ackroyd, plato papers

8/12/2019 Ackroyd, Plato Papers

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The Plato PapersPeter Ackroyd'A marvellou fable for our . . . times funny and wise' A.N. Wilson, Daily Mail

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/" T")NThe Great Fire o f LondonThe Last Testament of Oscar Wilde

HawksmoorChatterton First Light English MusicThe House of Doctor Dee

Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem Milton in merica

*")0RAP1+T!"! Eliot

Dickens #lakeThe Life o f Thomas MoreP) TR+The Di$ersions of %urley


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P e t e r A c k r o y d

T 1 P ( AT ) P A P R #A Novel

R"T" "#2 &otes for a &ew Culture

! " N T A 0


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Published by !inta3e 45554 6 7 8 95 : ; < = 9

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This book is sold sub?ect to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent inany form of bindin3 or cover other than that in which it is published and without asimilar condition includin3 this condition bein3 imposed on the subse@uent purchaser /irst published in 0reat *ritain by hatto Windus in 9:::!inta3eRandom 1ouse, 45 !auBhall *rid3e Road, (ondon #W9! 4#ARandom 1ouse Australia CPtyD (imited45 Alfred #treet, 2ilsons Point, #ydney New #outh Wales 4579, AustraliaRandom 1ouse New Eealand (imited98 Poland Road, 0lenfield, Auckland 95, New EealandRandom 1ouse CPtyD (imited

ndulini,


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For Eli'a(eth Wyndham


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c! =


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" often envisa3e, in this new a3e of universal and instantaneous communication, how our planet mi3ht appear to distant observers. "t must seem to shimmer in a state of continualeBcited activity, rather like a round diamond in the sky.Ronald orvo, &ew Theory of the Earth* 45=5.

All fallen dark and @uiet, all 3one down. ollapsophe.Foseph P., Diaries* ++,,!

We who survive, we scoured ones, in depths of dark dismay, call out of the ni3ht of ourworld, 3one as we knew it, as we know it.(ondon hymn, c! 4=54.

#livers of li3ht. #ilvers. (ittle horn&shaped li3hts, ridin3 the waves of darkness.Foseph P., Diaries* 4=56.

2yander, a (ondoner, wrote the history of a chan3in3 world, be3innin3 at the momentof transition, believin3 that it would mark a 3reat epoch, one more worthy of relationthan any that had come before. This belief was not without its 3rounds. The world ofscience had collapsed, but the divine consciousness of humanity had not yet asserteditself. All the labours of 2yander lay in recordin3 the manifest si3ns of dismay andwonder. #ince the events of distant anti@uity, even those immediately precedin3 the 3reatchan3e, cannot clearly be understood she believed it her duty to en@uire carefully intoimmediate circumstances.2yander, History* 4=95.

The holy city, restored. )urselves, revived.Proclamation, 4=


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(etter from Popcorn to 2ellitus, ==::.

The city bears us. The city loves its burden. Nurture it in return. o not leave its bounds.Proclamation, =


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T1 ( TLR # AN R 2AR-# )/ P(AT))N T1 )N "T")N )/ PA#T A0 #


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I

".arkler/ Wait, #idonia, waitJ"idonia/ 0ladly.".arkler/ " ?ust saw you in the market. +ou were standin3 beneath the city wall, and

so " assumed that you were listenin3 to Plato's oration."idonia/ orrect in every respect, #parkler. *ut " eBpected to see you there, since you

always celebrate the feast of 0o3.".arkler/ " was about to cross the /leet, and ?oin you, when 2adri3al stopped me."idonia/ What did he wantI".arkler/ )nly somethin3 about a parish meetin3. *ut, as a result, " missed Plato's

openin3 remarks. " heard only his endin3, when he spoke of his sorrow at the darknessof past a3es.

"idonia/ "t was all very interestin3. There was a period when our ancestors believedthat they inhabited a world which revolved around a sun.

".arkler/ an it be trueI"idonia/ )h yes. They had been told that they lived upon a spherical planet, movin3

throu3h some kind of infinite space.".arkler/ NoJ"idonia/ That was their delusion. *ut it was the A3e of 2ouldwarp. Accordin3 to

Plato, the whole earth seemed to have been reduced and rolled into a ball until it wassmall enou3h to fit their theories.".arkler/ *ut surely they must have known M or feltI"idonia/ They could not have known. /or them the sun was a very powerful 3od. )f

course we were all silent for a moment, after Plato had told us this, and then he lau3hed.".arkler/ 1e lau3hedI"idonia/ ven when he had taken off the orator's mask, he was still smilin3. Then he

be3an to @uestion us. ' o you consider me to be smallI " know that you do. ould youima3ine the people of 2ouldwarp to be much, much smallerI Their heads were tiny, andtheir eyes like pinpoints. o you know,' he said, 'that in the end they believedthemselves to be covered by a 3reat net or webI'

".arkler/ "mpossible. " never know when Plato is tellin3 the truth."idonia $ That is what he en?oys. The 3ame. That is why he is an orator.".arkler/ We who have known him since childhoodG"idonia $ Gnever cease to wonder.".arkler/ *ut who could be convinced by such wild speculationsI"idonia/ ome and decide for yourself. Walk with me to the white chapel, where he

is about to be3in his second oration.


