concept assures my existence as an individual.”
“… I, I don’t know what to say. You make a very strong argument, unscientific as it sounds.”
“I think you’ve had enough for a day, Dr. Canard. And so have I.”
The subject is deeply delusional, much more than I thought. But he made a deeply cogent argument today which makes me doubt my initial diagnosis. There is a sincerity in his voice that transcends all medical reason. Could it be that he isn’t lying after all? Now that would have interesting consequences.
____
Wednesday, August 2
“Hello again, Narcissus.”
“Hello Doctor.”
“So how’re you feeling today? Ready to talk some more?”
“Fine. Yes.”
“So tell me about yourself. What was your childhood like?”
“Good.”
“Come on, surely you can do better than that?”
“I wish not to.”
“Alright then, tell me about your imprisonment.”
“I was imprisoned.”
“By?”
“The nymphs. They played on my vanity to assure their own immortality.”
“To assure their own immortality?”
“Ask me not, how they did this, I am unsure of it myself. But I do know that they sought to entrap me and immortalize me in order to feed of my life-force to attain their own immortality.”
“And how exactly did they entrap you?”
“Surely you know my myth? That I fell in love with my own reflection?”
“I’m afraid that’s about all that I do know of it.”
“Well, I was a vain young man and ‘tis true that I spurned the love of the nymph, Echo, but it weren’t her prayers that cursed me to fall in love with my own reflection. The poor thing, she tried, in fact, to warn me of the trap that lay ahead, but knowing the love she bore me, hopeless though it was, the other nymphs cursed her to talk only in response to me. Unfortunately I asked all the wrong questions. I wandered to the nymphs’ pond and I was caught in a spell when I gazed upon it. But it wasn’t the spell of my own beauty, which -was- unsurpassed. Only a fool might, and I was no fool. It was a device of the nymphs’ making. They trapped me and whence they had devised the flower that also now bears my name, to mark the spot where I was trapped, they sped me away to the underworld and imprisoned me there.”
“That is quite a story you’ve spun. What else did the nymphs do to you?”
“You do not believe me. My rambling this way is pointless. I must show you.”
(A brilliant flash as Narcissus’ face becomes etched in light and transforms into a thing of utter beauty)
“Now do you believe me, doctor?”
“Oh, my God. You… you weren’t lying were you?”
“I told the whole truth.”
“I, I think that is enough for today.”
“So be it.”
It is him. He is in my hands. I must make the next move.
____
Monday, August 7
“Hello Narcissus. This will be our final decision. I have heard enough and will try my best to do all that I can for you. Now I have one final question for you. Do you recognize me?”
“Should I?”
“Look closer, Narcissus. You showed your true self to me yesterday. Now let me return the favor.”
(Another bright flash, as Doctor Josephine’s face becomes etched with light and transforms into a younger, more beautiful form of itself)
“ECHO? Is that you? This then is my most fortuitous day yet! I am a man much wiser than the vain young boy who spurned you all those centuries ago! For your warnings shall not go unheeded this time.”
“Umm, yes, look, about that. The nymphs and I sat down and had a talk. A real heart to heart, you might say. And we came to the conclusion that I don’t need to waste my life being in a dead-end situation, what with loving you and all that and immortality in general is better for us, all around, so if you don’t mind.. oh, what am I saying, of course you’ll mind, he he.. Well, in any case, I’m going to see to it that you’re locked up here, temporarily of course, until such time that we can arrange to break you out and return you to your lodgings in the underworld. Which reminds me, how did you ever manage to break out? We’ll have to make your lodgings more escape-proof this time, you know, and I rather we got it out of you without having to resort to… unsavory means.”
“YOU WILY BITCH! HOW DARE YOU? RELEASE ME AT ONCE!”
“Goodbye Narcissus. Don’t worry, I’ll visit you on my yearly vacation to Hades.”
