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Tales of Insanity

by Sophia Basan and Emmett W. McAfee

191 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0031; ISBN 1-55212-629-3; US$19.50, C$21.95, EUR16.00, £11.50

"Tales Of Insanity" is an insightful portrayal of life in the realm of paranoid schizophrenia, taking the reader on a journey along the edge of the sea of insanity, that surges towards them in savage ferocity and attracts them with a brilliance shining from its mysterious and dark depth. Pain and Anger seem to be the main characters, yet in the core "Tales of Insanity" is a capturing love story.

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About the Book Journey to the edge of insanity and meet Cowboy and Ophelia in a brutally frank portrayal of life in the mysterious and dark realm of the psychotic. Surviving times of intense rage and pain, theirs is a capturing love story. The book is a series of fluid short stories providing a continuity found in the chapters of a novel. However, each one is a story unto itself, yet is strongly related by the common threads of characters, action and timeline. This gives the reader a freedom not available in the usual medium, combining said continuity with a sharply defined intensity, as only the short story format allows. "I thoroughly enjoyed Tales of Insanity and think it is well written and thought-provoking. As we have just published Thom Jones' stories, we are now looking for something a bit less dark. Tales of Insanity is a story that must be told." Kathrynn Di Tomasso Little, Brown & Company

Notes from Psychiatry

"I know the rhythm of the tides and call insane or sane this world of mine . . ."

"Notes from Psychiatry" is an introduction to the paranoid-schizophrenic, bipolar personality. In a stark illustration of an exceptional and dangerous mind the readers meet Cowboy, the protagonist of "Tales of Insanity."

Voices

"Like eerie laughter his words echo through the valley: 'I am not a good guy trying to be bad; I am a bad guy trying to be good. I am mean. If you let me do it to you, I will rip your heart out of your chest, tear it into pieces, and stuff it back into your mouth. Be careful, my love!'"

Ophelia, the protagonist's young consort, narrates the impact of Cowboy's insanity on her emotions and thoughts. She wakes from a dream into a cold and vicious world.

Insanity Running Down the Road

"Rage builds in every pace, in every throbbing thought, articulated in the rhythmic sound of boots beating gravel. Pointed intensity. Heating pain. Boiling out a beastly cry."

The story "Rage" portrays Cowboy's uncontrollable temper. Sparked by old pain, his rage demands war with his brother, Chuck. Chuck's temper rivals Cowboy's. The ghost of the brothers' deceased father cheers his own blood to kill each other.
The police arrive. Soon they realize, not they, but the manic Cowboy has the upper hand. A former fighter pilot, he is the trained professional who has combat skills and tactics, a warrior enjoying the power and the challenge.

". . . After a moment of tense silence, Officer Charlie walks toward the gate, 'You know what, man?' he says to the still-invisible Cowboy. 'You know what the main cause of death among police officers is? Domestic violence! I got four little girls waiting for me at home! You two brothers are way too big, way too ugly; and got way too many guns!'"

I Will Write No More Forever

Cowboy has been in a clinical depression for days. Ophelia attempts to finish writing Cowboy's story. She finds she can only write about what she knows. She asks questions of depression and life. "The infectious death," is tugging at her mind. Yet, deep inside, where she expects nothing but darkness, she makes a surprising discovery.

"'Hell,' they had whispered into my ear, 'the place is hell. The core is evil. Eternal pain is burning all growth, exterminating all life. It is a dark and barren place.' Here I stand with widespread arms in surprise of the presence of lustrous life! Flowers of passionate fragrances, brilliant colors. Flowers growing in hell, where all growth is burnt, all life exterminated! Tenacious life! Zealous beauty! More precious than any flower I've ever seen; they all grew in easy soils. Bravo for life today!"

The Beast

"The pot has a crack and can never be mended . . ."

"The Beast" takes the reader into Cowboy's hallucinations. Seeing the beast as real as life, a fight for dominance of insanity or sanity ensues in Cowboy's mind. Cowboy expects to lose this fight.

"BUT IN THE FIRE,
OH, IN THE FIRE!
When metal groans in the heat
and agitated preparations within come to a boil,
the crack widens and glows incandescent red
like a bright brand poker risen from deep coal depth plunged
to quench while spitting out bits and pieces of itself."

Ophelia tries to keep him from going over the edge. The intensity of his episode now has Ophelia talking to the beast.

A Life So Big

"Kawhomp! His fist hits me . . .
'Where is my gun?' He grabs me by the throat and pushes me up against the wall.
He lets go of me to lock the back door, eyes mean and unblinking. I have never seen him quite like this . . .

I jump up, dash for the front door, unlock, open, out! I hear him leap after me like a jaguar. I feel his breath on my neck. He is so much faster than I am, but somehow I get away. I run toward the woods. He is looking for his gun, any gun. He cusses.
I run. My muscles move the legs as fast as they will go. It feels slow . . . I skip through the brush. Visions of being shot in the back, falling face down into the swamp water.
'They say it hurts when you get hit, but it doesn't, you don't feel a thing.' Another line from a movie. Am I hit yet?"

