Brightness Falls Part I: Downward, Jasper

The lights come up slowly to reveal a spare but elegant bachelor’s apartment. It has a ‘between the wars’ veneer to it. On the left a simply outfitted kitchenette with a table and a small transistor radio; in the center, a modest sofa, a modernist print, a rug, a lamp, coffee table. Lights are still coming up, large windows with drawn curtains.

The apartment is fully lit, we hear a key in the door. Enter JASPER, a lean young man, immaculate in a suit and tie affair— there is a haunted Kafka-esque poetry to him…  He carries a briefcase in one hand a bag of groceries in the other. He sets his briefcase down, removes his jacket and hangs it up. He sets the groceries on the kitchen table, turns on the transistor radio, deftly rolls up his sleeves and then begins to neatly put away his groceries.

On the radio, moody classical music (mostly Liszt and Chopin)—JASPER makes himself dinner, carefully chopping vegetables, tossing a salad and broiling a steak.

The lights come down slowly.

 

Lights come up. Dinner is ready. Jasper sets the table for himself, loosens his tie, pours himself a glass of wine and begins to eat, thoughtfully regarding every mouthful. On the radio:

 

DISC JOCKEY

You’ve been listening to Q-ARTZ  and that was a Ariel Miranda’s performance of “Unstern (Dark Star): sinistre, disastro”  a catastrophe in three languages by Franz Liszt —actually one of the composers last pieces. Experimental and curiously dissonant, some say it presaged his own death. But then again, there is something almost always elegiacal about Liszt’s work—La lugubre gondola—inspired by a Venetian gondola funeral, he claimed was also a premonition of his son-in-law’s death in Venice—six weeks later. That son-in-law was none other than the illustrious Richard Wagner.

Moving along now, from the morbid to the glorious…

The year is 1742, the city, London. The German born composer walks along the River Thames pondering the sacred weight and magnificence of a libretto that has just been presented to him. It is a compilation of biblical prophecies announcing the coming glory of the Messiah.

It has been a rough year for the composer, his back is out and so are his finances.

As he grapples the weight, the prophetic majesty of the scripture, the evening sky alters: he looks up and the heavens open. A celestial chorus of angels are singing the most beautiful music he has ever heard…

He runs home, with the unearthly harmonies still lingering in his head and locks himself in his room for three weeks, transcribing what he has heard. The composer is George Frideric Handel and this is the aria “Thou Who Bringest Good Tidings To Zion” from his grand opus, Handel’s Messiah—

 

The lights in the apartment fluctuate. JASPER rises and changes the station. He sits down to eat again.

HOST:

But in your book you’ve referred to a hive as a single consciousness. Is that to say that say each individual ant is not actually an individual, or that the worker bee is of the same mind as the drone of the Queen.

 

GUEST

Think of it this way, the hive is a giant brain, and all it’s inhabitants are neural bytes with different functions. Just like cells in our bodies are engaged in different tasks to keep the entire system going—but literally the right hand does not have to know what the left hand is thinking or doing—but they are both acting on the same larger impulse—to get the job done. It all comes together for the

good of the whole and I think the specific lesson that they think globally and act locally.

 

HOST:

So how do they communicate? It almost seems like lighting impulses or reflexes, you know how a beehive or nest of wasps have the same idea almost instantaneously—is it like that? Does word get out instantaneously? Does the same impulse course through the entire ranks of bees or ants or wasps at the very same moment— “Sting! Sting! Sting!! Attack!”

