The CARCASSES a FABLE by Raymond Federman Book Preview

7/31/2019 The CARCASSES a FABLE by Raymond Federman Book Preview

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Buffalo, NY


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Yesterday I bought a new

tape recorder and today I recorded a story on my

new recorder yes when I am alone I often talk to

myself aloud this is the story I recorded I call it

I am sitting in my study -- that's how the story I

recorded begins -- I am sitting in my study in San

Diego California -- close to the sun -- where I movedten years ago to be with myself and finish my work --

I am sitting in my study looking out of the window at

the splendid view before me -- incredible -- the

valley -- the mountains -- the trees -- the sky -- the

clouds -- the birds in the sky beautiful -- Im working

on my new novel The Twofold Vibration I justwrote this sentence But the persistence of the

twofold vibration suggests that in this old abode all is

not yet quite for the best and I look up and there

before me the incredible view -- and I think -- when


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you die all this disappears gets extinguished

nothing more to see -- it's like plunging into a bigblack hole -- everything becomes dark -- but then it

occurs to me that to say that -- to even think that --

implies the possibility of an after -- of some kind of

existence after you die -- could I have been wrong

all my life -- no I'm not going to fall into that meta-

pata-physical joke -- no magic trick -- no divine

intervention -- I am human -- I am conscious of being

human and alive -- after that who cares but lets

imagine for a moment that you are dead -- so here

you are among all the empty carcasses -- yes that's

what this story is called -- the carcasses -- here theyare -- the old ones that have been around the zone

of carcasses for a long time -- the new ones that

have just arrived -- human and animal all piled up

on top of one another waiting for their turn to be

transmuted -- transmutation does not happen all atonce -- does not happen instantly the moment you

become a carcass -- carcasses are not reincarnated

the moment they become carcasses -- there is a

waiting period -- a kind of incubation -- so here you


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are waiting your turn -- no magic trick as I said -- just

that you have to wait for the authorities to decide --yes let's call them that -- the authorities -- nobody

knows who they are -- but they are the ones who

decide when it's your turn to be transmuted -- they

call you -- hey you over there come here -- and they

tell you were sending you back -- back to wherever

you came from -- doesn't have to be the planet Earth

-- carcasses come from all sorts of places in the

universe -- the place where the carcasses are piled

is a separate zone in the great void of the universe -

- nobody knows where it is -- but it's like a huge

department store -- a bit like Walmart and therecarcasses of all sizes all types all shapes all forms all

colors -- most of them in bad condition -- wait for the

authorities to tel them they are going to be

transmuted -- one cannot argue with the authorities -

- you have to accept their decision -- and so yourturn comes and you are told that you are going back

as an insect -- yes -- as a fly -- imagine yourself now

living the life of fly -- ok it's a short life -- but still --

what is your main purpose in life -- your raison d'tre


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to buzz around -- to bug the shit out of the other

species -- buzz around the eyes of cows who smackyou with their tails -- or buzz around humans --

leaving you shit on window panes or T.V. screens --

but one day you land on the arm or the top of the

head of a human and bang -- he slaps you with his

hand and crushes you -- splashes you -- and you're

dead what kind of a life was that -- so here you

are again among the carcasses -- oh you're already

back the other carcasses sneer at you -- I mean

those who are there still waiting their turn to be

transmuted -- and again you wait to be sen back --

well this time your turn comes quickly -- no reasonsgiven -- you come back as a flower -- a lovely red

rose in the suburban backyard of some nouveau

riche on the coast of California -- and you're proud

because you know you're beautiful and you smell

good -- the ladies who come to play bridge look atyou and say -- oh what a beautiful rose -- but then

one day the lady of the house tells the maid to go

get flowers from the garden to put on the dinning

room table -- so here comes the maid with her


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clippers or whatever she uses to cut you off -- then

she sticks you in a vase with some water from thesink -- but soon the water starts smelling foul and it's

unbearable -- and you begin to whither and the lady

of the house says to the maid -- get rid of that dead

flower -- and the maid throws you in the garbage

and empties the smelly water in the sink -- and here

you are back among the carcasses -- what kind of

life was that -- now you wait again -- this time a very

long time -- maybe a couple of centuries -- even

more -- time does not exist in the carcass zone -- so

you really dont know how long you waited but

finally the authorities call you and tell you that youare needed among the lions of Africa -- there is a

