THE
MYSTERIOUS EFFECT
OF
ANTONIN MANIQUI
A Novel
By Drew Fisher
PROLOGUE
(Reprinted from The New York Times Book Review, Sunday April 23, 2004.)
Rip Van Winkle Returns
Antonin Urlov Maniqui publishes his second novel after a 35-year absence.
MATURITY quells the emotional fires of youth while nurturing its corollary: resignation. Daily and yearly confrontation with reality causes idealism to give way to pragmatism, even cynicism. This is nowhere as evident as in the new novel by Antonin Urlov Maniqui, Ideas as Opiates, being released this month by Hestia Press. Known for his 1969 cult classic, Inc. (Charles Scrivener & Sons), Maniqui has returned to the narrative stage after an unexplained, Salinger-like, 35-year absence.
Leaping into the limelight with a best seller at age 34, Maniqui gave voice to the insecurities and dreams of the youth of the Sixties. He accomplished this with such insight and empathy that Inc. helped to spawn a generation of hip-talking, utopian-walking pop-fiction writers. Indeed, due to its historicity and universal appeal, the generations that have grown up since the Sixties have likely found Inc. on their teacher-assigned or friend-recommended reading lists.
The arrival of Ideas as Opiates comes with no little mystery and intrigue. One of the surprises is the fact that this is only Maniqui’s second publication. The sensitive novelist disappeared after a rather dynamic and well-publicized exit from the set of a television talk show in 1969. No one seems to have a clue as to what this talented wordsmith has been doing for the past 35 years. Immigration records show that Maniqui left the United States in 1969 and has never returned. Reliable sources maintain that he has assumed permanent residency in some Western European country, possibly Ireland. However, his exact whereabouts remain unknown.
In yet another curious twist in the Maniqui dossier, Ideas as Opiates is a sequel to Inc. Trever and Inc, the two hippie idealists who tread heavily in the eye of the hurricane that raged around them in 1969, are back to entertain us in 2001—or so we are lulled into believing. While all but the last chapter of Ideas appears to take place in the year 2001, the truth is—or so the author would have us believe—that the dynamic duo are traveling through space and time, choosing from a variety of time-locations in which to insert themselves for the sake of collecting experiences. With each entry into earth reality, the two are apparently subjected to a kind of amnesia, which is supposed to better enable them to more fully engage in the events of their immediate surroundings.
It seems that, according to Maniqui, life is like stepping into a movie role with each and every moment offering the actor-cum-student a multitude of choices as to ‘how to play the role.’ Each choice, then, presents any number of lessons, while at the same time setting into motion myriad consequences, each with its own particular chain reaction of linear repercussions.
Maniqui’s gift-wrapping of New Age ontology proves totally superfluous, which is disappointing, for his presentation of life in 2001 stands well enough on its own. As with Inc., Ideas presents a fast-paced, wonderfully witty yet thought provoking collection of social satire. If Maniqui’s intent with the final chapter is more to open the door for future installments of the travels and travails of his heroes, then he is forgiven. Maniqui’s style is so fresh and up-tempo that any contribution of the adventures of Inc and Trever—even in pulp form— is welcomed.
The experiences of this episode of Inc and Trever’s participation in the game of the human experience are derived from their ‘waking up’ to find themselves bombarded by the myriad stressors and stimuli demanded of East Coast suburban life. Maniqui makes no apologies for his blatant indictment of 21st Century Western koyanaquatsi. A veritable feast of vignettes exposing the dysfunctional dynamics of American family, work, and society are served with humor and wit, yet often leave a rather acerbic after-taste. Americans, the ultimate masters of denial and escape, will find it often uncomfortable and even embarrassing to be confronted with some of their own foibles—especially the likes of avarice, arrogance, extravagance and xenocentricity.
Though Ideas as Opiates is considered a sequel to 1969’s Inc., there exists a most noticeable divergence from the emotional tone of the original. The playful rivalry that existed between ridicule and hope in Inc. is totally absent from Ideas. Actually, aside from the feeble spiritual escape clause in Chapter 50, Ideas is starkly void of hope; one has the foreboding sense that Inc and Trever are up against insurmountable forces, that the tide of darkness has triumphed. Whereas the social commentary in Inc. was transparent and often shamelessly derogatory, its bite was offset by a strong strain of optimism. It is, in fact, Inc.’s optimism that makes it such a popular favorite. Is it Maniqui’s age or his isolation—or a combination of both— that has borne this new cynicism? Does the author truly believe Western civilization has tipped the scales beyond any hope for recovery? Inc! Trever! Dudes! Say it ain’t so!
Despite the new despondent tone, Maniqui remains eminently readable. A master of capturing the voice of the times while confronting his audience with its enslavement to absurdly contradictory behaviors, Maniqui’s snappy dialogue is alive, entertaining, and often poetic. One can only wonder —with no little wistfulness—what Maniqui-isms we’ve missed due to his long silence. Let us hope we won’t have to wait another 35 years for the next printed effort from the now 68-year old author.
(Obituary reprinted from The New York Times, July 2, 2004.)
Author Antonin Maniqui Found Dead
Antonin Urlov Maniqui, reclusive author of bestselling novels Inc. (Charles Scrivener & Sons, 1969) and Ideas as Opiates (Hestia Press, 2004) was found dead yesterday in his home outside Donegal, Ireland. Cause of death appears to be heart failure. Maniqui was 69 years old.
* * * * * *
(Reprinted from the Petoskey News-Review, July 5 2004.)
