The Scapegoat Operas
Sweeny says he drove the catastrophes out in the operas “like laden goats,” so that they would not happen in the world (p. 205).
The narrator says the scapegoat tricks had opposite effects, since perverted cults grew up around the abominable happenings once Sweeny had made them known (pp. 205–206). Flanagan reports that the music creates events in the world and is more powerful than the words (p. 346). In a letter to Pope Kirol I, Sweeny calls his account a “pretense of artful sublimation” (p. 317). In his final speech he says he gave the people a choice between Bloody Opera and Bloody Armageddon, and they chose Bloody Armageddon (p. 372).
From the novel
“I did them,” he said, “and then I drove them out into the wilderness like laden goats. May all the wrath fall upon them and their loads! But may these things not happen in the world itself! If these things may pass from us, oh Lord, let them pass!”
The narrator quotes Sweeny’s explanation.
Further passages
The scapegoat tricks had opposite effects though. No one had ever heard of such abominable happenings before. But, once Sweeny had made such things known, then perverted cults grew up about them.
The narrator on the growth of horror cults.
So you have blown up my pretense of artful sublimation of the organized destruction of the world by turning it all into an art form. Did you see my devil’s tail, red and ending in a red dart, hanging down below my cloak? Well then, you are right and I am wrong. But by now I am locked into my wrongness and they will not let me out of it.
Letter to Pope Kirol I. The narrator doubts that the Pope’s letter existed outside Sweeny’s imagination.
I have given the people the choice between fun and murder, and they have chosen murder. I have given them the alternative between Bloody Opera and Bloody Armageddon, and they have chosen Bloody Armageddon.
Sweeny’s final speech from the hollow tree.
Two Histories
The opera presents a history in which Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in 1914. In the history where the opera is performed, he survived and is now emperor, and Sweeny warns him that the stage may change his past (p. 239).
The emperor is still alive when their conversation ends (p. 239). On a smaller scale, Skantling’s old photograph changes after Sweeny’s caricatures deform his face (pp. 261–262). Woodbine argues that a version of the present lived by even one person is authentic and may still become the only version (pp. 299–300). He also says that his General Law of Dualities does not apply to the split between the world where war is unknown and the world where war is known (p. 305).
From the novel
“The stage of the Burgtheater is not the world,” he insisted, “and time cannot be made to run backwards. I am safe from it.” “That stage may be the world for you,” I said, “and stage time may run backwards. Many a man has died during a flashback. And no Emperor is ever safe. ‘Being Safe’ is the opposite of ‘Being Emperor.’”
From Sweeny’s letter to his “Tarnished Friend.”
Further passages
The main ambiguity of our times is that the world is in the throes of unparalleled peace and prosperity going on and on. And, at the same time, the world is experiencing three-headed hell, Armageddon itself, in assault after cresting assault. It does not matter how many persons live in each version of this present time. If only one person lives in a version, that will still be a living and authentic version with a live chance (however slim) of ultimately becoming the only version.
From Woodbine’s “Short Discussion of the ‘Ambiguities’.”
The cure for this insanity isn’t to have two or more things cease to occupy the one place at one time (it is impossible to bring about such a reduction arbitrarily), but to have all the contradictory things except one forced out of the memory of everybody. But forcing things out of the memory doesn’t force them out of being.
Woodbine’s discussion of memory and being.
The real split is between the world where war is unknown and the world where war is known. Can both of them be possible at the same time? This question has special aspects, and the General Law of Dualities does not apply to it.
Woodbine says his General Law of Dualities does not apply to the war and no-war histories.
The Evidence for the Wars
General Dredgefellow reviews Army records, pensions, sworn memories, and his own wounds, and grants that “some of the evidence is very convincing” (p. 356). He still rejects the wars, because the people do not behave as they would if the wars had happened (p. 358).
Dredgefellow discusses both earlier wars; his wounds and the continuing payments belong to the second (pp. 354–358). He says the evidence cannot be argued against but that there are ways to bury it (p. 356). At the end the narrator states that Armageddon has arrived and that the people scarcely care (pp. 373–374).
From the novel
On the second point, some of the evidence is very convincing, and there is no way at all to contradict it verbally or to argue against it. But there are ways to bury it. And the very lack of popular interest in these wars and degradations indicates that they are not valid even though we are not able to say just how they are invalid.
From “A Square-Headed Answer.”
Further passages
The clincher of their not happening is the fact that the people do not behave as they would if they had happened. (“Well, how would the people behave if two parts of Armageddon had happened?” “They would reform their ways, and they would do penance even as the people of Nineveh did penance.” “Nah, they wouldn’t. They would behave as depraved louts, just as they have always done, and just as they are still doing.” “In that case, maybe the wars and aftermaths did happen.”)
