A Review<\/b>
\nThe Testament of James<\/i>
\nBy Vin Suprynowicz
\n194 pages
\nDecember 2014, Mountain Media<\/p>\n
The Testament of James<\/i> begins, as good mysteries often do, with a death. Actually, TToJ begins with an imposing figure in a black cape sweeping in through the door of a rare book dealer, which may be even better.<\/p>\n
The death? Well, that may have been from natural causes, though in unnatural circumstances. The caped, cultured Mediterranean man enters the scene to inquire about a book. A book that may have had something to do with the death. A book that may or may not even exist.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The is-it-or-isn’t-it book is an ancient manuscript copy of a document written by James, the brother of Jesus. If it exists, if it is ever uncovered, it will blow the orthodox, authoritarian Pauline version of Christianity right off the map. It may have arrived at the bookstore, leading to the death of the manager. But if so, where is it now?<\/p>\n
The elegant stranger isn’t the only person seeking James’ testament. Others — powerful, wealthy, connected, ruthless — also want it.<\/p>\n
This puts bookstore owner Matthew Hunter in a quandry. He and his friends (particularly his once-and-future love, Chantal Stevens) must find the book if it exists, authenticate it, figure out who’s who among those who crave the tome, and decide what’s best to do with the volume — all the while keeping themselves alive and safe (which isn’t always easy).<\/p>\n
If The DaVinci Code<\/i> comes to mind (and I’m sure it will, to Vin’s eternal despair), forget it. Although a biblical mystery, TToJ is a simpler, shorter, less frenetic, and all its action takes place within a few days and a few miles of Books on Benefit (in Providence, Rhode Island, which is both H.P. Lovecraft territory and Edgar Allan Poe territory, you might notice). Its conclusion is also a heck of a lot more relevant than the one in the famous Dan Brown book (but I’ll let Vin have his say about that, in the following multi-part interview).<\/p>\n
At a scant 200 pages, TToJ serves in part as an introduction to Matthew, Chantal, and their friends (who are set to become continuing characters), though it definitely also tells a story worth telling. I received my copy on Christmas Eve and had devoured it before getting out of bed on Christmas morning.<\/p>\n
If I have one criticism of TToJ, it’s that some of the “local color” (e.g. encounters with particularly obnoxious book store customers) sometimes slows down the action. But that’s a pretty minor complaint. The local color does help establish the world and the attitudes of Matthew Hunter (which is good; it means SEQUELS!). And the little asides are often quite amusing in themselves. Anybody who has to deal regularly with idiots or ignorami will relate.<\/p>\n
This is a good read and it’s very cool to know that sequels are already in the works. Next up? The Miskatonic Manuscript<\/i>. Followers of the Cthulu Mythos can speculate where that<\/i> might lead!<\/p>\n
For more about TToJ, I refer you to Tom Knapp (here<\/a> and here<\/a>). Everything he says is spot on.<\/p>\n There are four ways right now to get a copy.<\/p>\n Signed, limited, first-edition hardbounds<\/b>:<\/p>\n Via ABE Books<\/a> Ebooks<\/b>:<\/p>\n Amazon Kindle edition<\/a> $5.99 Now on to the first part of my interview with Vin<\/b>:<\/p>\n Q. Why did you choose to write on the topic of the bible and censorship? Some will think this is pretty far afield for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n A.<\/strong> My theme, I think, has always been freedom versus the burgeoning state, which usually comes disguised as \u201cWe\u2019re here to help you\u201d but with amazing speed turns into \u201cIt was his own fault; if he\u2019d just followed orders they wouldn\u2019t have had to shoot him.