T HE C ENACLE / A PRIL - The ElectroLounge

27
RAYMOND SOULARD, JR.
Secret Joy Amongst These Times:
The History of Scriptor Press,
1995 to the Present
“Think for yourself
& question authority”
—Dr. Timothy Leary
Chapter Six
continued from
The Cenacle / 49 / October 2003
[Note: I finished the Emerson College (Boston, Massachusetts, USA)
thesis version of this history writing about a year still going, 1999,
writing as close to the present moment as thesis guidelines &
deadlines allowed. Ideas expressed hereon, events described, were
ongoing, part of this moment’s equation, the heat of its now. The
revised ending of this chapter, as well as future chapters, will
continue the story.]
Driving around Burlington, Vermont with Barbara Brannon on
12/31/98, & I’m tripping, just come earlier that day from a shitty
temp job in Cambridge, MA that I will end up quitting in about two
weeks. Still, it was during free moments at that job that I got onto the
Internet & communicated with many about the Burning Man 1999
Arts Fest—& I used the extensive facilities at that workplace to help
me type up a paper for a class in American literary publishing, & to
help me produce Cenacle 31 December 1998. Shitty temp job: We used
each other well, & up.
I started talking to Barbara about a new idea I have, & a new
concept: “horizontal hierarchy.” Nearing the other end of 1999, I am
still working out what this idea means, but here’s what I have so far:
the traditional American pyramid hierarchical system turned on its
ear. Traditionally, power is at the top in the hands of a few; further
down, less power in more people’s hands; at the bottom, the workers,
the greatest numbers, least amount of power.
So it presently works: power, influence, money. Centers of
authority: New York, high culture (stage, museums, publishing); Los
Angeles, entertainment (TV & movies & music); Boston/Cambridge,
academic (Harvard, MIT); Pacific Northwest, technological (Microsoft,
The Cenacle / 50 / December 2003