In the story "A Life So Big" Cowboy's schizophrenic episode turns him into someone who tries to kill Ophelia. He hunts Ophelia through the woods as she runs for her life. Ophelia knows she has to outrun him until he is in a different state of mind.

The Dance

"The tempest of passion
without regard of convention
has broken loose from steel prisons so long bound.
To dance and to sing
with fairy-like precision
on light and gentle breezes
at the thought of your thoughts touching mine."

By pure exhaustion of the mind Ophelia watches the trees dance. She recognizes the dance Cowboy has told her about. For the first time Ophelia enjoys her own hallucinations.

Vacation in the Sane World

"Moose graze in the swamp forest. Mountains rise windy and high. Rivers bulge, charged with mighty water. The pure air is spicy with herbs. Flowers pulse life through the meadows.

Cowboy sends Ophelia on a trip to Alaska to meet his wife, Mary. The two drive the Alaska Highway together. The trip through the wilderness, overwhelming by itself, is haunted by insanity: back home Cowboy is going through a severe psychotic episode, no longer knowing what is real and acting upon his hallucinations.

"Ophelia, the big oak tree told me that you were dead. I called Mary's office and asked 'Is it true?' The voice at the other end said 'Yes.'
Oh God! I went insane. I ran to the oak tree and grabbed it and screamed for half an hour. I was going to kill myself. Thinking you were dead made me realize how much I've come to love you. I wrote my will and called my kids to tell them good-bye. I told them to bury me next to you under the dead oak tree."

Last Dogs of the Pack

"Remember when flying was new, Cowboy. You were in love with airplanes, with the fabric and wood, the metal and glass, and oil trailing under the belly, and the smell of musty cockpits and dyed gas spilling through open vents."

"Last Dogs of the Pack" is the vivid narration of a pilot's final flight in a furious Arctic blizzard, as he reflects upon his past. The second part of "Last dogs of the Pack" introduces the pilot's friends Scotty and Wong in an anecdote filled with comical tragedy.

Homo Sapiens

Cowboy speaks of the insanity of the species Homo Sapiens.

"I
rape and kill with unrepentant gluttony.
Spawn life in one image.
Exile all else to servitude . . ."

Strange Dreams

Jim Morrison appears to Ophelia and takes her on a trip through her mind, pointing out the abundant changes that have recently occurred in the neighborhood. Jim takes on Cowboy's characteristics.

"'Mrs. Imagination moved out first,' Jim begins in tour-guide fashion. 'She lived in that rainbow house over there. She felt too confined in the security systems of wires and locks, too protected from that which is called evil. She starved for knowledge of the same. She left her bright-colored, sunny mansion and became a traveler.'"

As Seen With The Other Eyes

People have come to the land. They brought drugs. Cowboy goes on a mind-altering trip. Ophelia is left behind, an outsider. She wants to be with Cowboy, but he is a million miles away.

"'Get out! Go to sleep in the cabin,' he orders . . ..
My mind is exploding. I've got to do something! Raging toward that big black hole that sucks in my universe. Empties me so quickly. I'm going insane! Help! Damn!
I put a pillow over my face and scream."

At last Ophelia decides to travel the mind-altering road herself, as a philosopher. She wants to find out what it is that makes Cowboy want to stay there.

"I am going to write down what I feel . . ."

This promise is not easily kept as Ophelia's mind is torn apart by chemical reactions, making her a different person. She finds herself behaving in the same strange ways she has observed in others.
Cowboy's intense paranoia and hallucinations, as he goes into the woods to fight an army of little green men, sober Ophelia's mind quickly.

Life Is Good

"Life is Good" takes the reader into the eye of a storm. A tornado hits the land by the river. It missed the cabin by a few feet, taking out giant oak trees. Ophelia gets physically hurt, not by the tornado, but by Cowboy's rage.

"All I felt was his rage. 'Give me the motherfucking keys! Where are my keys? Give me my keys!'
Frantically I searched the tossed-over trailer..."

Ophelia meets her own beast, her own rage. Nothing seems human any longer.

In the second part of "Life is Good" the ugly and the beautiful struggle in Ophelia's mind. The story's closing scene is one of inspiration. Even tornado-like forces can be survived.

"'If a painter sees a beautiful tree and paints a beautiful picture of it, does the picture exist because of the tree? Or does it exist because of the painter's ability to be inspired?
'It is not the tree, it is the inspiration,' he says. 'Without the painter and the tools of her mind, the inspiration would change little.
'I am the tree that inspires you, the painter. The magic is in the combination. No matter how great a tree, without a painter to paint of it, it would be known only to few. And no matter how ambitious a painter, without inspiration there is no greatness.'"