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bill of Rights was designed to limit or slow that trend on this continent, it was the promise to rein in Hamiltonian government. It has largely failed, because those who seek power can always hire a clever lawyer to dance his way around a bastion of mere words. We\u2019re now assured the Second Amendment never REALLY meant we should be able to carry around enough state-of-the-art military weaponry to back down any SWAT team or element of the 101st Airborne they might ever send to disarm us, the way General Gage sent his troops to Concord in 1775. We\u2019re now assured the Fourth Amendment never REALLY meant armed goons couldn\u2019t barge into your house on a pretext that the social worker reported you for \u201cdirty house\u201d or \u201crefuses to get her kids all their shots,\u201d at which point OF COURSE it\u2019s OK for them to seize your marijuana (which George Washington used to grow) and your guns and your pornography WITHOUT A WARRANT BASED ON AFFIDAVITS DULY SWORN, SPECIFICALLY NAMING those items, and take away your children and send them to foster care, where they\u2019re statistically far more likely to be murdered . . . all because some politically appointed judge who used to work as a prosecutor ruled that was \u201cin keeping with the intent of the Fourth Amendment, given the state\u2019s legitimate interest in effective police work.\u201d Insert masturbatory gesture here. <\/p>\n When was the last time a cop went to prison for committing perjury on one of those \u201caffidavits duly sworn\u201d which was used to get a warrant to bust into the wrong house? Never. These cops don\u2019t even go to prison for shooting unarmed children. Ergo, those protections are gone; they\u2019re laughable. <\/p>\n And if breaking in our doors isn\u2019t enough, what could be a more hideous tyranny than an attempt to control, on threat of prison, what we can do within our own thoughts and minds? <\/p>\n So I\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t see where writing a new series of books about the freedom of religion, which means specifically the freedom and the supreme survival value to our civilization of people being \u201callowed\u201d to seek a non-government-controlled awareness, a prophetic state, by consuming psychoactive entheogens, plant sacraments including psilocybin and peyote, in the privacy of our own homes or lodges, is at all \u201cfar afield\u201d from documenting and resisting the War Against Freedom. Nor is writing books about how modern \u201cscience\u201d is ignoring all kinds of phenomena that are right there in front of their eyes, probably because these areas aren\u2019t good sources of Pentagon research grants and they\u2019re afraid of looking silly in the eyes of their peers -\u2013 which is \u201cThe Misaktonic Manuscript.\u201d<\/p>\n Probably you mean there are people out there who think that once they come to think of a writer as \u201cthat guy who just writes about guns,\u201d or \u201cthat gal who just writes about moving to the country and living in a Hobbit burrow,\u201d that\u2019s all we should be \u201callowed\u201d to write about. <\/p>\n Anyone with any kind of \u201cfan base\u201d is going to face that choice. I don\u2019t mean to malign Frankie Avalon or Peter Noone from Herman\u2019s Hermits or any of those guys who play 4 p.m. oldies shows for the senior citizens here in Vegas — if they still enjoy performing and it puts food on the table, God bless \u2018em, everybody\u2019s happy. But the more interesting guys to me are the ones who never allowed themselves to become an animatronic version of their own wax sculpture from Madame Tussaud\u2019s. Look at how many times Bob Dylan has re-invented himself. When he plugged in his guitar they screamed \u201cHe\u2019s supposed to be folk music, he shouldn\u2019t be playing rock \u2018n roll!\u201d Then it was \u201cWhat the hell is he doing in Nashville with Johnny Cash?\u201d and then \u201cHe\u2019s playing with the Grateful Dead? Has he lost his mind? He must be on drugs!\u201d <\/p>\n See Rick Nelson\u2019s \u201cGarden Party.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n Yes, you can go wrong by expanding into what they\u2019ll perceive as new fields, there\u2019s always a risk of failure. But what favor are you doing either yourself or your readers if you never launch yourself beyond your previous comfort zone, poor Sue Grafton trying to come up with a title for her 24th Kinsey Millhone mystery, knowing it has to start with the letter \u201cX\u201d? <\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t have decided to write about a dealer in antique books just so my heroes could romp around trying to find a signed manuscript of \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d or \u201cMidsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d so they can make a million dollars. Those aren\u2019t books that readers are really likely to encounter, in the first place, and who cares if they make a million dollars? But if there\u2019s a book that could prove Christianity has been twisted over the years to serve the purposes of a dominator culture that just wants to conquer and subjugate, that they\u2019re once again barring the path in the very way that a brilliant barefoot rabble-rouser named Jesus accused the Jewish priests of his time of barring the path of those who sought the Kingdom of God first-hand, I find THAT interesting.