Day of the Temple

 

In John Barth's comic novel, The Floating Opera, a wealthy but eccentric recluse, Harrison Mack, Sr., becomes so proud of his accomplishments and deeds that he begins to preserve everything he produces. Not only notes and transcripts of his thoughts, he even keeps his hair and nail clippings stored in jars, and his basement is full of pickle jars preserving his excrement. If he produced it, he decided, it must be worth keeping. On hot summer days, the odor from the pickle was noticeable throughout the house.

Legend has it that in his final days, Howard Hughes did much the same thing, at least with respect to urine, but I've read The Floating Opera so many times that it's become entrenched in my mind, and I frequently conflate Howard Hughes with Harrison Mack, Sr.   

I wouldn't put such behavior past Donald Trump, at least in the future if not already. The boxes of classified documents in his shitty Florida golf hotel hint at such excessive-compulsive hoarding. 

Last night, the Orange One gave his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. I tried to watch it, I really did, but could only take it for about five minutes. The man repels me, and I quickly go from outraged to exhausted by his constant stream of misinformation and outright lies. 

I changed channels and went back after about 30 minutes to hear the post-speech analysis, but he was still going at it. I went over to Comedy Central and watched an old rerun of The Office followed by The Daily Show, but when they were over, he was still talking. In all, he yammered on for some 90 minutes, setting a record for the longest convention speech in history (a commentator on MSNBC pointed out that second and third place are also held by Agent Orange).   

Apparently, from the clips I've seen, he spoke at times from the teleprompter and at other times ad-libbed, as per his usual style. It didn't take long before he started riffing on themes from his moronic rallies for which he's been widely ridiculed, e.g., Hannibal Lecter, electric sharks, etc. I'm sure that he was advised to "keep it Presidential," and not succumb to airing his personal grievances and odd anecdotes, but it seems that in his narcissistic mind, any thought that pops into his head is so profound and important that it must be shared with his followers, no matter how ridiculous, no matter how self-incriminating. 

"I am trying to buy your vote, I’ll be honest about that,” he said, referring to Wisconsin voters.  It seems there is no filter in his mind between his mouth and the random thoughts that pop up in his head. If he so much as thinks it, it must be worth sharing with the audience, the cameras, and the rest of America. In his malignant narcissism, everything his mind produces must have value. 

In this, he's not unlike old Harrison Mack, Sr. Free your mind and your ass will follow, they say, and if you believe everything your mind produces has value, it's just a matter of time before you think everything your ass produces must have value, too. We're probably not too far from discovering mason jars full of big orange turds stashed away somewhere in the bowels of Mar-a-Lago.