SEATTLE NOIR 

“The night was a time 
for bestial affinities, for 
drawing closer to oneself.” 
― Patricia Highsmith
Strangers on a Train
_______________

It’s a dark Highsmithian night—
perfect for murdering somebody

The clouds scuttling overhead—
the sun hidden for months
_____________

The monsoon depressing—
making you feel like a zombie

Better them than me, of course—
even tho sometimes it gets worse
___________

The streets razor-sharp noir—
wet and sullen and slippery

The sidewalks dangerous—
I could slip and fall into the Bay
______________

Your typical Seattle noir night—
totally completely gnarly

People on buses & high-speed rail—
crammed homicidally together
________________

I should know because I’m—
one of them slouched in fear

As if I’m always on the run—
the mob constantly after me
____________

Hiding out with my girlfriend—
young Seattle slutty chick 

She’d just as soon wanna—
turn me in for a lousy buck

Boy in the Berhof

BOY IN THE BERGHOF  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQOfIENN2tk

_______________________________

“I have built up my religion out of Parsifal.  
Divine worship in solemn form ... without 
pretenses of humility ... One can serve 
God only in the garb of the hero"—Hitler 
__________________________

In many ways, BOY IN THE BERGHOF is like the futuristic science-fiction novel SWASTIKA NIGHT (1937) by Katharine Burdekin.

SWASTIKA NIGHT by Katharine Burdekin is one of the most imaginative alternate histories ever written. It takes place in the near future — 2013 AH (meaning After Hitler) — with a medieval Europe run by gay Nazi knights who worship Hitler as a god. 
_______________________

If this novel were re-written today, it might have a very common Philip K. Dick thread moving through it as with THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE; but it wasn't written today, it was written in 1937 by Burdekin, a pioneer in feminist science fiction. 

Reissued by the Feminist Press in 1985, this novel easily stands among the great dystopian novels like 1984 by George Orwell, BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley and WE by Yevgeny Zamyatin.

Boy in the Berghof 2

BOY IN THE BERGHOF  


“Therefore we must conclude that, even though some Nazi ideologues had reservations about Parsifal and despite Hitler's dislike of the "Christian mystical style" in which it had until then always been presented on stage, both Hitler and Goebbels were looking forward to new productions of the opera after the war.”—John Deathridge, Wagner Beyond Good and Evil, Univ. of California Press 
_______________


After the war, he retreated to the Berghof with me as his companion—to console him in his last years. He didn’t have much time left…

He turned over the Third Reich to Albert Speer—the only intellectual amongst the Nazi thugs that he surrounded himself with. 
__________________

Speer was an Artist like him—he would build the New Berlin and design the Third Reich that would last a Thousand Years.

A photo in Paris captures the geniuses of the Third Reich as they contemplated the future. Hitler, Speer and Becker taking in the Eiffel Tower—planning the New Berlin.

Boy in the Berhof III

BOY IN THE BERGHOF  

The BOY IN THE BERGHOF takes place soon after the Axis win the Second World War (now called the Last War). Germany now dominates Europe and Africa, Japan everywhere else. "Inferior races" have been wiped out, the few remaining Christians neutralized. 

The Nazi realm — a weird, retro-futuristic feudal society — based on extreme militarism, conformity and patriarchy, as well as a bizarre quasi-religion based on a divine Hitler, who literally created the Third Reich like a lightening bolt out of the blue by the Teutonic God of Thunder. 
__________________________

The plot revolves around a clique of elite Nazi high officials who worship Wagner—especially the opera PARSIFAL. The novel’s plot further centers on a young Bavarian named Parsifal and his pilgrimage to "The Sacred Berghof" where Hitler has secluded himself after the tumultuous WWII.

As with Orwell’s 1984, after Hitler wins the "Final War," the State controls everything. New Berlin is beginning to loom over the ruins and rubble of a medieval-united Europe, driven by a history being altered beyond recognition. 
_____________________________

Hitler is now worshiped as a mythological god by a horde of bold SS Nazi knights serving as his sycophantic  administrators. All books, records, and even monuments from the past have been destroyed to make the official Third Reich 'reality' the only possible one. 

But the Leader is bored... his beloved Eva is dead. Sacrificed in the bunker while he made his escape to Argentina — only to prevail with his Ultimate Weapon. London & Moscow vaporized — the rest of the planet subjugated & divided with Japan.
_________________

The plot of BOY IN THE BERGHOF hinges on Parsival discovering Hitler lonely & alone in the Berghof. A beautiful Bavarian youth with blonde hair and a virgin peachfuzz face. 