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4

" will speak of a novelist, harles ickens, who flourished in a period somewhere between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries of our earth. The titles of his workshave been retrieved but only one teBt survives, alas in an incomplete form. #even pa3eshave been removed, and the author's name partially defaced, for reasons which areunknown to me. 2ost of the narrative remains, however, and it provides a uni@ueopportunity to eBamine the nature of 2ouldwarp ima3ination. The novel is entitled Onthe Origin of ".ecies (y Means of &atural "election* by harles G. The rest of thename has been 3ou3ed out by some crude tool, and the phrase '!ile stuffJ' written in adye&based substance. learly the reader did not approve of the fictionJ Perhaps it wastoo melodramatic, or romantic, for her refined tasteJ espite this erasure, we have nocause to doubt that this novel was composed by the author of Great E0.ectations and

Hard Times!"t opens with a statement by the hero of the narrative M 'When on board 12# #eagle*

as a naturalist, " was much struck with certain facts . . . ' M who then proceeds to tell hisremarkable story. *y observin3 bees, and pi3eons, and various other creatures aroundhim, he mana3es to create within his own mind an entire world of such compleBity thateventually he believes it to be real. This is reminiscent of another fiction we have

recovered, Don 1ui0ote* in which the prota3onist is similarly deluded. The @uiBotic heroof The Origin* however, is portrayed as bein3 obsessed by 'stru33le', 'competition', and'death by natural selection', in a manner both morbid and ludicrous. 1e pretends to beeBact in his calculations but then declares that '" have collected a lon3 list of such cases

but here, as before, " lie under a 3reat disadvanta3e in not bein3 able to 3ive them'. Thiswonderfully comic remark is succeeded by one no less rich in inadvertent humour. '"t ishopeless', he states, 'to attempt to convince anyone of the truth of this propositionwithout 3ivin3 the lon3 array of facts " have collected, and which cannot possibly behere introduced.' 1ere is a character who, if real, would not have been believedJ

The subtlety of harles ickens's fiction now becomes apparent. "n the act ofinventin3 this absurd fellow, this 'naturalist' travellin3 upon the eBtraordinarily named

#eagle* he has mana3ed indirectly to parody his own society. The subtitle of the novelitself su33ests one of the ob?ects of his satire M 'The Preservation of /avoured Races inthe #tru33le for (ife' refers to the 2ouldwarp delusion that all human bein3s could beclassified in terms of 'race', '3ender' or 'class'. We find interestin3 evidence of this in theanecdotes of a comedian, *rother 2arB, of whom " will speak at a later date. +et

ickens is able to mock this eccentric hypothesis throu3h the words of his haplessnarrator, who su33ests that 'widely ran3in3 species which have already triumphed over


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many competitors . . . will have the best chance of seiHin3 on new places when theyspread into new countries'. "t should be recalled that in the middle period of 2ouldwarpthe separate nations fou3ht and colonised each otherK as our hero puts it in his usual

bland fashion, 'the northern forms were enabled to beat the less powerful southern forms'with the purpose 'of bein3 victorious in distant lands in the stru33le for life with forei3n

associates'. "t is the final masterstroke of irony by harles ickens that his charactersolemnly maintains the pretence of discussin3 only birds and insects, while at the sametime providin3 a wonderfully succinct if brutal summary of the society from which hecameJ

1is is a dark world indeed, dominated by the necessity of labour and the appetite for power. ven the bees are 'anBious . . . to save time', and the prota3onist eBtols 'the moreefficient workshops of the north'K nature itself is described as fru3al or even miserly,with a continual desire 'to economise'J +et, in a transitional chapter of this novel, thehero ceases to be merely comic and reveals more mali3n or sinister characteristics. 1esu33ests the need for 'heavy destruction' and announces, with no irony at all, 'let thestron3est live and the weakest die'. "n one remarkable passa3e he celebrates thespectacle of violent death M 'we ou3ht to admire', he informs us, 'the sava3e instinctivehatred of the @ueen bee, which instantly ur3es her to destroy the youn3 @ueens, herdau3hters'. We have come across fra3ments of writin3 M 'the death of @ueens', '@ueenshave died youn3 and fair' M which su33est that he is here alludin3 to a dramatic traditionnow lost to us. *ut nothin3 can dis3uise his own interest in carna3e.