Petoskey Author Maniqui Dead
Antonin Urlov Maniqui, formerly of Petoskey, was found dead in his country home outside of Donegal, Ireland, Wednesday. Irish authorities say he died of heart failure. He was 69 years old.
Born June 1, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan, to French-Russian immigrants, Victor and Katerina (Myshenskyeva) Maniqui, Antonin grew up an only child in Detroit and later Petoskey, where he graduated from high school in 1952. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, and Masters Degrees in linguistics, philosophy, and fine arts from Columbia University, New York. Never married, Antonin leaves no living relations.
Author of two bestselling novels: Inc., published in 1969 by Charles Scrivener & Sons, and Ideas as Opiates, published in 2004 by Hestia Press. Ideas currently sits on bestseller lists in 43 countries.
(Reprinted from TIME magazine, July 12, 2004, page 26+.)
Life Imitating Art?
Reclusive author Antonin Maniqui wrote two very popular, critically acclaimed, yet controversial novels. Could he have been the author of more than just fiction?..................26
Massachusetts Senator John Quincy Moran. Corporate giant-killer James N. Audley. Surgeon General Kathleen Phillips-Rees. Patrick ‘Father Joe’ Gavenucci. Composer/filmmaker Robert Francis Stahrender. Name six things that these five high-profile public figures have in common. Answer: 1) All forty-somethings. 2) All American-born. 3) All innovators in their fields. 4) All very driven to break old social patterns with new, human potential- realizing reforms. 5) All named as beneficiaries of recently deceased author Antonin Maniqui’s estate. 6) All stumbled upon the reclusive author’s home in Ireland during the fall of 1985.
Separately.
Accidentally.
On consecutive days.
Totally oblivious of one another.
“It’s all rather surreal to me,” says Senator Moran. “I spent one day with the man when I was 25. That’s it! And suddenly I’m in his book’s dedication, I’m at his funeral, I’m in his will!”
The ‘dedication’ from Maniqui’s recent novel, Ideas as Opiates, refers to five ‘visitors’ from the autumn of 1985, naming ‘James, Frank, Kathleen, Patrick and John’ as his ‘Children.’ The fervor of interest spurred on by the publication of Maniqui’s critically acclaimed international bestseller sparked a worldwide manhunt that only just ended with notice of the reclusive author’s death last Tuesday.
Mystery solved. On Sunday, ‘James’ Audley, Robert Francis ‘Frank’ Stahrender, ‘Kathleen’ Phillips-Rees, ‘Patrick’ Joseph Gavenucci, and ‘John’ Moran served as pallbearers at Maniqui’s funeral in Donegal, Ireland. Adding to the bizarre mystery of this story is the claim the five make that none of them had any contact with Maniqui before or since their 1985 serendipitous visits. Yet, the heirless author named these five Americans as equal beneficiaries to his estate---which is estimated to be worth about $10 million not including ongoing royalties.
“I can’t believe he even remembered me!” exclaimed Phillips-Rees. “His book, that night, changed my life, but to think that I’d done anything worthy of his remembrance or praise is beyond my comprehension.”
The five American reformers also claim that before Sunday they had never met one another. “Of course I know of Senator Moran, Dr. Phillips-Rees, Father Joe, and James Audley,” said Stahrender. “But, no, I’ve never met any of them before.”
When asked why they were in Ireland during the fall of 1985 the responses are strikingly similar. “Soul searching,” declared Moran. “Getting away from it all for a bit,” said Audley. “Needing time to think,” claimed Gavenucci. “Wanting to do something for myself, for once in my life,” admitted Phillips-Rees. “Escape, introspection, and planning,” from Stahrender.
Not one of the five lost souls had a clue they would be meeting Antonin Urlov Maniqui---a writer whose first novel, Inc., all five admit to having held in high esteem. “It changed my life,” said Stahrender. “My wake up call,” said Audley. “Inc. helped me to believe in my self,” said Phillips-Rees, “to really see that I had choices.” “It was the first book I’d ever read that made me think, ‘this guy knows me! He’s talking about me!’ said Gavenucci. “A great book,” acclaims Moran. “A kind of ‘declaration of independence’ for the 20th Century.”
“I picked up Ideas as soon as it came out,” said Audley, whose personal legacy includes being lead attorney for 1999’s People v. Mall-Mart Supreme Court decision which formerly stripped corporations of their previously assumed ‘personhood’ status. “I must admit, the dedication kind of through me for a loop. I knew it was probably me. But, why?”
“Ideas brought back to mind the debt I owe him (Maniqui),” said Patrick ‘Father Joe’ Gavenucci, whose efforts have led to securing local and govern-ment funding for his urban and ‘com-munity learning center’ project, the nation’s fastest growing educational reform movement. “I would never have come to where I am were it not for my night with Antonin Maniqui. I’d either be a bitter, mechanical Catholic priest, or I’d have quit religion, married, and be doing the 9-to-5 routine.”
“I had never met the other four, but I was dying to find out if the ‘John’ reference in Ideas was me,” said John Quincy Moran, Senator from Massa-chusetts and founding member of the growing Constitutional Party for Reform (CPR).
“I’ll never forget that day in Ireland,” said Dr. Kathleen Phillips-Rees. “I got caught in an unexpected rainstorm,” recalls the champion of people-oriented health care. “Rain was pouring down. The first house I came to was Maniqui’s. We talked by the fire. Or rather, I talked. He mostly listened. Next morning I left rejuvenated, my will focused, new goals forming.”
If the careers of these five shakers and movers are any indication, it would seem that a visit with Antonin Maniqui has life-changing repercussions. Would that we all could have been so lucky.
(Reprinted from TIME magazine, July 12, 2004, page 31.)
