Read Online The Plato Papers by Peter Ackroyd - Free Book Online
Authors: Peter Ackroyd
Tags: Fiction
Ads: Link
past is conjectural at best. By careful interpretation of these images, however, we have devised a model of ancient London in which every four thoroughfares meet in a garden, where food was freely distributed. From the evidence of Hitchcock Frenzy we have also concluded that each object in the Mouldwarp world was painted, and that the citizens coloured their own bodies. It is worth remarking that the paths and thoroughfares of London differ in size and length. The fact that some are wide and others narrow seems to have determined the nature of the people who inhabited them as well as the events which occurred there.
Nell Gwyn has once more moved instantaneously to quite another dwelling. It has the characteristic frosted window with the name of the owner, Pig and Whistle, inscribed upon it. Pig and Whistle’s friends can be seen drinking from glass vessels and, like Nell Gwyn, they place lighted paper in their mouths; it is probable that this form of fire worship also provided food and energy to its devotees. Two citizens enter, taking coverings from their heads; perhaps the external air is harmful to them, or they need to be protected from its weight. Nell Gwyn has put a large piece of paper before his face, as if he were trying to conceal himself; yet perhaps the paper is speaking to him, since numbers appear before us: 4.30, 20–1. In this mathematical world, perhaps they conversed only in figures! Nell Gwyn salutes Pig and Whistle, and is seen walking down a stone thoroughfare. The grey birds cluster around him, but he alarms them with a sudden movement; it has been suggested that these flying creatures are the ancestors of our angels, subdued and darkened by the conditions of Mouldwarp, but at best this is conjecture. Suddenly it is night. We know this because the sky has gone, the colours have faded, and small lights have appeared in various dwellings. Hitchcock Frenzy also now fades into darkness, since the strip of images is broken at this point.
29
Plato:
May I ask a favour of you?
Soul:
Whatever I have is yours.
Plato:
Tell me about the people of Mouldwarp. Were they as deluded as we are taught? As I teach?
Soul:
Who can say? I would never presume to contradict you, of course, but there may have been occasions when they wondered what was happening to them. There may even have been moments when they did not know what they were supposed to be doing. I can recall—oh, nothing.
Plato:
What were you about to say? You were going to be indiscreet. You were on the point of telling me that you were acquainted with them at first hand. I knew it. You were there.
Soul:
Please don’t put words into my—
Plato:
You misled me.
Soul:
This interview is now ended.
Plato:
No. Don’t go. I apologise.
Soul:
Promise?
Plato:
Promise.
Soul:
We will pretend we never spoke of such matters. You were asking me about Mouldwarp, I believe?
Plato:
Yes. What if I was wrong or mistaken about the people of that time?
Soul:
Sometimes, you know, I worry about you.
Plato:
Why?
Soul:
You have no perspective.
Plato:
But surely that is your responsibility?
Soul:
Let me put it this way. What if you were meant to be wrong? What if that was the only way to maintain confidence in the reality of the present world?
Plato:
It would be a very hard destiny.
Soul:
It might also be an inevitable one. If every age depends upon wilful blindness, then you, Plato, become necessary.
Plato:
So is that your purpose? To preserve my ignorance?
Soul:
I have no purpose. I am simply here.
Plato:
I do not believe you.
Soul:
What are you saying? You do not believe your own soul? That is impossible.
Plato:
I am confused. I admit it. Help me.
Soul:
I will make an agreement with you. You need to reach the limits of your knowledge and your belief. Am I correct?
Plato:
Of course.
Soul:
Then I will no longer protect you.
Plato:
Protect me against what?
Soul:
I don’t know. It is normally the duty of the soul to defend her charge—
Plato:
I once
Nell Gwyn has once more moved instantaneously to quite another dwelling. It has the characteristic frosted window with the name of the owner, Pig and Whistle, inscribed upon it. Pig and Whistle’s friends can be seen drinking from glass vessels and, like Nell Gwyn, they place lighted paper in their mouths; it is probable that this form of fire worship also provided food and energy to its devotees. Two citizens enter, taking coverings from their heads; perhaps the external air is harmful to them, or they need to be protected from its weight. Nell Gwyn has put a large piece of paper before his face, as if he were trying to conceal himself; yet perhaps the paper is speaking to him, since numbers appear before us: 4.30, 20–1. In this mathematical world, perhaps they conversed only in figures! Nell Gwyn salutes Pig and Whistle, and is seen walking down a stone thoroughfare. The grey birds cluster around him, but he alarms them with a sudden movement; it has been suggested that these flying creatures are the ancestors of our angels, subdued and darkened by the conditions of Mouldwarp, but at best this is conjecture. Suddenly it is night. We know this because the sky has gone, the colours have faded, and small lights have appeared in various dwellings. Hitchcock Frenzy also now fades into darkness, since the strip of images is broken at this point.
29
Plato:
May I ask a favour of you?
Soul:
Whatever I have is yours.
Plato:
Tell me about the people of Mouldwarp. Were they as deluded as we are taught? As I teach?
Soul:
Who can say? I would never presume to contradict you, of course, but there may have been occasions when they wondered what was happening to them. There may even have been moments when they did not know what they were supposed to be doing. I can recall—oh, nothing.
Plato:
What were you about to say? You were going to be indiscreet. You were on the point of telling me that you were acquainted with them at first hand. I knew it. You were there.
Soul:
Please don’t put words into my—
Plato:
You misled me.
Soul:
This interview is now ended.
Plato:
No. Don’t go. I apologise.
Soul:
Promise?
Plato:
Promise.
Soul:
We will pretend we never spoke of such matters. You were asking me about Mouldwarp, I believe?
Plato:
Yes. What if I was wrong or mistaken about the people of that time?
Soul:
Sometimes, you know, I worry about you.
Plato:
Why?
Soul:
You have no perspective.
Plato:
But surely that is your responsibility?
Soul:
Let me put it this way. What if you were meant to be wrong? What if that was the only way to maintain confidence in the reality of the present world?
Plato:
It would be a very hard destiny.
Soul:
It might also be an inevitable one. If every age depends upon wilful blindness, then you, Plato, become necessary.
Plato:
So is that your purpose? To preserve my ignorance?
Soul:
I have no purpose. I am simply here.
Plato:
I do not believe you.
Soul:
What are you saying? You do not believe your own soul? That is impossible.
Plato:
I am confused. I admit it. Help me.
Soul:
I will make an agreement with you. You need to reach the limits of your knowledge and your belief. Am I correct?
Plato:
Of course.
Soul:
Then I will no longer protect you.
Plato:
Protect me against what?
Soul:
I don’t know. It is normally the duty of the soul to defend her charge—
Plato:
I once
Similar Books