 

GUEST:

Nothing so dramatic. Let’s take the case of ant populations: they have a very crude but effective vocabulary—semiochemicals, which are pheremonal signals—crude because they are limited—there are maybe only ten to twelve different variants—

 

HOST:

You mean they’re giving off a scent—

 

GUEST:

Precisely. But it’s very basic, like there are semiochemicals for “I’m on foraging duty” or “red alert” or “let’s bury our dead”—

But what’s effective about this is the gradient levels, a scent can range from very strong to very faint—and this gives a sense of specificity as in “the danger is somewhere” as opposed to “danger due north”—

 

HOST:

So it’s a bit like human behavior—when someone gives off certain pheromones it triggers a reaction in others and effectively starts a trail, like “hot chicks round the corner,”

 

GUEST:

Something like that, something like that. What’s intriguing about insect communication is that it is akin to cybernetic communication— the use of very limited range of signs to create these complex syntactic blocks. This is creates this semblance of “instantaneity” you were talking about. The signals are almost subliminal, and in humans would only be described as instinctual—but these hive creatures have refined it to a science—

 

HOST:

Does it ever enter their minds to buck against the system? What if one bee got it into his bonnet (or hers, if she were mere proletariat) to start his own fiefdom or colony, if you like—would it be one against the many—or would rebellion course through the ranks the instant someone was thinking it—

The lights fluctuate once more, JASPER rises and changes the station. He finds a weather channel and keeps it there. He sits back down and finishes his meal. Lights go down slowly.

Lights come up. JASPER washes the dishes and dries them.  Crossing over to the living room, he pulls back the curtains to reveal a startling panoramic vista of a city at night. He sits on the sofa, in deep reflection. Lights down, slowly.

As the lights come up slowly, he is on the sofa, and we are not quite sure that he is asleep or merely reclined. The radio is still on, but it the station has been changed once more. On the radio some sort mystery theater—

ANNOUNCER:

And now, without further ado, here is the encore presentation of Downward, Jasper.

 

An atmospheric sweep of music nestles beneath the NARRATOR’S voice. Strangely enough, the light in the apartment begins to inhabit a supernatural glow, while the metropolitan vista in the window seems to grow larger and outsize and morph—in tandem with the radio narrative,

 

NARRATOR:

Darkness first,

then slim lights prick the Night, glowing slowly into a fiery

Firmament

 

Soon Earth and her brethren are splayed across Eternity in bright star clusters: a comet whizzes by, an asteroid crashes

Supernovae explode into being…

 

The Halls of Zion

 

Against the changing panorama two figures appear

 

NARRATOR

Here are two figures

Silhouetted against this hotbed of astral activity,

Angels by vocation—

one a Receiver, the other

A Transmitter.

They are the Two Witnesses

in whom every word of the Law is confirmed

 

A chicly dressed woman is revealed to sit on the arm of the sofa. She carries a smart attaché case and observes the reclining JASPER with interest…

 

NARRATOR

This third figure who occupies the center,

is Milo, a Corresponding Intelligence

and head of all Surveillance

in Heaven

and on Earth.

 

A fourth figure also materializes

Milo beckons to him to sit. His name is Jasper, an Angel of Prophecy.

And this is his story—

 

JASPER starts. He takes in the atmospheric changes in the room, makes to shut the radio off, but then slowly turns to discover MILO, the woman seated on the arm of the sofa.

 

MILO:

Hello Jasper—

 

JASPER:

How did you find me?

 

MILO:

An entire playground of Eternity and you opt for this.

What do you call this? What is this?

 

JASPER:

It’s called the human condition.

I like it.

 

JASPER gets up and walks across the room towards the radio, Milo follows him.

 

JASPER:

What do you want from me?

 

MILO:

How could I ‘want’ anything? Frankly you’re beginning to baffle me Jasper. And I don’t really know the meaning of that word—

 

JASPER:

Surprise. Bewilderment. Astonishment. All these emotions and feelings to be revealed by humanity—

 

MILO:

How do you know? They’re still a blueprint and all this is just a simulation—

 

JASPER:

It’s my business to know.  I’m an Angel of Prophecy.

 

A crazy glance. This time they actually grin at each other. JASPER abruptly and fiddles with the radio stations—nothing appears to happen.

 

MILO:

So why are you pretending to be human?

 

JASPER:

So what brings you here Milo?

 

MILO:

I think the question is more: what brings you here Jasper. If you choose to separate yourself, how can the rest of us

function? We are all of one mind, one source—each one of us with diverse functions to support the whole.