T H E M A N I Q U I L E G A C Y
The 5 Children of Reform:
Saviors or Satans?
Saviors or Satans?
James N. Audley. Corporate lawyer turned corporate giant-killer. Lead attorney in the landmark case, People v. Mall-Mart, in which the Supreme Court struck down the ‘personhood’ status of corporations. With the claim that the writers of the Constitution had never intended for corporations to be eligible for the same rights as natural persons, that our Founding Fathers had in fact worked expressly toward the eradication of all forms of tyranny---including that of ‘faceless corporations’---all rights and privileges assumed by corporations since the 1880s were summarily stripped. Though the world continues to recover from the ensuing economic collapse and Y2K Depres-sion, the decision is viewed as a landmark victory in the human rights movement---a turning point in the ‘Return to Democratic Principles’ movement---as it brought fully to the public eye an understanding of the divergent goals of democracy and capitalism.
John Quincy Moran. Nuclear physicist turned politician and political reformist. Founder of the Constitutional Party for Reform and first third party candidate to be elected to the U.S. Senate from the state of Massachusetts in 30 years, Moran has worked tirelessly for recognition and acceptance of the ‘quantum oneness’ of all things via a return to principles of ‘probable democracy’. Vaulting to national prominence in the 1990s with his book, Reinventing the Constitution, and cable TV miniseries, Revisiting the Founding Fathers, Moran’s efforts have resulted in new legislation for campaign finance reform, the rewriting of the 14th Amendment, and ballot access reform in order to unlock the Republican-Democrat two-party stranglehold on the nation’s political system.
Kathleen Phillips-Rees. The nation’s second female Surgeon General creates bold, paradigm-changing policies in the health care field. Building a medical practice and bestselling books on the premise and catchphrase that ‘health care is about health and caring’, Phillips-Rees has dedicated her career to ‘returning the power of health care back to the people.’ An avid proponent of patient education and ‘team approach’ health care, Phillips-Rees’ work has opened doors for the public acceptance and legal licensure of many ‘nontraditional’, ‘alternative and complementary’, and ‘naturopathic’ health care and healing traditions.
Patrick Joseph ‘Father Joe’ Gavenucci. Former priest and teacher turned social activist. Founder of the ‘community learning center’ movement which has found funding, facilities, and local interest in over 17 major cities and countless smaller towns and municipalities. ‘CLCs’ are a combination public library and school offering community support 24-hours a day. They offer state-of-the art technological services and grass roots learning resources for all kinds of formal and informal educational, vocational and social activities. Some key Gavenucci maxims: 1) “Everyone is learning all the time;” 2) “Everybody---in every community---has something of value to teach or share;” 3) “Everybody has something they would like to learn;” 4) “Everybody---of all ages---needs a safe place to go where they feel welcome, where they can experience community, where they can feel free to learn whatever they wish to learn;” and, 5) “Schools and schooling are antithetical to freedom and individual rights.”
Robert Frances ‘Frank’ Stahrender. Award-winning musician and filmmaker, pioneer of DVD and music video production technologies. Stahrender’s frustration with barriers between performer and audience led to the creation of Opus Humanae, an audience participatory concert experience in which musicians plug in and play, dancers move among the crowd, live microphones are available for anyone, video and sound are mani-pulated by ‘computer jocks.’ The result is spontaneous, unrehearsed, live performance art at its most raw---out of which have come the indie cult favorite Opus Humanae Live films. Permanent Opus Humanae venues have been established in over 50 cities in 13 countries around the world. Proponents love it for its encouragement of the artistry in everyman, while opponents condemn it for promoting ‘paganism’ and ‘debauchery’---citing several acts of violence related to Opus Humanae events. Though reaction to Stahrender’s ideas from critics and fellow artists was at first rather cool, acceptance of Opus ‘bacchanals’ is now virtually universal.
(Reprinted from TIME magazine, July 12, 2004, page 28.)
M A N I Q U I IN P R I N T
Inc. and Ideas in Review
Ideas as Opiates (Hestia Press), Antonin Maniqui’s time-twisting novel set loosely in a ‘self-created singularity’ sequels his 1969 cult classic, Inc., by tracing the ‘evolution, devolution, and involution’ of the two protagonists from Inc., Inc and Trever. The book opens with the two rule-bending, reality-testing, morality-challenging, politically active hippies ‘suddenly’ finding themselves in a strange new world.
“Hey, man. What happened to the Sixties?” laments Trever.
“Big Brother won, man,” Inc tells his buddy as they look at each other’s short hair and business suits. “Can’t you feel it?”
Reminded of Brendan Frazer and Alicia Silverstone in 1999’s Blast from the Past, the duo soon figures out that they’ve somehow leaped forward 30 years (it’s 2001). Hypothesizing that they’ve been passing the years in a kind of somnambulant trance, a horrified Trever proclaims, “Zombies, man, we’re zombies!”
In their new reality---one that holds true for most of the remainder of this 532-page novel---the two have not only aged 30 years but they’ve conformed. They each have the standard three-car suburban houses, the 50-hour corporate desk job, the dysfunctional first and second marriages, and of course the requisite chaos that comes with having kids and step kids, wives and ex-wives.
Dark comedy runs rampant throughout the pages of Ideas, but it is the fresh new characters with their wise-beyond-their-years banter that allows Maniqui’s brilliance to shine.
