Chapter 11: St. Augustine's Day

MORRISON 45 MADISON MORRISON (This is part of a twelve-chapter, collaborative novel called Revolution . It begins, in its first four chapters, with four settings (America Today, Ancient China, The French Revolution, and France Today). These are then systematically combined. For example , Fred (Alfred René Raymond), a Breton character, is introduced in Chapter 4 and goes to Paris, where he confronts Ancient China, in Chapter 8, at the end of which he meets Mi Tu, a woman from the People's Republic. Chapter 1 1 picks up there. The Linda is one of my collaborator's characters. I wrote most of my chapters in Paris, he wrote his in Norman. The whole book is made out of quoted material, hence the dependence here on Mao.) Chapter 1 1 : ST. AUGUSTINE'S DAY "Though reversed, the images in a mirror show the bodUy form of things." Things were moving forward. The show of communist paintings had moved to Moscow in November. Fred had been taken on to crate and uncrate the pictures. "But water does better, because it reveals the universal form of things." Fred looked down at the water from the prow of the Chinese ship, as the Progress steamed past mid-Atlantic, making its way west. It was July the fourth. "And the sage does even better, because he knows the universal character of things." Fred, thinking like a Chinaman, was feeling like a new man again. "The sage can do so, because he views things as things view themselves." Fred glanced at the water and saw the sky reflected. He had stopped looking for himself. The boat was crashing toward America, nothing but water between them. There was nothing at all between the boat and Fred. In December things had reversed themselves. It was then that Mi Tu had given Fred a copy of the little red book. The show, under her direction, had left Moscow on Christmas Day. StUl, as they marched forward into the future, Fred had a sinking sensation. "That's because we're headed west," Mi Tu explained. In Leningrad he couldn't avoid St. Petersburg. "When we get past Washington," she said, "things will reverse themselves again." Nonetheless, Fred had the feeling things were slipping away. On New Year's Day they left the Soviet Union for Europe. By February they'd installed the show in Berlin. By March the entourage was speaking nostalgically of 46 THE MINNESOTA REVIEW Russia, as they set up again in Milan. In April it was Vienna, in Frankfurt it was May. By June they found themselves passing again through France, headed for England. "Well, here we are," said Fred, collecting his thoughts again at sea. It was July 14. "Fête Nation" (Feast of the Nation). He'd picked up a French calendar with a name for every day of the year. Tomorrow they were to be in Washington. "St. Donald's Day," said the calendar. At the National Gallery Fred uncrated the pictures, and Mi Tu put them up. Afterwards they toured all the monuments: the Lincoln, the Jefferson, the Washington. They looked at the Capitol Building and walked through the White House. They even made a pilgrimage to Mt. Vernon. There they saw die key to the Bastille, which General Lafayette had presented to the first president. By August 5 (St. Abel's Day), the Washington show was over. Mi Tu and Fred had seen all they could of the capítol, Washington all it could of China. On August 6 (Feast of the Transfiguration), they boarded their ship for Havana. It was a three-day sail. On the evening of August 9 (Cupid's Day), the Progress anchored off Cuba. As he and Mi Tu sat on the deck under a full moon, Fred thought of J.F.K. and the Cuban missle crisis. "I love you," said Fred, reaching for Mi Tu's hand. But she withdrew it, pointing to the moon. "Idealism and metaphysics," she began in a chilly voice, "are the easiest things in the world, because people can talk as much nonsense as they like without basing it on objective reality." She had let Fred know she was not going...