I’d call it sabotage—if I knew what that meant.

 

MILO spies a half filled glass of wine, she lifts it to her nose to sniff—JASPER relieves her of it and sets it down.

 

JASPER:

One mind, once source. Don’t you ever get a bit bored with that?

 

MILO:

How could I? We are perfect.

 

She is balancing a cleaver, JASPER rescues it from her mischief..

 

MILO:

You are an Angel of Prophecy, Jasper. Though you seem a little reluctant recently.

What’s so compelling about this so-called humanity? Why are you obsessed with —this?

 

JASPER:

I like “this”. It’s humbling.

 

MILO:

We are beautiful and I don’t understand humility.

 

JASPER fiddles with the radio station again and crosses back over to the sofa, MILO follows him.

 

JASPER:

Don’t you ever long for novelty Milo, for newness, for the unexpected?

 

MILO:

Is that the human condition?

 

JASPER:

The propensity for error, and thus invention. The human blindspot is indispensable, it’s how newness enters the world—

 

MILO:

You have no blindspots. You are bright and all-seeing.

I have a job for you—

 

JASPER:

I’m not interested.

 

MILO:

Oh but you are— this is what you were created for, so let’s get down to business…

There is talk of War and rumors of it.

 

JASPER:

I have no desire to be complicit.

 

MILO:

Desire? Isn’t it your function to reveal the design of the Universe? The future?

 

JASPER:

A function that endangers me. Believe me Milo, it is no mean feat to peer into the newly unfolded crevices of Creation—

 

MILO takes a cigarette case out of his suit jacket, she lights up cigarette, takes a drag and wrinkles her nose. Jasper snatches it from her and stubs it out.

 

MILO

And since when do you question the Mind of God in these matters?

 

JASPER:

Not that I could, really.

It would only serve to unravel me—

Are we not all His imprint, a precise signature?

Discard that

and wander in a

Bardo of unknowing.

No Milo, it is not the infallibility of the Mind of the Eternal

I question,

Only it’s intent—

How is it that I am deployed

To stare into the pitch black eternal recesses

Where his gaze will not follow

(having no affinity for darkness)?

 

So pardon me if  I feel a little at risk here.

And set apart.

 

MILO:

How you are given to ramble,

O Angel of Prophecy.

Lighten up! It can’t be all that bad.

 

MILO

Let’s start—

 

She opens her attaché and retrieves a small case. In it a pair of wire-rimmed eyeglasses. She hands them to JASPER,

 

MILO:

I brought your gear.

 

JASPER contemplates the glasses.

 

NARRATOR:

The dangers of corrupted brightness,

He perverts the whole of Creation, even though his part in it was advertised as miniscule.

A bit over-rated don’t you think?

 

MILO:

Excuse me, what was that you said?

 

JASPER:

Nothing, Nonsensical mutterings—if that is possible.

It hardly matters.

 

MILO:

Put them on.

 

JASPER glances back at the TWO WITNESSES at the window, who have been chatting quietly with each other in the background, taking in the view.

 

JASPER:

Is it really necessary to have them here?

 

MILO:

Of course, standard protocol remember? In the sight of two witnesses every word of the law will be confirmed.

Why are you so anxious?

 

JASPER:

Because if  there were no witnesses it wouldn’t matter. Nothing I saw would exist, it would just be inner ramblings, flotsam and jetsam of a demented psyche—

 

 

MILO:

We’re not human, you don’t have a “psyche.”

 

JASPER:

I wish I did. I wish I could see imperfectly, that there was a margin of error.

 

MILO:

We are Angels, divinely crafted with maximum efficiency in mind and no margin for error. We have no secrets

between us, no psyche or need for one. You’d try my patience if I was prone to such things.

Begin the sequence.

 

From her attaché case she retrieves a laptop and opens it.  JASPER dons the glasses, they reflect electric blue data streams.

 

MILO:

Let us bring our attention to the issue of War and the rumors of War. Tell me Jasper, what is it you see?