Inc’s bright, confident, empathetic 18-year old son, Jah-man, and Trever’s bring-on-the-world 19-year old daughter, Nasty (Anastasia), happen to push every paternal button their respective fathers never knew they had (and vowed in Inc. that they wouldn’t have). With their casual on-again, off-again romance and more relaxed (Maniqui would say, ‘evolved’) attitudes toward relationships---and especially sex---Jah-man and Nasty provide plenty of push to their fathers’ comfort zones. The mirrors Trever and Inc are forced to look into are at once frustrating, horrifying, and laughable. To the reader they are discomforting and often quite embarrassing.
The dysfunctional dynamics between Inc and his first wife, the paranoid, emotionally-dependent, Freaky (Frances), and his cool-as-ice, corporate-climbing second, Amanda, and Trever and his first and second wives, Alex (“Good-sex”) and Tiffany (“Can’t-get-any”), respectively, are conveyed humorously but, again, prove painfully real. Maniqui is presenting us with a rather grim reflection of our times.
The Maniqui genius, as it was in Inc., is with dialogue. Fast moving, each character highly idiosyncratic—the conversation is always very real yet peppered with occasional questions or observations so candid, so brutally direct and honest, that they never fail to catch us off-guard. Maniqui has once again made satire of our day and age while at the same time offering inspiration and hope for a healthier, more optimistic future.
In the most delightful twist of Ideas as Opiates, the last chapter (titled ‘Yep: a log’) has Inc and Trever ‘wake up’ to find that their adventures in the 21st Century were all an illusion. They are in fact traveling through time, searching for ‘interesting’ experiences. The per-sonalities and situations they take on during their travels are a result of their own choosing. Everything, every moment is dependent on choice---conscious or unconscious (the latter due to familiar or comfortable patterns, called ‘habits’). In the end, Maniqui’s message is that we are all free to wake up to choice—free to recognize the myriad choices we have available to us in every moment—if only we humans would just wake up and take back control of our lives. Or, as Inc would say in his cheerfully naïve way, “Volez!”
(Reprinted from TIME magazine, July 12, 2004, page 29.)
T H E M A N I Q U I I D E O L O G Y
Just before a frustrated Antonin Maniqui fled from his last live interview he was heard to say, “No. That’s not what I mean. You just don’t get it. How can I get you to understand?” That was in 1969. His first novel, Inc., had just reached the New York Times bestseller list. Thirty-five years later, with his new novel, Ideas as Opiates, Maniqui may have figured out just how to get us to understand.
With Inc., Maniqui was able to capture the zeitgeist of the youth of the time. The eponymous protagonist of Inc. is burdened with the pull of polar forces of his near-paranoid concern for the Orwellian direction of his world while at the same time able to tap into his youth for the highs of living in the moment. Fear and hope are the novel’s true lead characters/agonists.
In Ideas as Opiates Maniqui also adroitly captures the spirit of these new times---our post-911, debt-ridden, Prozac-popping, technology-obsessed culture---with his display of “barely controlled chaos”---the overwhelm of daily American life. But what is disturbingly absent from Ideas is the hope so strongly ascendant in Inc. While choice is a constant theme in Ideas---“You are always, at every moment, in every second of every day, in choice,” parrots Inc’s daughter, Anastasia or “Nasty,” right in the face of her father---these characters are living under such megastress that there is no time for introspection---barely time to breathe. The priority is on escape. “It’s the American way,” justifies Inc’s second wife, Amanda. “We know how to escape better than anyone else in history.” Drugs, alcohol, food, television, shopping, travel, sports, fitness, dieting, even mental illness all provide a many-layered failsafe network for escape from the pain and suffering of the human experience.
Maniqui’s satirical farce illuminates and criticizes the evils in this system while using lucid dream sequences to allow his reader to ‘feel’ and ‘enjoy’ the full scope of emotions presented in the human experience. Inc’s comment to Amanda’s inquiry as to how it felt during one of his dreams seems to encapsulate Maniqui’s solution to the mind-numbing choices of waking life: “It felt great. I felt alive!”
The final chapter of Ideas is well cited for it’s comical escape from the “horrors of the 21st Century” and hollow but uplifting end. However, overlooked is the likelihood that it may contain the real belief system of Antonin Maniqui: that we are really just traveling in and out of human form on a kind of Buddhist reincarnation rollercoaster---all for the simple purpose of seeking interesting experiences; becoming human for the sake of the unique experiences presented in the panoply of human emotion. Life for life’s sake, being present for the fullness of the emotional experience.
The last lines of Ideas as Opiates contain a rather curious and cryptic reference.
“Hey, look,” Inc points to a robed figure on a nearby cloud. “There’s that Vinoba dude again!”
“He’s cool,” responds Trever. ”Let’s hang with him for a while.”
“Volez!”
Vinoba Bhave was a twentieth century Indian ‘saint.’ (d. 1985) A contemporary of Mohandas Gandhi, known mostly for his commitment to non-violent anarchist principles, Vinoba believed that small community life presented the healthiest dynamics for the fullest realization of human potential--which is to love. This may in fact present Maniqui’s deepest hope: that the world can return to a state of simplicity through small communal life. He certainly held no affection for the dehumanizing effect of Western society’s frenetic pace, impersonal urbanization and suburban sprawl or the robotic effect of our throwaway society’s rampant consumerism and profit-driven materialism. Volez!
AMONG the undulating grey and emerald green landscapes of the ancient island called “Eire” by the Celtic peoples who have inhabited it for hundreds of generations, sits a craggy, battered-looking bulge in the extreme northwest known as County Donegal. Named Dhún na nGall or “land” or “fort” “of foreigners” for its many Viking raiders and settlers, but known locally as Tír Choniall for the Tyrconnell family that once lorded over this ancient feudal earldom, Donegal’s topography is quite different from other regions of the fair land that is called Ireland. Though luminous green mosses blanket much of these rugged, rocky landscapes, Donegal stands out for its startling absence of trees and for its far more rocky presentation. The rocky terrain we speak of often sports a rainbow variation of colors—particularly in unusual shades of “brown.” Observe, striated next one another like layers from a petrified log: deep purple-browns with sandstone yellow-browns next to rusty reddish-browns sidled between green-blacks.