<\/p>\n They recently conducted a public opinion poll in Cairo that asked people if they were in favor of freedom of religion. Overwhelmingly, Egyptians said \u201cYes.\u201d They then asked them if they thought Islam should be mandatory. Overwhelmingly, those same Egyptians said \u201cYes.\u201d To Muslims, \u201cfreedom of religion\u201d means \u201cfreedom to practice Islam.\u201d Americans tend to laugh at that result; we believe we\u2019re so far superior to that, because we embrace real religious tolerance and pluralism. But do we, really? <\/p>\n Americans think when you go to your place of worship on Saturday or Sunday, it\u2019s OK if the hymns you sing and the sermon you hear are Protestant, or if they\u2019re Catholic. Heck, it\u2019s even OK if you\u2019re Jewish, maybe even Muslim. They don\u2019t have a position on Hinduism because they\u2019re largely unaware of it. <\/p>\n But if I tell you the only way you\u2019re ever going to really hear the voice of God, understand the wonder of his creation by again seeing it the way a child sees it, is to consume a plant sacrament like magic mushrooms or peyote as part of your religious observance? Suddenly your Americans start to sound a lot more like our Egyptian friends: \u201cThat\u2019s not the kind of \u2018religion\u2019 we meant to allow! That\u2019s drug use! You should go to prison for that! You might get stoned and drive your car into someone! Pretty soon you\u2019ll be indoctrinating children into drug use!\u201d <\/p>\n Like in order to not take advantage of children at an impressionable age, they don\u2019t start to indoctrinate kids into THEIR bizarre religious preconceptions before they\u2019re 18? Look at the schoolchildren chanting these absurd Global Warming mantras of the Green Religion while they\u2019re \u201con government time.\u201d Our government is supposedly banned from any \u201cestablishment of religion,\u201d but what\u2019s the Environmental Protection Agency but a tax-subsidized priesthood of the Church of Deep Green, trying to ban carbon dioxide, for heaven\u2019s sake? And the exemption they\u2019ve carved out for members of the Native American Church to use peyote under strict government supervision, but only for Indians of \u201cat least 50 percent blood,\u201d which means an Indian man can\u2019t share his religion with his son who may be of \u201conly 37 percent Indian blood\u201d is pathetic and racist and embarrassing. And I\u2019ve been writing about that for decades.<\/p>\n Q. You obviously have close-up knowledge of the used\/rare book business. For those of us who didn’t know that, would you tell a little about your experience?<\/strong> <\/p>\n A.<\/strong> Sure. The brunette [ed. note: Vin’s partner, who many of us remember as Cat Farmer<\/a>) knows vintage clothes; when Cat came West she found a lot of that stuff was going unappreciated at estate sales in these parts, so she started Cat\u2019s Curiosities<\/a>, initially on a small scale; I think she\u2019s now one of the biggest dealers at the Charleston Antique Mall on Decatur Boulevard in Las Vegas. <\/p>\n I pitched in and contributed a vintage book-and-record segment of the operation, probably six years ago, so we\u2019d have a little more diversity of offerings and I\u2019ve have something to do on the weekends while Cat was digging through the boxes of old clothes from the \u201850s and \u201860s that these people were about to throw away. I came from a family where there were always thousands of books around, I did a radio show when I was in college, playing old jazz 78s and creating some radio theater, so it was a good fit. And it was obvious quite a while ago that the old model, where you work for the same outfit till you\u2019re 65 and then you get a gold watch and a nice pension, was dead. You\u2019ve got to watch for opportunities, develop multiple income streams that aren\u2019t going to collapse when the daily newspaper industry collapses, which it did. <\/p>\n Some other experienced booksellers in Las Vegas were very generous with their time, showing me the ropes. The brick-and-mortar part of the vintage