Fans should note that the latest revision is posted elsewhere in the Archive as "Pioneers of Alienation." _________________________________ Here is Pioneers of Alienism and 50s Sci-Fi at Thing Street Asylum, the latest revision of the work known previously as Thing Street Asylum. An early version of this work was posted to the Internet Archive, and to a site maintained by litvision.org. This work is fiction, an intermittent narrative, a flawed delusional fabric informed by history, experience, and the eccentric realities at the center of most modern cities, whether Toronto, New York, or Timbuktu. It is a development of my earlier works, such as Troping the Asylum and The Support Worker, which began as explorations of the meanings of asylum in works ranging from annual reports to old, archival case histories. While I found that this material was more meaningful, contextualized or re-contextualized, in Thing Street Asylum, that made the resulting hybrid form virtually unpublishable by any conventional press. Catch 22! I'm fond of repeating that a thing was what a grave-robber stole. I think that's an important clue. Things are also junk, an important metaphor that holds the book together, like some other metaphors and themes: various kinds of junk (including psychotropic medication), antiques, gadgets, Midas (who turned everything into gold, or junk), the philosopher's stone (which did the same thing), the escarpment and Niagara Falls and turbines and hydro-electricity (which likewise did "the same thing"), turnstiles, trains, ocean-liners (all turbine-driven), asylums and hotels (similar technological marvels), ebb and flow (related to turbines and production), production and exhaustion, the 50s and sci-fi and quacks, movies and masturbation, asylum(s) and shelter (s) and homelessness, etc. This work satirizes numerous systems and institutions, ranging from banks and universities to mental health and social welfare. I know something about all of these, from both sides of the wicket, podium, couch, and wicket (again). I realize this is really a very narrow range, but perhaps that makes for a better target. I wouldn't have thought it possible. The following preamble, from the old version, might (still) prove helpful. This epic historical metafiction parodies and combines numerous genres (narratives, essays, broadsides, poems, annual reports and case histories) to depict the eccentric reality at the centre of the city. Part I, "Three Generations Enough," begins with Johnny's ancestor, William Midas, a public-spirited entrepreneur, bringing hydro-electricity to the nation. The quote is from O.W. Holmes. It originally referred to eugenics and the Snopes family (three generations of idiots, etc.). This section presents scenes from the courtship and married life of Johnny's parents, narrates Johnny's early life in the Maypole City, his attempts to escape it, his fleeing to Hogtown, his early acquaintance with the Mental Illness Establishment in Charles Waldorf Handy's rooming house, his first encounter with Max the Butcher, his employment in the monumental Hotel, etc. Among others (Max the Butcher, Vixen Foxy Weasel-Theatre, etc.) Johnny meets Deane and Porko, the antipodes of his emotional life. Part II, "Shopping on the Titanic," is an interlude narrating Johnnyâs early business career in a Hogtown bank. The action occurs literally in the shadow of the Hotel, in the banks and warrens beneath them, in the Hotel itself, and on the harbor-front. The bank and the hotel provide a metaphor for monumental ruin, anticipating the Asylum. Shopping introduces the junk theme, which is related to the disaster theme. Itâs also very sexual. Johnny misses the boat this time, the Sam McFee not the Titanic, which he's already (metaphorically) on. Part III, "Recollections of Deane," moves back and forth between Montage (Montreal) and Hogtown. It resumes Johnny's essentially cerebral relationship with the eponymous Deane, whom Johnny meets at a summer job he shares with Porko. It describes the start of Johnny's academic career at Montage U, with Rube Goldberg, Bugsy Bugg, et al. It concludes with another splendid architectural metaphor, Windsor Station. Part IV, "Rude Civil Servants," incorporates the West into Johnnyâs oscillations. It moves among Hogtown, Lethe Bridge, and Montage, as Johnny flits back and forth across the Dominion. This piece introduces the Asylum proper: its walls, bad plumbing, and mad doctors (especially Joseph Workman). It features portions of the never-completed history of psychiatric extinction, including an interview with Max the Butcher. It narrates Johnnyâs faltering academic career, his growing insanity, his ultimate betrayal to the Asylum authorities by Porko and Max. Part V, "Thing Street Asylum," illustrates Community Mental Health in Emile Durkheim House, a psychome (group home for mentally ill people) maintained by Charles Waldorf Handy and another of Johnny's landlords, Citizen Hearse. They could be twins. Deane is a permanent part of Johnny's delusional fabric, as he appears in various guises: a neighbor, a housemate, a correspondent (penpal), an executive, and finally an airplane pilot. In reality(?) he's dead. While Thing Street Asylum might look fragmentary, it isn't. Its nearest precursor is Burton's "The Anatomy of Melancholy." Via Celine and Burroughs. This brief preamble might not prove helpful, because preambles to satires like Thing Street Asylum historically don't, because one never knows how to take them. Consider Swift's "Tale of a Tub." Maybe one day I'll get around to writing "An Apology for Thing Street Asylum," but don't count on it. Please note: Hard copies of this work have been deposited in libraries in Canada and the United States and in the National Library of Canada. This work and its previous versions are all copyrighted. For the time being users of the archive may only download digital copies entire and unaltered, with author's name and attribution appearing on every page, for personal, non-institutional, non-commercial reading use in digital format. No derivations, or modifications, etc. Anyone interested in obtaining a hard copy of this work should enquire at [email protected]. Anyone serious about reading Thing Street Asylum should obtain a hard copy from the author, as it has recently been revised. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2009, etc., Jon Thomas Rowland. P.S. Linda Hutcheon "can't wait to read it." IMPORTANT NEWS: The latest (illustrated, revised, expanded) version is now available, as Pioneers of Alienation etc., at this Archive.