The rugged countryside is sparsely populated with few examples of human society except for a sporadic scattering of seaside fishing villages occupying safe harbor inlets. Indeed, once one has traveled west of the town of Donegal, the occasion of towns, villages, or even crossroads, diminish noticeably. Though factories can be found to the north, the west has little to indicate any interactivity among the family of man. It is said that the non-fishing people who have come to live in rural Donegal are probably looking to hide, that they are looking for a place to be left alone, to be anonymous. But there are the rare souls who are purposely looking for a place in which to commune with Nature and her elements in some of her rawest, bleakest forms. Such was the attraction for Antonin Urlov Maniqui when he stumbled upon the area late in 1969.
Two miles north of Donegal town lies Banagher Hill. Unofficially the southern most peak of the Blue Stack Mountains, it is really just an oblong ridge running north-south between the wind- and water-carved Sruell River Valley to the west, and Lough Eske to the east. Still, Banagher Hill’s 1288-foot peak offers impressive panoramic views, weather permitting, of both valleys as well as the mountains to the north and Donegal Bay to the south. Small homes and cottages dot the countryside south of the Blue Stack Mountains, around Lough Eske, Banagher Hill and the Sruell River valley, sometimes sparsely, sometimes in a more neighborly fashion.
A most curious sight is presented by the well packed and, therefore, seemingly well traveled, grey-graveled, fairly level, two-track road that circumnavigates Banagher Hill. The road appears to be traveled well enough yet leads to nowhere in particular, connects to very few, much less traveled, off-roads, and offers access to a sparse number of homesteads.
It is upon this rather odd, desolate, and circuitous path that one such cottage, a small bungalow built of flat grey stones with a grey slate roof, occupies a rather solitary yet sociable-looking spot on Banagher Hill’s western slopes. Sitting just next to the small stone cottage, also on the east side of the Donegal return road, is the rather bizarre spectacle of what appears to be a grove of overgrown, under-groomed Christmas trees (perhaps the abandoned project of a previous owner). A few grazing sheep dot the hillside above the cottage while below the road, into the Sruell River valley, lay fallow pastures down to the river’s edge where more cottages and an occasional tree are sprinkled.
Antonin Maniqui purchased his small stone cottage, along with its 240 acres west of the road on the slopes of Banagher Hill, in 1970—paid for in full, for the whopping price of £3,000 Irish. The bank, which had acquired the property after the death of its last owner (the last of the previous owner’s family, a Surrey, England resident, had neither the interest nor the money with which to settle her distant cousin’s debts, so therefore, chose to give it up to estate auction and bank ownership), had been so excited at the site of Antonin’s green U.S. dollars, that it actually raised its asking price with Maniqui sitting there, in the bank, holding the advert from the most recent edition of the local newspaper in his hand. In a gesture of good faith—and in hopes of earning the future good graces of the town’s primary moneylender—Ant counter-offered at an even higher price. This maneuver did, in fact, prove invaluable during the successive home-improvement projects to which he subjected the cottage—including repairs to the roof and walls in 1970 and again in 1984, installation of a washing machine in 1973 (replaced in 1991), the addition of a solar powered hot water heater and outdoor hot tub in 1977, and an interior re-insulation project in 1994. Antonin remained living there in his isolated spot in the Donegal countryside, sans companion, until his death in 2004.
Weather-wise, the autumn of 1985 was remarkable for its irregularity. The usual daily battle of wind and weather currents rising up the Sruell River valley from Donegal Bay and down from Banagher Hill and the rest of the Bluestack mountain range were accentuated by sudden and unexpected appearances of heavy fog and/or brief unpredictable outbursts of heavy rainfall. The usually misted landscapes and peoples found themselves unusually mystified.
The week of All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints Day was no exception to this freakishness. On Tuesday, October 29, 1985, Antonin had just returned from his Tuesday trip into town when his first visitor arrived. A round trip of approximately seven kilometers, Antonin was rarely seen to step out of this routine. Arriving to post bill payments and collect his mail at the Post Office/Tobacconist shop around half past ten, Ant then crossed the street to visit the bank (to deposit royalties and investment income checks, etc.), followed by a stop in at the corner grocer for a week’s supply of victuals, (seasonal vegetables, breads, cheese and condiments, occasional canned goods and/or personal hygienics), and finally ending with a seat at the Brannagh Pub for the Tuesday lunch special (usually some kind of shepherd’s pie) and pint of “half-and-half” (equal portions of Harp’s Lager and Guinness Stout) and some chatter with the usual group of ‘pub grubbers.’ It took some time, but eventually Ant became an accepted and welcomed member of the afternoon pub house gossip. Preferring to join in on discussions of the local weather and agricultural topics—and occasionally in the issues pertaining to local politics and commerce—Ant’s contributions were respected and often sought after. “What’s the Yank think?” and “Will the renowned recluse author please speak!” were two of the favorite goads of the good-hearted regulars.
Depending on his payload and the portents of weather, Maniqui was known to make his return walk home circumnavigate Banagher Hill: for a sight of the blue waters of Lough Eske. Though in the habit of daily walks, rare was the occasion in which he would travel south toward town—other than Tuesdays, of course. Most often his perambulations were directed to an inspection of his acreage, but Antonin was, from time to time, known to hike among the Blue Stacks north of Banagher Hill—again, depending on weather, and much more likely during the summer months.