Parsifal becomes the secret lover of the Fuhrer —ensconced in his mountain mourning the death of Eva Braun from suicide. The Fuhrer retired now to his elegant aloof Berghof retreat — his vision of the future accomplished.
________________________

It is within in such a tragic Wagnerian setting — that the young Parsifal enters the scene. Making possible the heartbreaking dream possible — the grand opera tragedy of the FOURTH REICH. 

The Boy in the Berghof IV

Q. Marcius Hermes Sarcophagus 

THE BOY IN THE BERGHOF 

The End. After Speer und Eva died I stayed there in the Berghof. As the Third Reich ended, like Rome...

TOM RIPLEY 

Little Felonies
Ripley
Alter Ego
Hardly, My Dear
Miss Greene
Fear And Loathing
Aftertaste

________________________

LITTLE FELONIES

“He was imagining
being another person”
—Patricia Highsmith
RIPLEY’S GAME
______________

Life’s little felonies—
certain overarching ideas

Like the idea of the double—
murder & malevolence
___________

The desire to stalk—
and to keep secrets

His obsession with pursuit—
forging, getting away with it
____________

Counterfeiting his fiction—
keeping alive his imagination

Transgressive motifs—
poured into everything

RIPLEY

Writing for him was—
a stalking game of fiction

An elaborate game of—
pursuit, escape, disguise
_____________

He had the mind of—
a criminal genius

Look at me, Ripley said—
you’re one of my victims
________________

He momentarily enjoyed—
being his own fictive kept man

Casa Highsmith his House—
High on Haunted Hill

ALTER EGO

His alter ego—
his evil twin brother

The cat with 9 lives—
classic Highsmith themes
____________

The other person exactly—
the opposite of himself

The unseen part of him—
somewhere hidden inside
_____________

Waiting, waiting—
waiting to ambush him

STRANGER ON A TRAIN—
and other gay encounters

HARDLY, MY DEAR

“It’s a large part of Ripley’s
indistinct charm and
unadmitted sexuality that
he begins his career by
preferring to imitate the
boy rather than being,
in Noel Coward’s phrase,
“mad about the boy”
—Joan Schenkar
THE TALENTED MISS HIGHSMITH
_________________

“Hardly, my dear”—
take another look at

Miss Matt Damon—
pretending to play
_________________

Tom Ripley the imposter—
hardly the victim, my dear

Unmistakably fag—
hopelessly homo
______________

Alain Delon must’ve—
been ashamed of it all

Seeing his version of—
PURPLE NOON queered!!!

MISS GREENE

“The poet of apprehension—
not fear”—Graham Greene
___________

Highsmith creates a world—
without moral endings

Disillusioned private dicks—
unlike straitlaced Marlowe
_____________

Miss Raymond Chandler—
shocked by Highsmith’s haughtiness

Whose motives are so much—
more decadent, gay, devious
___________

Motives more intriguingly faggy—
the bad guy hoodlum winning

The poor innocent victim—
gets the electric chair

FEAR AND LOATHING

Suddenly we realize maybe—
we’re all murderers too

Perhaps we belong dead—
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
____________

Forged checks, fake identities—
suddenly a sense of fear

Are we not on the run too—
running away from who we are
_____________

We have to learn to live with it—
nagging our nerves at night

Inescapably always true—
the tremor of forgery ours

TOM RIPLEY 

_______________

The Double
Mozart Express
The Garrote
Answered Prayer
Gentleman’s Agreement
Black Forest

_________________

THE DOUBLE

“But Jonathan knew
he knew exactly
what he was doing”
—Patricia Highsmith
RIPLEY’S GAME
_________________

The double creates—
apprehension not fear

The film and novel—
both RIPLEY’S GAME
_______________

The way both play—
with using each other

Novel on one hand—
filmscript on the other
______________

Novel with the usual—
interior dialog and 

Filmscript with its—
surprise forgeries

MOZART EXPRESS

“Jonathan then realized 
he felt no pity for himself”
—Patricia Highsmith
RIPLEY’S GAME
__________________

The double rubs off—
on the reader / moviegoer

The sudden appearance—
like Malkovich on the train
_______________________

“That won’t be necessary”—
he says to Jonathan

“Hold this,” he says—
the deadly nylon garrote 
____________

Squeezing into the stall—
bathroom on the train

“First class so crowded”—
3 dead Italian Mafioso 

THE GARROTE

“Look at this garrote,”
Reeves pulled his left
hand quickly from his
trouser pocket”
—Patricia Highsmith
RIPLEY’S GAME
______________

A thin whitish rope—
a nylon looped noose

Strong as wire—
a quick sharp jerk
________________

Marcangelo Mafia capo—
big shot just under the boss

Munich more active now—
than Marseille for dope
______________

The Hamburg Casino boys—
pleased with Bianca’s hit

Knocking off a Genotti now—
perfect for Italian feud

ANSWERED PRAYER

“Tom had once succumbed
in the case of Dickey Greenleaf.
Could it be that Trevannny
was one of us? But us to
Tom was only Tom Ripley.”

