Liu, Yvonne (yl28172@imcnam.sbi.com)
Wed, 7 Oct 1998 15:17:52 -0400
Tonight at the Poetry Project in St. Mark's Church, NYC:
JIM CARROLL and DARIUS JAMES
"Basketball Diaries" author Jim Carroll will read in celebration
of the publication of his newest collection of poems
"Void of Course" (Penguin) and the release of his new CD
from Mercury Records.
Darius James is the author of
"That's Blaxploitation!: Roots of the Baad*sssss 'Tude"
and "Negrophobia."
Readings start at 8 pm, admission is $7.
St. Mark's Church
131 East 10th Street
I'm very torn between this reading and the Woody Allen movie,
"What's Up Tiger Lily?" at vOID tonight.
(sigh)
Yvonne.
____________________________________________
This is a story. It's about the Word,
the Virus and the Magician.
Crossing Time and Space,
transcending cultural boundaries.
It is about disguise and dissimulation,
transmission and dissemination.
It begins at an end,
and ends at a beginning.
Full circle,
cycling through the ages,
turning through 360 degrees
and all points in between.
It is a story about magic and codes,
about dreams and reality;
above all, it is about the PROCESS.
The end of one story is the beginning of another.
All things return to their root,
and to begin we will visit the secret chamber
of Hassan i Sabbah,
Old Man of the Mountain
and founder of the Ismaeli sect
known throughout history as 'The Assasins.'
The date is May 23rd.
The year, 1124.
The place, Alamut, the Eagle's Nest
set high in the mountains,
just south of the Caspian Sea...And
it is here that we find
Hassan i Sabbah,
the hero of our tale.
He is waiting for us in the same chamber
he has occupied for 33 years since founding
his mountain kingdom, 33 years, the time endured
in this world by an earlier heretic some thousand
odd years before. Another law breaker
whose word struck fear into those who opposed.
Hassan i Sabbah is dying, but still he waits.
Waiting for the moment to strike.
And while he waits he dreams of
the grand stratagem by which he secured this
impenetrable retreat...He must speak with Kiya.
Reaching out from his bed,
he beckons Kiya-Buzurg-Umid,
his Grand Vizier,
friend and chosen successor.
'Kiya, come close,' he whispers.
'It is time to convey the secret.'
Later they were to be recorded in
CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT
from which I now quote:
'It is said that an initiate who wishes
to know the answer to any question
need only repeat these words as he
falls asleep and the answer will come
in a dream...'
Rumour has is that 'these words' were:
' NOTHING IS TRUE.
EVERYTHING IS PERMITTED. '
(From A William S. Burroughs Birthday Book,
Ed. by Paul Cecil, Temple Press: 1994)
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