shortage of virile male lions on the planet Earth --

and they are sending you back to be a lion in Kenya

-- so here you are in the African jungle -- with three

sexy lionesses and a bunch of little cubs -- and it's agood life -- especially since every fifteen minutes

this has been carefully observed by lion observers

and even photographed -- one of the lionesses

comes over and licks you begging for a little


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fake -- this is California -- there is nothing natural

about this environment they put you in -- its pureHollywood decor you know that -- you know it's

fake -- but you pretend it's really nice just to make

the humans feel good and happy so that they don't

send you to the Buffalo zoo -- but you're bored in this

phoney Walt Disney decor -- most of the time you

sleep -- or pretend to be asleep -- especially when

they bring the little brats to look at you in fear --

they would like you to look mean and act ferocious --

so a human pokes you in the ass with a long stick so

you can roar -- what kind of a life is that -- okay

they bring you these big chunks of meat -- beef -- butone day they give you a piece of meat that comes

from a sick cow and you die -- you die of the mad

cow disease -- and you're back among the carcasses

-- well I wont go into all the possible animal or

human or even vegetable forms you could comeback as -- imagine yourself as a radish -- what kind

of a life would that be -- or an artichoke -- okay a

tree -- a big majestic tree -- that would be okay for

a while -- but then all the other trees around you


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become jealous because you're taller -- or because

your trunk is bigger than theirs -- or your leavesgreener -- then one day some humans come with a

big saw and cut you down to pieces and burn you --

what kind of a life was that -- and here you are

back in the carcass zone -- while waiting for your

turn to come again you think -- I know that carcasses

are not supposed to be able to think -- they are

nothing but for the convenience of this fable let's

just say that they are capable of bursts of cogitation

so you cogitate -- why cant I have a voice in the

decision of what I will become next -- why can't I

make up my own ... my own ... -- well I was going tosay mind -- but carcasses have no mind why can I

have a little something to say about my next

transmutation -- and since you were a writer once

upon a time in a previous transmutation -- you

compose a very stylish message addressed to theauthorities asking if maybe it isn't time for the

carcasses to have a voice in the process of their

transmutation -- this stirs up things among the

carcasses -- there are discussions -- debates --


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arguments polls votes and all sorts of things like

that -- and finally the authorities give up and agree -- so now when the time comes for a carcass to be

transmuted -- the carcass in question must appear in

front of the authorities to discuss what it would like to

become in her next transmutation -- it's a complex

and lengthy process but eventually a joint decision is

made -- and you become what you really wanted to

become for instance me -- I often said that if I

were to be transmuted I would want to come back

as a roman gladiator -- like Spartacus so that I

could lead a revolt against the roman emperor -- or

come back as a musketeer -- like Dartagnan or asa French lover -- like Le Marquis de Sade or -- or -

- or -- as -- as -- you see its not easy to decide

yourself what you want to come back as -- this is why

I think the best thing to do here -- I mean here in this

fable -- is to let the potential readers decidethemselves what they would like to come back as --

and if this fable is ever published -- let's say in the

New Yorker -- then I would insist that the last page of

the story be a blank page where the readers could


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write what they want to be in their next life -- of

course someday the way science is makingprogress -- carcasses may be able to come back as

objects -- imagine coming back as a stove or an

electric razor -- or a toilet seat what kind of a life

would that be or better yet -- come back as a golf

club -- that wouldnt be too bad it might even be

an interesting life -- to be transmuted as a brand

new Taylor Made Titanium 680 driver with a

graphite shaft -- not a bad life -- well at least until

the golfer decides that you're driving him crazy with

the way you slice the ball and buys a new carcass

reincarnated as a King Cobra 560 driver with ananti-slice shaft -- and throws the Taylor Made into

the garbage -- imagine what kind of a life that

would be -- by the time I finished recording this story

it was dark outside my window and the splendid

view had vanished into the night I turn off therecorder light a cigarette and go back to work on

my novel


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The other day I was in my study as I am every day

except on Sunday when I watch football games on

TV I was doing nothing absolutely nothing

nothing was coming to me that day not a single

sentence not even a couple of words that would

make me smile and make me say well here is a

nice beginning for a bit of writing but nothing not

a single word -- for instance a word like the one that

launched my novel To Whom it May Concern -- theword Listen the word that broke the silence and

got the story going but that day total void in my

head so to pass the time I look out of the window

at the splendid view and count the birds flying in the

sky it is an incredible view Im not going todescribe it again if you are interested take a look