—Patricia Highsmith
RIPLEY’S GAME

_______________

The problem is how can a poet—
successfully combine within a

Simple poem all he knows—
about all other forms of writing?
_____________

Film scripts, plays, reportage—
novels, short stories, novellas?

All the other genres together—
mingling on the same palette?
_____________

A kind of whodunit mystery—
a surprise crime thriller flick

No more dithering little ditties—
something worthy of a garrote?

GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT 

“All the appurtenances 
of living… He had to
remember even to breathe”
—Patricia Highsmith
RIPLEY’S GAME
_____________

The maddening inner—
apprehension running thru

Guy Haines’ mind as Bruno—
slowly convinced him
____________

To follow thru with their—
gentleman’s agreement

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN—
that day discussing blithely 
____________

Murder nonchalantly as if—
it were some parlor game

That Guy hadn’t taken—
seriously enough yet until…

BLACK FOREST

“He was feeling a bit
nervous himself—his
first Mafia hit”
—Patricia Highsmith
RIPLEY’S GAME
______________

The poetics of murder—
how to keep action moving?

Sticking with the same—
exquisite homicidal meme?
___________

Mining it like gold—
diamonds, rubies, emeralds

Surely the unconscious—
possesses this & even more?
_____________

The garroting train scene—
with the dead Italian Mafioso 

The film with 3 dead ones—
“First class getting so crowded!”

Allela Cornell, "Portrait of Patricia Highsmith" 1943

THE PORTRAIT 

“Allela and Pat attended art 
classes together, and Highsmith 
often sat for her new lover.”
—Andrew Wilson, Beautiful Shadow:  
A Life of Patricia Highsmith
_____________

The large oil portrait of Highsmith—
dressed in a red jacket, white blouse

With its large, haunted owl-like eyes—
her complexion tinged with green
______________

Later was always there on the wall—
wherever Highsmith chose to live

Pat loved the portrait perhaps—
because of something evil 
____________

Something evil in the face—
just come back from the grave

Justin Bieber

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN 

“The one thing Bruno needed
to make his happiness complete
was to hear Guy’s voice”
—Patricia Highsmith
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
_______________

The bond between me and—
Justin was like a marriage vow

It was closer than brotherhood—
we were more like Siamese Twins
______________

I loved Guy so much now—
that I wanted to be his Double

We’d live together in our—
lovely new Palm Springs estate
_______________

Sipping cocktails late at night—
relaxing by the swimming pool

Lounging away in the desert—
a pair of decadent millionaires

Daniel Barkley, Troublesome Boy

KEPT BOY 

—for Justin Bieber

A kept boy—
that’s all I wanted

Somebody to go—
to bed with me
________

A kid to watch—
YouTube videos late

My own personal—
Lolita pouty boy
____________

Justin with his—
cute little tattoo

When we made love—
how he went boo-hoo!!

Daniel Barkley, "Winged Bieber" 

CHICKEN ANGEL 

—for Justin Bieber

Chicken Angel—
winged delight

Crème of Chicken—
cute teen hustler lite
____________

So tres pouty—
so very put-upon

Slipping down his—
ever so tight shorts
________

Am I perhaps—
robbing the cradle?

His face buried—
deep in my pillow?

Justin Bieber and Adam Lambert

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN 

Justin Bieber as Guy Haines
Lady Gaga as Miriam Joyce Haines
Adam Lambert as Bruno Anthony
Marion Lorne as Mrs. Anthony
______________________

“glued in the mirror
had seen the murderer
like a secret brother”
—Patricia Highsmith
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
_______________

Such chicken vulnerability—
his peach-fuzz moustache

Propositioning him in—
my Super Chief stateroom
_______________

Him reversing it—
getting me to do in his

Tacky slutty wife—
wouldn’t give him a divorce
__________

Me faggy Bruno Anthony—
would I murder to get him off? 

You bet, honey—
it was love at first sight!!!