Sweeny’s Part
The Marshals require Sweeny to keep composing, and Grogg and his allies try to stop him. Sweeny goes on composing and hides “hammers” in the work, tricks meant to keep the fictions he is assigned from becoming fact (p. 265).
Sweeny welcomes an orchestrator who says that “the destruction is all that matters,” and counts himself lucky to have him (pp. 251–252). He reports an analyst’s view that his own input to the war material was possibly larger than anyone else’s but might be no more than 5 percent of it (pp. 318–319). The narrator tries to settle the question with a poll on whether Sweeny caused the wars, and he calls the response irrational (p. 368).
From the novel
About Sweeny’s work, those endless and topless mountains of music, and the rivers of words that run like waterfalls out of those mountains, is it really influencing and creating events in the world? Yes it is. And the music is much more powerful than the words in these creations.
From “Flanagan’s Report.”
Further passages
“What we are doing,” he said, “is pushing the pillars of the temple awry until they buckle and crash; and then all the roof will thunder down on us and on everything. But the roof that collapses in thunder is the world itself. Boy, we are collapsing the world and breaking its foundation, why aren’t you shouting about it? Oh, wonderful, horrible, wonderful again! The destruction is all that matters.” That’s what he said. Well, he is a fine orchestrator, and I’m lucky to have him.
Sweeny’s account of his prospective orchestrator.
A hammer is a sort of insurance. I make fictions as I am assigned to do, and many others also are carrying out collateral and equally weird fictions. But the others do not seem to play as many tricks as I play, they do not seem to hide as many hammers in their hurdles. I try to insure that the fictions that I am assigned to shall remain fictions. I set tricks into them from the beginning.
From “On the Construction of the World.”
Several analytic doctors have told me that there is a remarkable consistency to these pseudo-memories of the hellish conflict. He says that my own input, from my various “visions,” was possibly larger than that of anyone else, but that it might be no more than five percent of this material that has found its way to the group unconscious. He says that this war motif is archetypical, that all of past history and para-history is full of it.
The analyst estimates Sweeny’s share of the material.
If dead Grogg was trying to block the effect of the baleful and destroying fictions of Sweeny on the world, he was doing it wrong. At any point short of Sweeny’s death, the fictions became more and more destructive. Grogg was abetting them in their violence, for the fictions became more catastrophic the more that Sweeny was in pain.
From “Branagan’s Report.” Flanagan later reports that someone else wears the collar while Sweeny pretends to suffer.
But it is unlikely that Sweeny really caused the wars by inventing them into opera or other forms. Well, to be accurate about it, forty-four percent of the people believed that it was unlikely that Sweeny was causing the wars; this was against the forty-one percent of the people who knew for a fact that Sweeny was causing them. And yet, only two percent of the people believed that the wars that Sweeny was either causing or not causing were in the realm of fact at all. There was something irrational about that response.
The narrator appeals to a poll.
The Last Year
In the extended 1983 violence spreads and war comes to America (pp. 370–372). Ultimate Armageddon arrives before 1984 is officially admitted and before the people burn Sweeny’s tree (p. 373).
The narrator says the End-of-the-World War could be neither avoided nor delayed, but that the time left before it could be divided and subdivided again and again (pp. 364–365). In his final speech Sweeny says he has made the Earth stand still in its orbit and delayed the arrival of the dreadful year (p. 372).
From the novel
Ultimate Armageddon arrived, and the final rotten-red blossom did explode till it was bigger than the world. And that war began to swallow the whole world with its giant, gobbling fire. It did not matter who had lit that fire. There was no way in the world to put it out.
From the closing scene.
Further passages
The points of critical mass and critical momentum and critical heat had all been passed, and these were irreversibles when they were brought together. So the End-of-the-World War could not be avoided. And it could not be delayed. And the courses of things rushing towards it could not be delayed either. But such diminished course as was still left to be run could be divided and subdivided and subdivided again and again. This subdividing couldn’t possibly slow it down even a little bit, but it might do something else.
From the afterword.
A very great war (in everything except name) had come to America. And a few people even called it by the name of war,” but most of them still gave it other names. It was quite incendiary and bloody, but there were advantages to it. People did not have to go to war this time. The war came to them.
The narrator describes the extended 1983.
I have made the Earth to stand still in its orbit, and the Dreadful year to delay its arrival.
Sweeny’s final speech from the hollow tree.