____
Cc: The warden, Arkham asylum
Bcc: Dr. Gregory Malloy, head psychiatrist, Arkham asylum
Date:
Subject: Regarding case no. 132, ‘Narcissus’
Dear Sirs,
I have carried through a thorough psychiatric examination of patient no. 132 and based on the results of these and my interview sessions with him, I have concluded that the patient is suffering from extreme schizophrenia and is highly mentally unstable. It is my advice that he be held here at Arkham asylum for the criminally insane under maximum security for he will constitute a major threat to society should he manage to escape. Furthermore, I would advice that my sessions with him continue as before, for he would yield a fascinating case-study in schizophrenia.
Yours truly,
Dr. Josephine Canard.
“Nicely done, Echo. I can see that you have taken to being a human like a duck takes to water. Tell me, could that be the reason that you chose the surname Canard? I took a jab at it, but you seemed not to notice.”
“Narcissus!? How… how’d you manage to break out? You were under heavy guard!”
“Shush now, surely you’ll allow me my secrets? Anyways, the reason I came to see you before I broke out was to say goodbye.”
“And kill me?”
“No, no, you tried to save me once, and I owe you your life for that. Of course, if you try to get in my way again… Goodbye Echo. I can honestly say that I hope to never see you again.”
“Please, stop! I can’t let you go. You have to fight me. You have no idea what the others will do to me when they find out. Death at your hand would be infinitely sweeter a fate.”
“To quote Rhett Butler… frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
-- Ende --
7/23/2006
When you're feeling lazy... be lazy!
Here I lie, behold me in all my glory
A windswept beach at sunrise, the sun just about breaking over and above the horizon. An altogether too familiar scene. On the beach lies a wretched wreck of a human being, muttering something so softly as to be almost unintelligible….”perfection….. must strive…. I…. must try”. The mutterings of any drunk homeless. Ignorable. Safely so. Thus is society. Those that don’t contribute, don’t matter.
I am K. This, very predictably, is my story. Born an only child into an orthodox family, I was raised bigoted, opinionated and chauvinistic. I was taught to believe in God. I was brought up to believe he was a good God, a just God. Some things were right and some things were wrong. Some people were right. Some people were wrong. Hate the ones who are wrong! They are the evil ones! Stay away from them! They will mislead you. They believe in false gods, the blasphemers. Lead a good life. Grow up, get a job, get married, have children, raise them as we did you, live a happy man. If God did indeed exist, and if he wrote our fates, it would’ve appeared as if my fate was a well plotted course, laid out clear and obstacle-free in front of me by my parents, acting on behalf of god. All my job was, was to walk down that path. And a lifetime of drilling to think as I had been trained to would ensure that I would walk down that path as complacently and obediently as a sedated dog on a leash.
Sadly enough, my parents were not God. Some things that I’m sure He would not have looked over, my parents did. I decided to think. God forbid, he thinks for himself! What will ever happen to him? Well, there was a contingency plan just for such a situation apparently. The answers to all my questions always seemed to reaffirm everything that I was taught to believe, everything that was diligently drilled into me by my loving parents. Believe. Don’t think. If you must think, make sure your thoughts wander to exactly where we want them to. In a perfect little fascist world, this would’ve worked just fine. Unfortunately enough, though, the world is far from either perfect or small. Fascist, perhaps, but not the other two. And so I kept questioning, but I kept a few questions to myself, safely stowed away in a cubbyhole at the back of my mind, there for the asking when the time was right.
And so the years passed, dull, mundane and utterly forgettable. And then came my first whiff of what I would later mistake to be freedom. I went away from home, away, away to university, for a further education, for it was deemed that in order for me to get a good wife, my resume would have to be buttressed with a good college education. After all what woman could resist a young thoroughbred of a man of good upbringing, with a university education no less? Look ma! Look at all the tricks it can do! It jumps through hoops, it drools when you ring a bell and it talks! But best of all, it has a university education! I want that dog, oh ma, won’t you get me that dog? Pavlov would indeed have been proud of me, had he had an opportunity to know me. A bleak past and a seemingly even bleaker future. Life was joyous, or at least I was told that that was what it was meant to be. So, obedient as ever, I went to university. Oh how they wept the day I left! Looking back, I rather sympathize with them. After all, after I’d left, who’d’ve been left for them to instill into, their skewed morals and ideals?