business has gotten a little tougher during six years of economic non-recovery; a lot of customers just can\u2019t pay the prices they might have paid back when they had full-time jobs. First came print-on-demand and then the e-book, and it\u2019s always been a minority that looks at books as collectible objects, anyway. So I\u2019ve now branched out and I sell some of the better stock at Cat\u2019s Curiosities Online<\/a>, which is also where you\u2019ll find the hardcover edition of The Testament of James<\/i><\/a>. We find plenty of buyers in more bookish cultures on the East coast and in Europe and even Japan. Although our rooms at the mall in Las Vegas are still well-stocked, seven days a week from 10 to 6. <\/p>\n My dad used to take me to used book stores when I was a kid; it was our family recreation. I wish I\u2019d been smarter about investing in stuff that\u2019s gone up in value. We bought what we wanted to read; it\u2019s only as an adult that I\u2019ve figured out you\u2019re better off buying a first printing in a nice dust jacket if you can afford it; it\u2019s more likely to appreciate. <\/p>\n I lived in Providence for four or five years, back in the Reagan era, ran a weekly newspaper there; New York and New England are the place for antiquarian bookstores in this country, so basing this latest series of stories at a used book store in Providence felt right. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a kind of idealized Providence, things I remember from 1984 have probably changed, but I think it\u2019s pretty usual that fiction occurs in a world of the writer\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n Q. Without giving away too many spoilers, it’s safe to say that The Testament of James<\/i> has quite a lot to do with entheogens. Is this another area where you have significant personal experience — or is it more an intellectual interest?<\/strong> <\/p>\n A.<\/strong> Well, I don\u2019t think you could write about entheogens, about psychoactive plant sacraments, if you had no experience of them. As a kid who went away to college in the late \u201860s and early \u201870s, that was a time when LSD and mescaline were prevalent, a lot of us had valuable experiences and of course the cliche that we\u2019d fall into addiction and depravity turned out to be nonsense; psychoactive plants and molecules are not addictive. We simply gave up such things -\u2013 probably too thoroughly — because we found ourselves with jobs and families and they felt inconvenient and of course due to this absurd, heavy-handed, panicked government prohibition, so obtaining them meant keeping in touch with a quasi-criminal element. <\/p>\n But even if we weren\u2019t in this weird environment where consuming a lot of these substances is technically illegal for most people in many places, I still think I\u2019d hesitate to discuss my own practices and experiences in detail, because my goal isn\u2019t to proselytize any specific course of action. The point is simply that people need to be free and encouraged to explore and find their own paths. I will say I know the people at the Peyote Way Church of God<\/a> in Klondyke, Arizona. They\u2019re very sober-minded folk, fine people. It\u2019s an all-races church, and their Web site is a good place for people to start if they have a serious interest in some of these things, along with some of the books I\u2019m listing in the bibliographies of this current series of novels. <\/p>\n I\u2019m not in favor of restricting the use of these sacraments to just \u201cclinical settings,\u201d obviously, that\u2019s the wrong direction entirely. But if this area is really new to people they might want to look at this<\/a>, this<\/a>, or this<\/a>.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n Interview continues on Monday<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Review The Testament of James By Vin Suprynowicz 194 pages December 2014, Mountain Media The Testament of James begins, as good mysteries often do, with a death. Actually, TToJ begins with an imposing figure in a black cape sweeping in through the door of a rare book dealer, which may be even better. The death? Well, that may have been from natural causes, though in unnatural circumstances. The caped, cultured Mediterranean man enters the scene to inquire about a book. A book that may have had something to do with the death. A book that may or may not<\/p>\n
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