 

They both gaze expectantly into unseen distance, JASPER with his wire-rimmed glasses, reflecting neon blue code, MILO with her hands poised over the keyboard. In the background, The TWO WITNESSES— who more or less have been acting like two people at a cocktail party, taking in the view—become animated. They begin to pace the length of the window, almost like secret service men casing a joint. They circle each other all the while emitting an endless data stream of binary code, blips and tones

 

NARRATOR: The Angel of Prophecy looks out upon the farthest reaches of the continuum The Sea of Time roiling and seething extracting itself from chaos delineating a clear course for itself— that facility we have come to know as Fate…   And so the Angel beholds the Earth, and lo, It is waste and empty The fruitful place is a wilderness The mountains tremble, and In the Heavens Every light has been put out Every Star has fled the sky—               MILO: A tad dramatic don’t you think? Let’s back up in the continuum and attempt to establish cause rather than dwell on effect—

IST WITNESS 1111000? 1111001 1110011? 1100011? 1110110 1110110 1110110 1110110 11110110 111101101 1110110 11110110 111101101     00011000110? 00011000110? 00011000110?   00011000110? 1111001011 1111011100? 1111111111

2ND WITNESS 111100011? 111001110 110101010? 111110101 111111110     1000010001? 1000001001 1000010001? 1000001001 1000010010? 1101000110     11110010011 11111110011 11111010010 10000100100   1110010010? 1111001011 1111011100? 1111111111 00000000000?

 

NARRATOR: Filing past the sequences of time in reverse, what does the Angel see? A dragon appears in Heaven A dragon with his tail thrashing—   he swipes a third of the stars from the sky bright razor things flung down to Earth,   (the radio crackles ominously with interference)   “Woe to you inhabitants of the Earth The Satan is amongst you  and he knows his time is short—”

IST WITNESS 1111000? 1111001 1110011? 1100011? 1110110 1110110 1110110 1110110 11110110 111101101 1110110 11110110 111101101   111101101 1110110 11110110 111101101   111101101 1110110 11110110 1111111111

2ND WITNESS 111100011? 111001110 110101010? 111110101 111111110 011001100110 011001100110? 1000010001? 1000001001 1000010010? 1101000110     11110010011 11111110011 11111010010 10000100100   1110010010? 1111001011 1111011100? 1111111111 1111111111

 