I was ill prepared for what awaited me. Scratch that, I was, in fact, not at all prepared for what awaited me. I took me not long to immerse myself diligently into all the vices that I had been shielded from all this while long. I was soon the resident drunk, and a dope-fiend to boot. Out the window the morals of a lifetime of upbringing, in everything I was ever taught to keep a distance from. The leash had been taken off, the sedatives worn. Somewhere along the line, I realized that making up for lost time was not the same as what I had become. And as the realization came, so did thought. Ah, the joys of unrestricted thought. The truest freedom there is. And all those questions came to the front again. All those questions that I’d been to cautious to ask of my parents. I was free to ask these and more. Many, many more!
But wait. The answers came, but not as I had thought they would. Where I had expected truly unbiased answers, free of all my opinionated restrictions, I found but other answers, equally biased as I would have expected of my parents’, albeit, a different bias every time, but always a bias. Was there no truly free mind? Was there no one who could answer me, give me the truth and not a perceived truth, distorted, by whatever the belief might be? If there is indeed a God, I imagine Him to have been sitting up there in his heavenly abode, having a jolly good laugh at my expense. What a young fool. What did he expect? Did he really expect to find a viewpoint that’s unbiased? Fool. Still, he is but a mere human. An imperfect image of me. Imperfect. Does he not know that such a thing does not, could not exist? That is perfection. That is me. And you are not me. So at least I concluded that if God existed, He was perfection. And that was an ideal I had to strive to achieve. No matter what the cost, I had now but one aim. Find God, or become Him. Free my mind. Unclutter it. Erase the bigotry, the near unshakeable beliefs of almost a lifetime of upbringing. Not an easy task, But I had to try.
It has now been ten years since I made that decision. I was booted out of university, disowned by my parents, and shunned by the world at large. I wander aimlessly the streets all day, lament my humanity all night long. I have long since become resigned to the fact that I am but human. I am imperfect. I was biased, I will always be biased, hard as I may try, I am but human. To be human is to be imperfect. To be imperfect is to give up, and despair our wasted lives. If there is a God, He must really be laughing his head off at my pathetic attempts at perfection. And me? A chauvinist to the bitter end. I still think of God as Him. Why not Her? Why not It? Because I am human.
So I am now an undistinguishable part of that faceless mass of humanity, the homeless. I have often been told by my many of my homeless brethren that I have a tendency to mumble incoherently when under the influence of alcohol. Something about striving for perfection, they say.
6/26/2006
The Council of wha..?
It's scary. This day and age where you have to keep abreast of everything going on around you and you have to have an opinion, or you're stared at with disbelieving stares of mild to heavy admonishment and disgust. Yes, I admit it, I've been at the receiving end of this attitude, and I've decided to change and give in to this near-omniscient state of being, and have an opinion, and expound at length at why it, and no other, is the right opinion. It's the latest rage. So I am going to write, perhaps at length, on the latest musical and quasi-religious news item: the Council of Sa.
5/20/2006
I've been tagged..
1) I'm never quite sure about most things.
2) But I don't really care either.. well, usually, anyways.
3) I don't like people whom I think are undeserving (that's almost everyone).
4) I dislike people who are unfair or rude. I think they're the aesthetic eqivalents of the hostels 12 and 13. Eyesores.
5) I hate people who are unfair or rude towards those I love. I'd gleefully dance on their graves if such an opportunity happened to present itself.
6) I feel life is unfair in the short run. People would have me believe that it is however fair, given a long enough timescale.
7) I feel the required timescale is too long.
8) I'm extremely impatient.
9) I love music.
10) I hate noise.
11) I hate crowds too, for that matter. Partly because they tend to make too much noise.
12) I don't get jazz. I really don't.
13) I don't get art either. I've tried, but I just don't.
14) I think religion's a powerful concept, with infinite power to do good.
15) Unfortunately it's been used too often for just the opposite for me to be entirely comfortable with it.
16) I really hope God exists.