All in all, Antonin Maniqui was considered a rather reclusive, stay-at-home kind of man. Nobody seemed to begrudge him the least for it. Which is probably one reason he felt so at home here. And why he stayed.
John Quincy Moran. Nuclear physicist turned politician and political reformist. Founder of the Constitutional Party for Reform and first third party candidate to be elected to the U.S. Senate from the state of Massachusetts in 30 years, Moran has worked tirelessly for recognition and acceptance of the ‘quantum oneness’ of all things via a return to principles of ‘probable democracy’. Vaulting to national prominence in the 1990s with his book, Reinventing the Constitution, and cable TV miniseries, Revisiting the Founding Fathers, Moran’s efforts have resulted in new legislation for campaign finance reform, the rewriting of the 14th Amendment, and ballot access reform in order to unlock the Republican-Democrat two-party stranglehold on the nation’s political system.
Kathleen Phillips-Rees. The nation’s second female Surgeon General creates bold, paradigm-changing policies in the health care field. Building a medical practice and bestselling books on the premise and catchphrase that ‘health care is about health and caring’, Phillips-Rees has dedicated her career to ‘returning the power of health care back to the people.’ An avid proponent of patient education and ‘team approach’ health care, Phillips-Rees’ work has opened doors for the public acceptance and legal licensure of many ‘nontraditional’, ‘alternative and complementary’, and ‘naturopathic’ health care and healing traditions.
Patrick Joseph ‘Father Joe’ Gavenucci. Former priest and teacher turned social activist. Founder of the ‘community learning center’ movement which has found funding, facilities, and local interest in over 17 major cities and countless smaller towns and municipalities. ‘CLCs’ are a combination public library and school offering community support 24-hours a day. They offer state-of-the art technological services and grass roots learning resources for all kinds of formal and informal educational, vocational and social activities. Some key Gavenucci maxims: 1) “Everyone is learning all the time;” 2) “Everybody---in every community---has something of value to teach or share;” 3) “Everybody has something they would like to learn;” 4) “Everybody---of all ages---needs a safe place to go where they feel welcome, where they can experience community, where they can feel free to learn whatever they wish to learn;” and, 5) “Schools and schooling are antithetical to freedom and individual rights.”
Robert Frances ‘Frank’ Stahrender. Award-winning musician and filmmaker, pioneer of DVD and music video production technologies. Stahrender’s frustration with barriers between performer and audience led to the creation of Opus Humanae, an audience participatory concert experience in which musicians plug in and play, dancers move among the crowd, live microphones are available for anyone, video and sound are mani-pulated by ‘computer jocks.’ The result is spontaneous, unrehearsed, live performance art at its most raw---out of which have come the indie cult favorite Opus Humanae Live films. Permanent Opus Humanae venues have been established in over 50 cities in 13 countries around the world. Proponents love it for its encouragement of the artistry in everyman, while opponents condemn it for promoting ‘paganism’ and ‘debauchery’---citing several acts of violence related to Opus Humanae events. Though reaction to Stahrender’s ideas from critics and fellow artists was at first rather cool, acceptance of Opus ‘bacchanals’ is now virtually universal.
(Reprinted from TIME magazine, July 12, 2004, page 28.)
M A N I Q U I IN P R I N T
Inc. and Ideas in Review
Ideas as Opiates (Hestia Press), Antonin Maniqui’s time-twisting novel set loosely in a ‘self-created singularity’ sequels his 1969 cult classic, Inc., by tracing the ‘evolution, devolution, and involution’ of the two protagonists from Inc., Inc and Trever. The book opens with the two rule-bending, reality-testing, morality-challenging, politically active hippies ‘suddenly’ finding themselves in a strange new world.
“Hey, man. What happened to the Sixties?” laments Trever.
“Big Brother won, man,” Inc tells his buddy as they look at each other’s short hair and business suits. “Can’t you feel it?”
Reminded of Brendan Frazer and Alicia Silverstone in 1999’s Blast from the Past, the duo soon figures out that they’ve somehow leaped forward 30 years (it’s 2001). Hypothesizing that they’ve been passing the years in a kind of somnambulant trance, a horrified Trever proclaims, “Zombies, man, we’re zombies!”
In their new reality---one that holds true for most of the remainder of this 532-page novel---the two have not only aged 30 years but they’ve conformed. They each have the standard three-car suburban houses, the 50-hour corporate desk job, the dysfunctional first and second marriages, and of course the requisite chaos that comes with having kids and step kids, wives and ex-wives.
Dark comedy runs rampant throughout the pages of Ideas, but it is the fresh new characters with their wise-beyond-their-years banter that allows Maniqui’s brilliance to shine.
Inc’s bright, confident, empathetic 18-year old son, Jah-man, and Trever’s bring-on-the-world 19-year old daughter, Nasty (Anastasia), happen to push every paternal button their respective fathers never knew they had (and vowed in Inc. that they wouldn’t have). With their casual on-again, off-again romance and more relaxed (Maniqui would say, ‘evolved’) attitudes toward relationships---and especially sex---Jah-man and Nasty provide plenty of push to their fathers’ comfort zones. The mirrors Trever and Inc are forced to look into are at once frustrating, horrifying, and laughable. To the reader they are discomforting and often quite embarrassing.
