Chicken Little: The Inside Story (A Jungian ... - Inner City Books

More documents

Recommendations

Info

38 Chicken Little: The Inside Story “Mind you,” said Brillig with a sardonic smile, “it’s all fake. One can’t say with any certainty of any item here that it contains the ‘truth.’ In the whole lot there is nothing but mystery and error. Where one ends, the other begins.” Returning to the table and helping himself to more roast beef (he chose only the rarest bits), Brillig confessed he had great difficulty with intuitions not backed by concrete reality. I was attentive because I’m in the same boat myself. Norman coughed. “I call it the Brillig Principle: ‘Whatever is not supported by experience is not true.’ ” “That is my belief,” said Brillig, “hence I am sometimes overwhelmed by what might happen.” He emphasized might, he said, because he didn’t trust his premonitions, even though some had subsequently proven to be true. I got quite excited. “But that’s just the way people reacted to Chicken Little!” “Yes,” nodded Brillig, stroking his goatee. “Ironic, isn’t it?” Then he leaned toward me so we were cheek and jowl. “Ms. Little, you know,” he whispered, “personifies the repressed side of God.” Rachel, still on the floor, overheard and gasped. Arnold stopped chewing and looked up. “What was that?” Brillig waved his hand. “A heavy subject. Let us leave it for another time. We have grave decisions to make, decisions which I believe will have farreaching consequences for all our lives. First we must get to know each other. Later, Deo concedente, we shall have the opportunity to act and suffer together. This evening it is enough to make one’s acquaintance, as they say.” Over a freshly-ground mix of Columbian coffee and Arabian decaf, served with real whipped cream on Rachel’s apple crumble, I put Brillig on the spot. “Professor Brillig, I looked you up. I could find nothing by or about you since 1970. Have you retired, then?” “Please, Adam will do. Retired? Norman, did you hear that? Oh my goodness no! I do contract work in various factories, a moun-
The Meeting 39 tain-climbing goods store, a chemical laboratory, a photo-engraving shop. In each place I undertake the apparently impossible. I’m paid badly, of course, I’m too old to bargain, but I own the patents to whatever I invent. I must keep active, you see; it’s one way to know who I am.” “When I was about six,” I said, “I fell asleep in the bathroom and dreamed I woke up dead, wondering who I’d been.” “A case in point,” said Brillig. He went over to the pile on the floor and pulled out a book that had obviously been well-thumbed. “This is Mount Analogue, by the French writer René Daumal, whose untimely demise in 1944—gracious, he was only thirty-six, my own age at the time—was a tragic loss to literature.” Brillig read: I can admit to you that I fear death. Not what we imagine about death, for such fear is itself imaginary. And not my death as it will be set down with a date in the public records. But that death I suffer every moment, the death of that voice which, out of the depths of my childhood, keeps questioning me as it does you: “Who am I” Everything in and around us seems to conspire to strangle it once and for all. Whenever that voice is silent—and it doesn’t speak often—I’m an empty body, a perambulating carcass. I’m afraid that one day it will fall silent, or that it will speak too late. 44 “We all wonder in the early years,” said Brillig, “but you know how it is; as we grow older we lose touch with the inner life. Overwhelmed by practical matters and the opinions of others, we forget the mystery. Just as in your dream, we might, any of us, wake up to find ourselves dead.” He gently closed the book and lowered his eyes. Rachel was quite moved. So was I. “Do you still do analysis?” asked Arnold. “No one since—.” Brillig nodded at Norman. “Not my greatest success, I’m afraid.” He laughed uproariously. “Ah well, I think we get along.” Norman smiled. I gathered this was a private joke. 44 Mount Analogue, p. 35.
Page 2 and 3: Chicken Little
Page 4 and 5: CHICKEN LITTLE The Inside Story A J
Page 6: Contents Chicken Little: Messiah, M
Page 9 and 10: Chicken Little: Messiah, Meshuggene
Page 21 and 22: The Letter 21 had a joint. The feel
Page 23 and 24: The Letter 23 could use some spice.
Page 25 and 26: The Letter 25 chel about Brillig’
Page 27 and 28: The Letter 27 the difference. She h
Page 29 and 30: The Letter 29 since the morning in
Page 31 and 32: The Letter 31 her, was written at a
Page 33 and 34: The Meeting 33 Well, strictly speak
Page 35 and 36: The Meeting 35 “Rachel,” I said
Page 37: The Meeting 37 “May I?” he aske
Page 41 and 42: The Meeting 41 Arnold furtively sli
Page 43 and 44: The Meeting 43 things, ‘of shoes
Page 45 and 46: 3 An Unveiling I awoke at 5:30. Tha
Page 47 and 48: An Unveiling 47 had been through th
Page 49 and 50: An Unveiling 49 six hours there and
Page 51 and 52: An Unveiling 51 sensuous mate befor
Page 53 and 54: An Unveiling 53 still devout, and a
Page 55 and 56: An Unveiling 55 I felt a twinge of
Page 57 and 58: 4 Search for the Self After we’d
Page 59 and 60: Search for the Self 59 “Jung spok
Page 61 and 62: Search for the Self 61 concerned to
Page 63 and 64: Search for the Self 63 “I also sa
Page 65 and 66: Search for the Self 65 I looked at
Page 67 and 68: Search for the Self 67 Rachel looke
Page 69 and 70: Search for the Self 69 “You could
Page 71 and 72: Intermezzo 71 town and sent to the
Page 73 and 74: Search for the Self 73 Alchemical l
Page 75 and 76: Philosophers’ Stone 75 next door.
Page 77 and 78: Philosophers’ Stone 77 zine these
Page 79 and 80: Philosophers’ Stone 79
Page 81 and 82: Philosophers’ Stone 81 only in hi
Page 83 and 84: Philosophers’ Stone 83 circled hi
Page 85 and 86: Philosophers’ Stone 85 fours and
Page 87 and 88: Philosophers’ Stone 87 how does i
Page 89 and 90:
A Stitch in Time 89 as I can say wh
Page 91 and 92:
A Stitch in Time 91 “Good, bad, w
Page 93 and 94:
A Stitch in Time 93 The prodigal so
Page 95 and 96:
A Stitch in Time 95 “Well,” I s
Page 97 and 98:
A Stitch in Time 97 as I dare say t
Page 99 and 100:
New Dimensions 99 had a session wit
Page 101 and 102:
New Dimensions 101 I was afraid I
Page 103 and 104:
New Dimensions 103 Night after nigh
Page 105 and 106:
New Dimensions 105 culine God-image
Page 107 and 108:
New Dimensions 107 Adam smiled at m
Page 109 and 110:
New Dimensions 109 Adam had said ea
Page 111 and 112:
The Experiment 111 No team of mount
Page 113 and 114:
The Experiment 113 “The major por
Page 115 and 116:
The Experiment 115 While Rachel and
Page 117 and 118:
The Experiment 117 It took some tri
Page 119 and 120:
The Experiment 119 From the Great A
Page 121 and 122:
The Experiment 121 “Hear, hear,
Page 123 and 124:
The Experiment 123 While I scooped
Page 125 and 126:
Bibliography Birkhäuser-Oeri, Siby
Page 127:
Bibliography 127 _______. The Pregn
show all

Chicken Little: The Inside Story (A Jungian ... - Inner City Books

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?