created, not taken away.
Homeopathic medicine was based on this idea, a little poison is
good for you. Nietzsche said it this way: What doesn’t kill you makes
you stronger. Jim Morrison put it like this:
Why do I drink?
So that I can write poetry...
As the body is ravaged
the spirit grows stronger.
Morrison wrote his first poems in this same canalled coastal suburb.
He trawled the same sea drunk on excess of spirit but ultimately
overestimated how much of that spirit he could take. Like Rimbaud,
he also died young and in French exile. Like Rimbaud he also showed
that the problem of the day was lack of freedom, and then displayed
what happens when you have too much of it.
Which was why Bennie’s mother, a cabalistic alchemical shaman,
believed that the principal challenge in life lay in prescribing the
right doses. Too many were clearly not following their recipes. She
was aware that what she was doing was extreme, but a world wildly
out of balance required extreme measures to right the scales. She
knew all about Biddenbrooks: she knew what kind of effect it had on
her people. She knew what kind of effect it had on sacred places like
this.
In Spanish, the verb sabercould mean both “to taste” and “to
know.” According to some, Homo Sapiensmay have originally meant
“man who became wise through tasting.” Alma Pantera knew that in
times of spiritual famine, it was the head that needed to be fed first.
When they were finished with the first batch, Bennie wiped a bit
on San Simon’s mouth. A tear rolled out of the dead god’s eye. It was
a good sign.
6. Legend
Roy woke early next morning to the sound of a buzzer. He shuffled to
the door and opened it to reveal a giant poison arachnid soaked and
looming under the downpour.
“What do you want?” Roy muttered. “She’s not here.”
“I came to talk to you,” Niles said.
ABYSSINIA
162
 |
 |
 |
 |