The dysfunctional dynamics between Inc and his first wife, the paranoid, emotionally-dependent, Freaky (Frances), and his cool-as-ice, corporate-climbing second, Amanda, and Trever and his first and second wives, Alex (“Good-sex”) and Tiffany (“Can’t-get-any”), respectively, are conveyed humorously but, again, prove painfully real. Maniqui is presenting us with a rather grim reflection of our times.
The Maniqui genius, as it was in Inc., is with dialogue. Fast moving, each character highly idiosyncratic—the conversation is always very real yet peppered with occasional questions or observations so candid, so brutally direct and honest, that they never fail to catch us off-guard. Maniqui has once again made satire of our day and age while at the same time offering inspiration and hope for a healthier, more optimistic future.
In the most delightful twist of Ideas as Opiates, the last chapter (titled ‘Yep: a log’) has Inc and Trever ‘wake up’ to find that their adventures in the 21st Century were all an illusion. They are in fact traveling through time, searching for ‘interesting’ experiences. The per-sonalities and situations they take on during their travels are a result of their own choosing. Everything, every moment is dependent on choice---conscious or unconscious (the latter due to familiar or comfortable patterns, called ‘habits’). In the end, Maniqui’s message is that we are all free to wake up to choice—free to recognize the myriad choices we have available to us in every moment—if only we humans would just wake up and take back control of our lives. Or, as Inc would say in his cheerfully naïve way, “Volez!”
(Reprinted from TIME magazine, July 12, 2004, page 29.)
T H E M A N I Q U I I D E O L O G Y
Just before a frustrated Antonin Maniqui fled from his last live interview he was heard to say, “No. That’s not what I mean. You just don’t get it. How can I get you to understand?” That was in 1969. His first novel, Inc., had just reached the New York Times bestseller list. Thirty-five years later, with his new novel, Ideas as Opiates, Maniqui may have figured out just how to get us to understand.
With Inc., Maniqui was able to capture the zeitgeist of the youth of the time. The eponymous protagonist of Inc. is burdened with the pull of polar forces of his near-paranoid concern for the Orwellian direction of his world while at the same time able to tap into his youth for the highs of living in the moment. Fear and hope are the novel’s true lead characters/agonists.
In Ideas as Opiates Maniqui also adroitly captures the spirit of these new times---our post-911, debt-ridden, Prozac-popping, technology-obsessed culture---with his display of “barely controlled chaos”---the overwhelm of daily American life. But what is disturbingly absent from Ideas is the hope so strongly ascendant in Inc. While choice is a constant theme in Ideas---“You are always, at every moment, in every second of every day, in choice,” parrots Inc’s daughter, Anastasia or “Nasty,” right in the face of her father---these characters are living under such megastress that there is no time for introspection---barely time to breathe. The priority is on escape. “It’s the American way,” justifies Inc’s second wife, Amanda. “We know how to escape better than anyone else in history.” Drugs, alcohol, food, television, shopping, travel, sports, fitness, dieting, even mental illness all provide a many-layered failsafe network for escape from the pain and suffering of the human experience.
Maniqui’s satirical farce illuminates and criticizes the evils in this system while using lucid dream sequences to allow his reader to ‘feel’ and ‘enjoy’ the full scope of emotions presented in the human experience. Inc’s comment to Amanda’s inquiry as to how it felt during one of his dreams seems to encapsulate Maniqui’s solution to the mind-numbing choices of waking life: “It felt great. I felt alive!”
The final chapter of Ideas is well cited for it’s comical escape from the “horrors of the 21st Century” and hollow but uplifting end. However, overlooked is the likelihood that it may contain the real belief system of Antonin Maniqui: that we are really just traveling in and out of human form on a kind of Buddhist reincarnation rollercoaster---all for the simple purpose of seeking interesting experiences; becoming human for the sake of the unique experiences presented in the panoply of human emotion. Life for life’s sake, being present for the fullness of the emotional experience.
The last lines of Ideas as Opiates contain a rather curious and cryptic reference.
“Hey, look,” Inc points to a robed figure on a nearby cloud. “There’s that Vinoba dude again!”
“He’s cool,” responds Trever. ”Let’s hang with him for a while.”
“Volez!”
Vinoba Bhave was a twentieth century Indian ‘saint.’ (d. 1985) A contemporary of Mohandas Gandhi, known mostly for his commitment to non-violent anarchist principles, Vinoba believed that small community life presented the healthiest dynamics for the fullest realization of human potential--which is to love. This may in fact present Maniqui’s deepest hope: that the world can return to a state of simplicity through small communal life. He certainly held no affection for the dehumanizing effect of Western society’s frenetic pace, impersonal urbanization and suburban sprawl or the robotic effect of our throwaway society’s rampant consumerism and profit-driven materialism. Volez!
ENTRE-LOGUE:
Ireland and Antonin Maniqui in 1985.
AMONG the undulating grey and emerald green landscapes of the ancient island called “Eire” by the Celtic peoples who have inhabited it for hundreds of generations, sits a craggy, battered-looking bulge in the extreme northwest known as County Donegal. Named Dhún na nGall or “land” or “fort” “of foreigners” for its many Viking raiders and settlers, but known locally as Tír Choniall for the Tyrconnell family that once lorded over this ancient feudal earldom, Donegal’s topography is quite different from other regions of the fair land that is called Ireland. Though luminous green mosses blanket much of these rugged, rocky landscapes, Donegal stands out for its startling absence of trees and for its far more rocky presentation. The rocky terrain we speak of often sports a rainbow variation of colors—particularly in unusual shades of “brown.” Observe, striated next one another like layers from a petrified log: deep purple-browns with sandstone yellow-browns next to rusty reddish-browns sidled between green-blacks.
