fame requires every kind of excess. I mean true fame, a devouring1 neon, not the somber2 renown3 of waning4 statesmen or chinless kings. I mean long journeys across gray space. I mean danger, the edge of every void, the circumstance of one man imparting an erotic terror to the dreams of the republic. Understand the man who must inhabit these extreme regions, monstrous5 and vulval, damp with memories of violation6. Even if half-mad he is absorbed into the public's total madness; even if fully7 rational, a bureaucrat8 in hell, a secret genius of survival, he is sure to be destroyed by the public's contempt for survivors9. Fame, this special kind, feeds itself on outrage10, on what the counselors11 of lesser12 men would consider bad publicity13 — hysteria in limousines14, knife fights in the audience, bizarre litigation, treachery, pandemonium15 and drugs. Perhaps the only natural law attaching to true fame is that the famous man is compelled, eventually, to commit suicide.
(Is it clear I was a hero of rock 'n' roll?)
Toward the end of the final tour it became apparent that our audience wanted more than music, more even than its own reduplicated noise. It's possible the culture had reached its limit, a point of severe tension. There was less sense of simple visceral abandon at our concerts during these last weeks. Few cases of arson16 and vandalism. Fewer still of rape17. No smoke bombs or threats of worse explosives. Our followers18, in their isolation19, were not concerned with precedent20 now. They were free of old saints and martyrs21, but fearfully so, left with their own unlabeled flesh. Those without tickets didn't storm the barricades22, and during a performance the boys and girls directly below us, scratching at the stage, were less murderous in their love of me, as if realizing finally that my death, to be authentic23, must be self-willed — a successful piece of instruction only if it occurred by my own hand, preferably in a foreign city. I began to think their education would not be complete until they outdid me as teacher, until one day they merely pantomimed the kind of massive response the group was used to getting. As we performed they would jump, dance, collapse24, clutch each other, wave their arms, all the while making absolutely no sound. We would stand in the incandescent25 pit of a huge stadium filled with wildly rippling26 bodies, all totally silent. Our recent music, deprived of people's screams, was next to meaningless, and there would have been no choice but to stop playing. A profound joke it would have been. A lesson in something or other.
In Houston I left the group, saying nothing, and boarded a plane for New York City, that contaminated shrine27, place of my birth. I knew Azarian would assume leadership of the band, his body being prettiest. As to the rest, I left them to their respective uproars28 —news media, promotion29 people, agents, accountants, various members of the managerial peerage. The public would come closer to understanding my disappearance30 than anyone else. It was not quite as total as the act they needed and nobody could be sure whether I was gone for good. For my closest followers, all it foreshadowed was a period of waiting. Either I'd return with a new language for them to speak or they'd seek a divine silence attendant to my own.
I took a taxi past the cemeteries31 toward Manhattan, tides of ash-h'ght breaking across the spires32. New York seemed older than the cities of Europe, a sadistic33 gift of the sixteenth century, ever on the verge34 of plague. The cab driver was young, however, a freckled35 kid with a moderate orange Afro. I told him to take the tunnel.
"Is there a tunnel?" he said.
The night before, at the Astrodome, the group had appeared without me. Azarian's stature36 was vast but nothing on that first night could have broken the crowd's bleak37 mood. They turned against the structure itself, smashing whatever was smashable, trying to rip up the artificial turf, attacking the very plumbing38. The gates were opened and the police entered, blank-looking, hiding the feast in their minds behind metered eyes. They made their patented charges, cracking arms and legs in an effort to protect the concept of regulated temperature. In one of the worst public statements of the year, by anyone, my manager Globke referred to the police operation as an example of mini-genocide.
"The tunnel goes under the river. It's a nice tunnel with white tile walls and men in glass cages counting the cars going by. One two three four. One two three."
I was interested in endings, in how to survive a dead idea. What came next for the wounded of Houston might very well depend on what I was able to learn beyond certain personal limits, in endland, far from the tropics of fame.
1 devouring | |
吞没( devour的现在分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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2 somber | |
adj.昏暗的,阴天的,阴森的,忧郁的 | |
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3 renown | |
n.声誉,名望 | |
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4 waning | |
adj.(月亮)渐亏的,逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 );(月)亏;变小;变暗淡 | |
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5 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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6 violation | |
n.违反(行为),违背(行为),侵犯 | |
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7 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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8 bureaucrat | |
n. 官僚作风的人,官僚,官僚政治论者 | |
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9 survivors | |
幸存者,残存者,生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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10 outrage | |
n.暴行,侮辱,愤怒;vt.凌辱,激怒 | |
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11 counselors | |
n.顾问( counselor的名词复数 );律师;(使馆等的)参赞;(协助学生解决问题的)指导老师 | |
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12 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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13 publicity | |
n.众所周知,闻名;宣传,广告 | |
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14 limousines | |
n.豪华轿车( limousine的名词复数 );(往返机场接送旅客的)中型客车,小型公共汽车 | |
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15 pandemonium | |
n.喧嚣,大混乱 | |
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16 arson | |
n.纵火,放火 | |
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17 rape | |
n.抢夺,掠夺,强奸;vt.掠夺,抢夺,强奸 | |
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18 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
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19 isolation | |
n.隔离,孤立,分解,分离 | |
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20 precedent | |
n.先例,前例;惯例;adj.在前的,在先的 | |
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21 martyrs | |
n.martyr的复数形式;烈士( martyr的名词复数 );殉道者;殉教者;乞怜者(向人诉苦以博取同情) | |
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22 barricades | |
路障,障碍物( barricade的名词复数 ) | |
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23 authentic | |
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的 | |
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24 collapse | |
vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷 | |
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25 incandescent | |
adj.遇热发光的, 白炽的,感情强烈的 | |
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26 rippling | |
起涟漪的,潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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27 shrine | |
n.圣地,神龛,庙;v.将...置于神龛内,把...奉为神圣 | |
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28 uproars | |
吵闹,喧嚣,骚乱( uproar的名词复数 ) | |
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29 promotion | |
n.提升,晋级;促销,宣传 | |
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30 disappearance | |
n.消失,消散,失踪 | |
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31 cemeteries | |
n.(非教堂的)墓地,公墓( cemetery的名词复数 ) | |
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32 spires | |
n.(教堂的) 塔尖,尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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33 sadistic | |
adj.虐待狂的 | |
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34 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
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35 freckled | |
adj.雀斑;斑点;晒斑;(使)生雀斑v.雀斑,斑点( freckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36 stature | |
n.(高度)水平,(高度)境界,身高,身材 | |
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37 bleak | |
adj.(天气)阴冷的;凄凉的;暗淡的 | |
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38 plumbing | |
n.水管装置;水暖工的工作;管道工程v.用铅锤测量(plumb的现在分词);探究 | |
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