17) If he/she does, I'd like to pick a few bones with him/her, given the opportunity.
18) I think doctors are worse than useless.
19) I think engineering can be an artform unto itself.
20) I'll never stop loving my parents and my oye.
21) I really don't think that life has any purpose any greater than having fun while you're at it.
22) I lean slightly to the left.
23) I dislike government employees. They're too secure in their jobs to even pretend to be anything but complacent.
24) I think capitalism and communism have a good deal to learn from each other. That'd be a good system of governance.
25) People are stupid. Might as well make some money off them.
26) I like doing nothing.
27) But it can get boring after a while.
28) I don't particularly like to dress up.
29) Bodies of water any larger than a swimming pool are inherently evil.
30) I'm not all that in touch with my Indian heritage. In fact I think calling it my heritage is a bit strong. Perhaps more of a background check.
31) I like comedy.
32) In general I don't like Bollywood movies, because usually they have nothing much to offer.
33) I think I'm overcritical.
34) Old hindi movies, in general, rock.
35) I might just be too cynical for my own good.
36) I've never had a religious experience.
37) I've had many medical ones.
38) Surprisingly I'm still alive (see 18).
39) I'd like nothing more than to make a ton of cash early, and then use it to make even more.
40) I think I'm capable of doing so.
41) I prefer to start off being indifferent to people when I meet them.
42) Unfortunately, I form opinions very fast. Usually lasting ones.
43) I really think that the best punishment for rapists should be rape.
44) Not so for murderers. They should be tortured a bit first.
45) I keep hoping that there's a secret police that doesn't bother with the legal process.
46) I'd love to be its head.
47) I might just be very evil.
48) Or the nicest person ever.
49) I will, however, never be a vegetarian painter.
50) Despite all this, I have great faith in the human spirit.
5/15/2006
The gutter rat
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(13:58:07) Me: :P
(13:58:20) Me: don't know, basically
(13:58:24) Another bored soul: mention boobs a few times and you'll be a hit in IIT
(13:58:31) Me: true true
(13:58:51) Me: even better would be if i could con some woman into coming on stage during and flash the audience :P
(13:58:56) Another bored soul: you vourld even go litereary: The Mammaries of the Welfare State
(13:59:03) Me: !
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(14:16:04) Me: because then i might've not quite managed to one up you
(14:16:32) Me: one being some arbitrary unit with dimensions of length
(14:16:54) Me: and up denoting the direction along the unit normal to the earth's surface
(14:17:02) Another bored soul: ah...I've been wthout sodgiri for so long...I have to get used to it a gain
(14:17:05) Me: postively oriented
(14:17:17) Another bored soul: positively oriental, if yo ask me
(14:17:18) Me: what, seriously? i thought i scarred people for life....
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(14:20:38) Another bored soul: nope
(14:20:49) Me: crap-crap-crappity -crap
(14:20:49) Another bored soul: YOu must have heard of him...some metalhead
(14:20:59) Me: yeah, but he's useless
(14:21:04) Me: bloody awful music
(14:21:25) Another bored soul: ah
(14:21:30) Another bored soul: my cousin here is a metal type person
(14:21:31) Me: i'm an executive metalhead, not a fucking weirdo metalhead
(14:21:36) Another bored soul: he palys the drums pretty damn well
(14:21:47) Me: ahh, gut(enberg)
(14:22:15) Another bored soul: guts i tell you
(14:22:27) Me: and blood
(14:22:32) Me: the stuff of gory dreams
(14:22:39) Another bored soul: never had a gory dream
(14:22:56) Another bored soul: apart from the baby-turning-into-mush dream
(14:23:06) Me: babies turn to mushrooms?
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(14:23:17) Another bored soul: not mushrooms...mush
(14:23:20) Me: damn
(14:23:45) Me: and here i was hoping for magic mushroom dreams in vivid technicolour
(14:24:05) Another bored soul: not until I actually consume said lifeform
(14:24:23) Me: ah, rightly so, rightly so
(14:24:35) Me: so until that point in time? black and white dreams eh?
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And so on.