The rugged countryside is sparsely populated with few examples of human society except for a sporadic scattering of seaside fishing villages occupying safe harbor inlets. Indeed, once one has traveled west of the town of Donegal, the occasion of towns, villages, or even crossroads, diminish noticeably. Though factories can be found to the north, the west has little to indicate any interactivity among the family of man. It is said that the non-fishing people who have come to live in rural Donegal are probably looking to hide, that they are looking for a place to be left alone, to be anonymous. But there are the rare souls who are purposely looking for a place in which to commune with Nature and her elements in some of her rawest, bleakest forms. Such was the attraction for Antonin Urlov Maniqui when he stumbled upon the area late in 1969.
Two miles north of Donegal town lies Banagher Hill. Unofficially the southern most peak of the Blue Stack Mountains, it is really just an oblong ridge running north-south between the wind- and water-carved Sruell River Valley to the west, and Lough Eske to the east. Still, Banagher Hill’s 1288-foot peak offers impressive panoramic views, weather permitting, of both valleys as well as the mountains to the north and Donegal Bay to the south. Small homes and cottages dot the countryside south of the Blue Stack Mountains, around Lough Eske, Banagher Hill and the Sruell River valley, sometimes sparsely, sometimes in a more neighborly fashion.
A most curious sight is presented by the well packed and, therefore, seemingly well traveled, grey-graveled, fairly level, two-track road that circumnavigates Banagher Hill. The road appears to be traveled well enough yet leads to nowhere in particular, connects to very few, much less traveled, off-roads, and offers access to a sparse number of homesteads.
It is upon this rather odd, desolate, and circuitous path that one such cottage, a small bungalow built of flat grey stones with a grey slate roof, occupies a rather solitary yet sociable-looking spot on Banagher Hill’s western slopes. Sitting just next to the small stone cottage, also on the east side of the Donegal return road, is the rather bizarre spectacle of what appears to be a grove of overgrown, under-groomed Christmas trees (perhaps the abandoned project of a previous owner). A few grazing sheep dot the hillside above the cottage while below the road, into the Sruell River valley, lay fallow pastures down to the river’s edge where more cottages and an occasional tree are sprinkled.
Antonin Maniqui purchased his small stone cottage, along with its 240 acres west of the road on the slopes of Banagher Hill, in 1970—paid for in full, for the whopping price of £3,000 Irish. The bank, which had acquired the property after the death of its last owner (the last of the previous owner’s family, a Surrey, England resident, had neither the interest nor the money with which to settle her distant cousin’s debts, so therefore, chose to give it up to estate auction and bank ownership), had been so excited at the site of Antonin’s green U.S. dollars, that it actually raised its asking price with Maniqui sitting there, in the bank, holding the advert from the most recent edition of the local newspaper in his hand. In a gesture of good faith—and in hopes of earning the future good graces of the town’s primary moneylender—Ant counter-offered at an even higher price. This maneuver did, in fact, prove invaluable during the successive home-improvement projects to which he subjected the cottage—including repairs to the roof and walls in 1970 and again in 1984, installation of a washing machine in 1973 (replaced in 1991), the addition of a solar powered hot water heater and outdoor hot tub in 1977, and an interior re-insulation project in 1994. Antonin remained living there in his isolated spot in the Donegal countryside, sans companion, until his death in 2004.
Weather-wise, the autumn of 1985 was remarkable for its irregularity. The usual daily battle of wind and weather currents rising up the Sruell River valley from Donegal Bay and down from Banagher Hill and the rest of the Bluestack mountain range were accentuated by sudden and unexpected appearances of heavy fog and/or brief unpredictable outbursts of heavy rainfall. The usually misted landscapes and peoples found themselves unusually mystified.
The week of All Hallow’s Eve and All Saints Day was no exception to this freakishness. On Tuesday, October 29, 1985, Antonin had just returned from his Tuesday trip into town when his first visitor arrived. A round trip of approximately seven kilometers, Antonin was rarely seen to step out of this routine. Arriving to post bill payments and collect his mail at the Post Office/Tobacconist shop around half past ten, Ant then crossed the street to visit the bank (to deposit royalties and investment income checks, etc.), followed by a stop in at the corner grocer for a week’s supply of victuals, (seasonal vegetables, breads, cheese and condiments, occasional canned goods and/or personal hygienics), and finally ending with a seat at the Brannagh Pub for the Tuesday lunch special (usually some kind of shepherd’s pie) and pint of “half-and-half” (equal portions of Harp’s Lager and Guinness Stout) and some chatter with the usual group of ‘pub grubbers.’ It took some time, but eventually Ant became an accepted and welcomed member of the afternoon pub house gossip. Preferring to join in on discussions of the local weather and agricultural topics—and occasionally in the issues pertaining to local politics and commerce—Ant’s contributions were respected and often sought after. “What’s the Yank think?” and “Will the renowned recluse author please speak!” were two of the favorite goads of the good-hearted regulars.
Depending on his payload and the portents of weather, Maniqui was known to make his return walk home circumnavigate Banagher Hill: for a sight of the blue waters of Lough Eske. Though in the habit of daily walks, rare was the occasion in which he would travel south toward town—other than Tuesdays, of course. Most often his perambulations were directed to an inspection of his acreage, but Antonin was, from time to time, known to hike among the Blue Stacks north of Banagher Hill—again, depending on weather, and much more likely during the summer months.
All in all, Antonin Maniqui was considered a rather reclusive, stay-at-home kind of man. Nobody seemed to begrudge him the least for it. Which is probably one reason he felt so at home here. And why he stayed.
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