ombat and slau3hter, in fact, become the principal components of the unreal worldwhich he has created. 1e ima3ines all life on earth to be derived from one 'common

parent' or 'primordial form'K the offsprin3 of this 'prototype' then develop into various

species of animal or plant, which in turn fi3ht amon3 themselves in order to 'pro3resstowards perfection'. 1e calls it 'evolution'. No lau3hter, please. 1e is only the prota3onist of a novelJ Well, lau3h if you must. *ut remember that harles ickenshimself is satirisin3 the blind pretensions of his era. Remember, too, that no one fromthis dark past could have known that all aspects of the world chan3e suddenly and thatnew or3anic life appears when the earth demands it. )nly in the A3e of Witspell, foreBample, was it realised that the petrified shapes found in rock or ice were created tomock or mimic their or3anic counterparts. "n the same period it was also reco3nised thateach portion of the earth produces its own creatures spontaneously.

" will conclude this oration with a theme introduced by the novel itself. ven as the prota3onist concludes his false and ramblin3 description of the natural world, he reflectsupon his own eBperience in lu3ubrious terms. '1ow fleetin3 are the wishes and efforts ofman,' he complains, 'how short his timeJ' These are typical 2ouldwarp sentiments but,on this occasion, they come from a deluded scholar who claimed to understand themotive power behind such 3eneral 'wishes and efforts'J 2ay " recommend The Origin of".ecies to you, then, as a comic masterpieceI


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=

Madrigal/ id you en?oy the orationIOrnatus/ "mmensely. ven the an3els seemed interested, especially when Platomentioned that theory M that thin3 M what was itI

Madrigal/ onvolutionIOrnatus/ Precisely. onvolutions. " had to lau3h.

Madrigal/ We all did. *ut why are the beliefs of our ancestors so ridiculousI " amsure that they were sincerely held.

Ornatus/ No doubt. Madrigal/ Perhaps, in the future, someone mi3ht lau3h at M well M you and me.Ornatus/ There is nothin3 funny about us.

Madrigal/ As far as we know.Ornatus/ A 3ood point. We must ask Plato about this as soon as possible. To think

that in our schooldays we were all in the same parish M you, me, Plato. Madrigal/ And #parkler. 1ow could you for3et #parklerI With his lon3 robe and

white hair.Ornatus/ And #idonia, too, with her red hair and the blue li3ht shinin3 from her.

Madrigal/ " have known them so lon3 that sometimes they seem very close, andsometimes in the far distance.

Ornatus/ All human perception is a dream. )r so Plato tells us. And there he is by the

clerk's well. 1e seems to be talkin3 to himself. Madrigal/ "mpossible. 1e must be practisin3 his neBt oration.

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%lato/ 1ow do " know that you are my soulI"oul/ 1ow do you know that " am notI

%lato/ " have been tau3ht that our souls eBist, of course, but this is the first time youhave decided to appear.

"oul/ "t is unusual, " admit, but not wholly unprecedented. " can prove that " am yoursoul, by the way. (ook at this.

%lato/ "s it trulyI )h, my mother. an " touchGI"oul/ No. "t is not allowed. Now look what you have done. #he has faded.

%lato/ 1ow is it possibleI 1ow did you summon herI


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"oul/ 1er own soul was a close companion of mine. We used to talk and sin3, whenyou and your mother were sittin3 to3ether.

%lato/ #he was always wreathed in white."oul/ That was the colour of the city in those days.

%lato/ We had an old house, built of li3ht and not of stone.

"oul/ " remember it well. That was where it all be3an, " suppose. %lato/ *e3anI"oul/ o you always ask @uestionsI "t may become irritatin3. #he used to tell you

stories. /ables and le3ends of the old time. %lato/ #o " became aware of the city and its history."oul/ #o you did.

%lato/ And so " studied."oul/ #o&so. +ou were chosen as orator, at least.

%lato/ No other citiHen desired the office. "t is not considered @uite proper to dwellupon the past, as " do. "t is not appropriate. +et they attend the orations, and listen

politely."oul/ )r lau3h.

%lato/ " en?oy their lau3hter. " am their clown. " protect them from doubt aboutthemselves. ven when " speak the truth, " am so small that they do not consider mywords of much importance.

"oul/ +ou always speak the truth, as far as you understand it. %lato/ And, presumably, that is not very far."oul/ " am not permitted to dwell upon such thin3s. +ou are becomin3. " am bein3.

There is a difference. " wish that " could help you with your 3lossary of ancient terms,

for instance, but it is forbidden. " cannot intervene. %lato/ 1ow did you know aboutGI"oul/ +ou must have realised by now that we have a very intimate relationship. Well,

if you will eBcuse me, " think " ou3ht to rest for a while. 2ay " ?ust slip away @uietlyI %lato/ o you think anyone has noticed youI"oul/ )f course not. +ou have been starin3 into space, and talkin3 to yourself. That is

all.

ackroyd, plato papers

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