Kansas Gothic Intelligentsia

KANSAS GOTHIC INTELLIGENTSIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6piI5-Is0so&list=PL54E6FCC882BE1B32&index=33

—for Connie, Roberta, Theresa,  
Jan and Kenton
_________________

We’ve all been tainted by it—
America Gothic deep inside us

There’s no such thing as the—
FLY OVER STATE aesthetic
____________

It’s deep inside us & it’s not—
gonna budge or go anywhere

Just look at this lovely photo—
such exquisite young naivete
__________

Dearest Connie and Theresa—
lovely Roberta and gone Jan

The intelligentsia, my dears—
such young Emporia literati
___________

Elsie Pine took one look at me—
told me to come back to her

From then on we talked—
tea time there in her home
_____________

She was the Grande Dame—
the true Librarian Goddess

Long before the Eisenhower—
William Allen White Library
_____________

She gathered her coterie—
young Kansas writers together

I was unique though—
I came to her with credentials
_________

Talented lesbians sensed that—
I was quite capable of knowing

Mildred Kaff and her lover—
Vina Hillerman the Artist
______________

They knew my mother—
Amy Jane was their student

And suddenly I popped up—
totally unexpected by them
_____________

The Lesbos goddesses—
sailing by high overhead

Here is our gift to you—
this nelly prairie boy
__________

Help him to be who he’ll be—
it will be difficult for him

We’ve chosen his home—
Athens of the Midwest town
____________

Let him to be the Voice—
of summer cicada evenings

The boy of Peter Pan Park—
the kid who Mary White was
____________

WAW laid the groundwork—
the Park, the Lake, the Muse

And so the Voice came—
all the way from Kensington Park
_____________

The wrestling team knew it too—
as we worked out after school

Down by Peter Pan Lake—
there on the mats after school
_______________

Arnold Lopez in YMCA showers—
knowing all too well who I was 

Shoving my face against the wall—
a bar of soap stuck up my ass
_____________

Knowing me better than—
I could possibly know myself

There in the moody YMCA—
I became who I am
____________________

Later Marjorie Sullivan sensed it—
Jaquith and Doxtator knew it too

They knew I was different—
But what could they possibly do?
________

How could they know—
I still don’t know who I am

What do I know about Kansas—
other than it’s MYSTERIOUS
________________

MYSTERIOUS SKIN—
like Scott Heim says

But then what do I know—
am I gay Kansas poet laureate?
________________

WRITERLY REWRITE 

“I know I am dead—
and you too.”
—Kells Elvins, William
Burroughs’ Harvard friend
____________

Writers are all dead—
we’re writing posthumously

We’re working from beyond—
the tomb with no commissions
____________

Philip K. Dick had the same—
past-life alt. history flashbacks

Like his Hugo Award winning—
THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE
_____________

Jack Kerouac and Dick were—
writers born KNOWING

They knew they were dead—
and that I was dead too
_________

They told me what I already knew—
the only thing you can tell anybody

I was dead and back again—
that’s what writers do

The William Inge Seance

THE WILLIAM INGE SÉANCE  

The 32nd annual William Inge Theatre Festival at the Independence William Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College, Kansas, May 1-4 2013
______________

"Playwright — Author — Homosexual"

William Inge was a true professional entertainer that took pride in what he presented. A serious playwright gifted with GAY sleight of hand, he could perform miracles on stage as well as right under the noses of a closely gathered heterosexual spectators.

With four consecutive Broadway hits, a Pulitzer Prize, and an Oscar, William Inge was one of the top dramatists of the mid-20th century.

A still-unmatched record of four consecutive Broadway hits in Come Back, Little Sheba (1950); Picnic (1953); Bus Stop (1955); and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957). They are best known to audiences today through their entertaining if not completely faithful film versions; Inge didn’t get to do the adaptations. He did, however, write directly for the screen, and he won an Oscar for his original screenplay for 1961’s Splendor in the Grass, which starred Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty and was directed by Elia Kazan.

Inge’s experience had been garnered by performing as "closet-case magician" at various theaters...and by demonstrating his skill at private parties, banquets, corporate events and other social functions.

His material was "straight" as well as both humorous and nostalgic, maintaining his heteronormative  bookings primarily through word-of-mouth gossip and deceptive advertising.
_______________________________

INGE: I’ve returned tonight. From the other side…

MADAME SOSOSTRIS: Welcome, William.

INGE: Welcome? I always hated Independence.

MADAME SOSOSTRIS: But, my dear!!!

INGE: I hated Broadway and Hollywood, too!!!

MADAME SOSOSTRIS: But, William! We’re having the 32nd annual William Inge Theatre Festival here at the Independence William Inge Center for the Arts at lovely Independence Community College, Kansas.

INGE: Are you kidding? Most of the town citizens hated my guts, objected to the Center because of my homosexuality and fame. I despise them all.

MADAME SOSOSTRIS: Ladies and Gentlemen. This concludes our séance with the ghost of Miss Inge tonight. Please forgive me. I’m having an attack of acute Occult Paranoia with the Nelly Spirits tonight. Turn on the lights!!! Let’s get outta here!!!