From: Robalini@aol.com
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 09:06:02 -0800 (PST)
Subject: The Konformist: Acid Novelist or Art Lover? You Decide
Message-ID: <199702141706.JAA10765@toad.com>
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Subj:  American "Acid Novelist" Brings Home Expatriate Treasure
Date:  Wed, Feb 12, 1997 7:58 PM PST
From:  fargone@popalex1.linknet.net
News Release--For Immediate Distribution--2/12/97

Novelist and psychedelic renegade Todd Brendan Fahey, wit the aid of
his father, a Los Angeles-area health care executive, has purchased from
the Amsterdam art gallery Anton Heyboerwinkel what is believed to be the
bulwark of The Logbook of the Ship _Henry David Thoreau_, an obsessive
and intimate mixed media project of an expatriate American artist/mystic
known pseudonymously as Viktor IV before his drowning death in Amsterdam
in 1986.

While on assignment for _Smoke_ magazine last November, Professor Fahey,
author of the incendiary underground LSD novel _Wisdom's Maw_, claims he
was "directed" to a particular shop on Prinsengracht, a canal
street in downtown Amsterdam; after entering the shop, he was
immediately struck by the idiosyncratic force of the works of a
particular artist.  "It was as if I were being beckoned into Aladdin's
Castle from way out in some super-mall parking lot," says Fahey, of his
experience. "I will never be able to put it into words; but there was a
pull, a connection, and then, after studying the many Logbook pages for
several days in this shop, there came a long moment of illumination."

Fahey describes this "illumination" as an ecstatic vision, in which he
claims to have understood the mystical emphasis of much of the Logbook
drawings.

"It's not entirely bizarre," says Fahey, who is currently completing his
Ph.D. coursework in English at University of Southwestern Louisiana. 
"Allen Ginsberg had an experience one day, in his early twenties, where
he heard and witnessed, or believes he did, the voice and personage of
the mystic poet William Blake.  Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote the poem
`Kubla Khan' completely whacked in an opium trance.  I was using
psychedelics pretty heavily during the writing of `Fear & Loathing in
Amsterdam' for _Smoke_, and feel as if I were privileged for a few days
to some kind of Source.  I had many things happen to me in
Amsterdam--very powerful moments of insight and registrations of the
cosmic flow of things--and during one of these moments, it was impressed
upon me from without, that I should bring back to the U.S. these Logbook
drawings of Viktor IV."

Born Walter Karl Gluck, the artist Viktor IV traveled to Amsterdam in
the early 1960s and settled there, leaving on a ship he christened the
_Henry David Thoreau_, after the philosopher who he claimed as his chief
inspiration and muse.  A burly, rugged figure, Viktor IV  was
recognizable amongst the quiet Amsterdam populace as the barefoot
American hippie artist who dressed in black, loved cats and young women,
and worked tirelessly on deeply personal and largely non-commercial
projects aboard his canal-bound ship.

A master scuba diver, Viktor IV drowned in June of 1986, while
performing underwater repairs to the _Henry David Thoreau_.

Todd Brendan Fahey, a novice art collector, perceives in the Logbook
pages the artist's fascination with the "ecstatic vision."  In this way,
he compares the drawings to the poem-paintings of American surrealist
Kenneth Patchen.  "There is that same relentless focus on the
All-At-Once, that so characterizes the experiences of mystics in every
religion and culture.  The rich, interconnectedness of all things.  That
is what Viktor IV is expressing in these pages.  And that is what I was
feeling for much of my stay in Amsterdam; as much as I was really out of
my head most of the time, I was, in another way, very grounded."

Unconcerned with commerce, Viktor IV created hundreds of these Logbook
drawings in the original, with no known professional reproductions, from
between 1966 and 1976, after which he turned his artistic vision to
clockmaking.  The bulk of individual pages of The Logbook of the Ship
_Henry David Thoreau_ is held by the Fedor Museum and the Stejdilik
Museum, in Amsterdam, where the adopted artist is revered as a free
spirit.  Viktor IV visited the United States only a handful of
times after emigrating to Amsterdam, and is believed to have held only
one American gallery exhibition in his lifetime.
    
Professor Fahey hopes to arrange a traveling exhibition of his 34 pages
from The Logbook of the Ship _Henry David Thoreau_, by the artist Viktor
IV.  Interested museums and art galleries in major American cities
should contact Fahey at the following address:

Todd Brendan Fahey
c/o Far Gone Books
P.O. Box 43745
Lafayette, LA 70504-3745
(318) 261-1946

Dutch and European media should contact:

Georges or Couzijn Simon
Anton Heyboerwinkel
Prinsengracht 578
020 624-7691
1017 KR Amsterdam
The Netherlands

The award-winning Far Gone Books/_Wisdom's Maw_ Web site:
http://www2.linknet.net/fahey/fargone
************************************************************ 
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Hey kids, don't forget to enter the "Rockin' To Armageddon 
Sweepstakes", sponsored by The Konformist, the Official 
Internet Investigative Journal of the 1997 Academy Awards.
(Okay, it's not official, but we're anti-authority 
anyways.)  Right down the day, month, year, and time of the
end of the world, and, as a tie-breaker, your nominee for the
anti-Christ.  The winner will receive a t-shirt stating, "I 
CameClosest To Predicting The Apocalypse, And All I Got 
Was This Crummy T-Shirt."  You will also receive a free 
one year supply of Twix candy bars. 

Also, this is a free magazine, but we'll still take your 
money if you want.  Please send cash, check, money orders, 
and credit card numbers (Visa, Master Card, American 
Express, or Discover) to: 
 
Robert Sterling 
Post Office Box 24825 
Los Angeles, California 90024-0825
************************************************************ 
                       Rob's Place
                  A SITE IS DEDICATED TO
        SPIRIT, TRUTH, PEACE, JUSTICE, AND FREEDOM
              http://www.vom.com/rc/home.htm

Robalini's Note: This is another Rob.  I have no interest in spirit, truth,
peace, justice, and/or freedom.  I do have an interest in making money.