at the preceding chapter in fact looking at this

splendid view makes me want to revisit what I had

written about the carcasses in that first chapter


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and while reading a thought comes to me or rather

a sentence in the form of a question how did thefirst human react when confronted with death I

mean the first who was conscious of being human

well thats not exactly the sentence that came -- it

was shorter in fact it came to me in French quelle

gueule il a d avoir le premier tre humain devant la

mort lets say that he was a Homo Sapiens what

grimace came to his face when for the first time he

saw another dead Homo lets say that he was the

first one to confront death because the one who

died was no conscious that he was dead he was

merely on his way to becoming a carcass and sothe one who looked at the homo who had just

tumbled into the zone of carcasses was the first to

become conscious of death are you still with me

this is not easy to explain because Im talking about

the first carcass the first one to arrive in the

carcass zone there is no precedent Im talking

about carcass #1 the original carcass -- its not

easy to work ones way out of the deadly labyrinth

of carcasses to put it in simpler terms when the first


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Homo Sapiens saw another Homo Sapiens die he

realized in his narrow skull that the other was nolonger alive by other I mean the dead guy it is of

course possible that the first Homo to be conscious of

death was not a Homo Sapiens but a Homo Erectus

there is no way to know there are no records in

whatever form of the word that this Homo

grumbled when he saw his fellow Homo become a

carcass but maybe it was not a male but a female

who first uttered the word death when she saw

another female tumble into the great cunt of the

universe on her way to the zone of carcasses

whatever the case it was that first Homo Erectus yes it must have been a Homo Erectus rather than

a Homo Sapiens --male or female -- who invented

the word death well not that word -- not the

English word nor the French word -- mort nor any

other word spoken on planet Earth he or she let a

sound or a series of sounds come out of their

vocal cords which were still brand new that sort

of meant well look here the bastard is dead or

the bitch is dead please excuse those profane


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words but it has been proven that all the Homo

Erectus and most of the Homo Sapiens wereillegitimate well thats what I was wondering how

did that first Homo male or female -- reacted when

he or she confronted for the first time a dead Homo

when he or she saw another like them tumble into

the zone of carcasses to receive from the authorities

the number One since that dead Homo was the first

carcass to arrive in the zone -- the first human of

course in that prehistoric period there was no

numerical system no numbers no mathematics

there was nothing everything needed to be

invented which is what the generations of Homosthat followed through the ages did as best they could

invent a way to number themselves and things so

to speak but the first thinking Homo who saw a

dead Homo must have said aloud I am sure shit

the bastard is dead well he didnt say it like that

he said it in some kind of prehistoric grunt and as

he shouted those words he suddenly felt deep inside

the hollow of his undernourished guts a huge pain a

pain much more painful than the pain he had felt


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when he cracked his rib cage to rise from a

quadruped posture to a biped position -- when hebecame fully erected the pain he felt in the hollow

of his stomach when he invented the word death

came from his realization that he too could easily

tumble into the zone of carcasses it was a silent

pain a pain he could not utter but he understood

in his narrow underdeveloped skull that he too could

become a carcass like his fellow Homo from that

moment on in prehistory that poor Homo spent the

rest of his miserable existence with this pain inside of

him to which one day -- or more likely during the

night in the darkness of the cave he gave the namefear ah yes the fear of death I once wrote a little

poem about that Im going to put it here for the

sake of future generations

It is not death

we fear

It is the fear

of death


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no one knows how many times a carcass can be

transmuted -- probably hundred times -- maybe evenmore until it is totally exhausted puise the

French would say as it is said of a book that goes

out of print and become totally useless still it must

be terrible to come back to life in whatever form

and live each time with the fear of death inside ones

guts I am addressing here only the human species

one would have to ask the same question for other

living creatures whether or not they are conscious

of death for instance do little gold fishes also have

the fear of death in the hollow of their narrow biddy

stomachs it would certainly be interesting to know ifthey too feel that pain or if they dont give a damn

about it and keep hoping that in their next

transmutation they might come back as a human

being man or woman though I am sure that most

gold fishes would prefer to come back as a woman

with gorgeous thighs in fact thats what all the

carcasses in the zone hope -- to come back as

humans because there is a rumor circulating in the

zone of carcasses since time immemorial that humans


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do not fear death that is why they enjoy killing one

another but of course thats a false rumor anywaythats what I was thinking the other day while

admiring the splendid view out of the window of my

study when I was doing nothing nothing but hoping

for a sentence to come just a few words so that I

could go on with this fable


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