MILO: I can’t put that in my report—you need to be a little more specific. This is all riddles! Can you please focus on getting the story straight?
NARRATOR: Focus?Who understands focus better than the Angel of Prophecy. Calmly he adjusts his glasses and peers again into those newly unfolded futurescapes—which prior to his investigations, did not exist…     What is the Angel of Prophecy scanning for? Language to express what he sees, plainly:	1st WITNESS 00001100011 00011000110 00111001110? 01111011110? 01111011111? 11111011111 11111011111 11111011111 11111111110 11111011111? 11111111110?	2nd WITNESS 00011000110 00111001110? 01111011110? 01111011111? 11111011111 11111011111 11111111110 11111111110 11111011111 11111111110 11111111110
JASPER: There is a War in Heaven.Michael and his host  fight the Dragon. The Dragon and his angels fight back	111111111011 11111100 1111111000? 1111100000	11111111100?1111110001111 11100000 1111100000
MILO: The Dragon?Anyone we know—would you like to be more specific Jasper?
NARRATOR: Who is the Dragon? He is that ancient Serpent called the devil or the Satan who leads the world astray— but that doesn’t tell you much Milo, does it?	000000001? 000000011 0000011110 00000000000	0000000000?1111111000? 0101010100? 00000000000?
JASPER removes the glasses, he is tired and drained
MILO:What?   JASPER: It’s no use, I’m doomed—   MILO: Pull yourself together! This isn’t about you, no need to take it personally—   JASPER: That is your fallacy Milo, you are so perfect, so infallible that you are immune to the complexity of danger—   MILO: How are you any different? We are the same perfection—   JASPER: No. Not so an Angel of Prophecy— at constant risk of being changed by all he sees— And all I see is activated in my line of sight. If there is a War Milo, it is only because I have seen it, and said so—   MILO: You’re not God.   JASPER: But we are. And I am His Eyes.   MILO: You act is if anything could be unforeseen or  unexpected. As though there were some Great Unknown— You mustn’t panic. And you have to explain what is meant by ‘The Dragon’—   JASPER: If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me—   MILO: Why should I doubt anything?   JASPER: That’s right why should you? A little uncertainty or introspection— That would be too much to ask for—   NARRATOR: But you know what they say, Milo—seeing is believing. Why don’t you look for yourself? Put on those glasses— Go on…   MILO: But it’s not my place to do so. You can’t be serious Jasper—   JASPER: I didn’t say anything—   MILO: Sabotage?   She runs over to the radio and tries to change the station.	Ist WITNESS 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0——————   111111111111 111111111111 0000000000 0——————       000000000000 010101010101 0110110110100 0111011101110 11110111101 1111111111 11111111101 0———       0——— 0——— 0———             01010101001 10101010101010 01010101010 1001010100     01010101001 10101010101010 01010101010? 1001010100   01010101001 10101010101010 01010101010 1001010100   01010101001 10101010101010 01010101010 1001010100 0000000000 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111?	2nd WITNESS 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0—————— 0——————   111111111111 111111111111 0000000000 0——————       010101010101 0110110110100 0111011101110 11110111101 1111111111 11111111101 1111111111 0————       0——— 0——— 0———             00001010101 01010101001 10101010101010 01010101010? 1001010100     01010101001 10101010101010 01010101010 1001010100? 01010101001 10101010101010 01010101010 1001010100   01010101001? 01010101010 1001010100 0000000000? 1111111111 1111111111 1111111111? 0000111111?

HOST: —worker bee.Does it ever enter your mind to buck against the system? What if you got it into your bonnet —little dispatch angel, do you dare dream of your own fiefdom, territory to rule a realm to give reign over— To be a Lord, Milo— rather than mere proletariat… How can you be content with your state? You call it perfection, it’s really mere servitude— Join in on the fun, Milo! Even as we speak, the revolution courses through the ranks of Heaven— Thanks to our little transmitter/receiver set up here Don’t believe me? Just ask Jasper over there— He just saw it and told it and now it’s the way things are…

1st WITNESS 0000000000? 111111111 000000011110 01010010101001 10101001010100 10101001010001 100101010010 101001010001 10010101010   101010100101010 1010100101001 01010101100101 0101001001010 1010010101010 1010101001001010————     0010101010100 101010101010100 0101010101010101 01010101010101 00101010101001010 101010101001010101 0010100000000————

2nd WITNESS 11111111100 0000000000? 1111111111 111111110101 00101010101 010101010101 00101010101010 101001010100 101001010100 10100101001     0101010101010 1010101001010 1010101010010 11010100100101 10010101001010 0———       0000000001010 101001010101 00101010010 101010010101010 0101010101001010 101010100100101001 010101001010101010010————

MILO tries to turn off the radio, but it won’t shut off. 

SPEAKER: You CAN be a giant in this life, you CAN have what you want. You CAN be the king or queen of all you survey. You don’t have live out the rest of your days in servitude—YOU CAN BE THE BOSS. SAY IT: I AM THE BOSS!Don’t touch that dial!!!!

1st WITNESS 000000001010010100101 010100101010100101 010100101010100101010 1010010101010101111 1110100 1011101111000110000 0————

2nd WITNESS 00000001010010 101001010111010 101010100101 01010100101010101100 110101010101010101 0101010101010101101 0101010 0———

MILO changes the station. 

 

GAME MASTER: And now for that six-million dollar question! If you get this one right, you’ll be right on top of the world. Soooooooooo, Jasper! (A spotlight comes up on JASPER. Applause)   GAME MASTER: Answer this question correctly, and you get a permanent vacation for the rest of Eternity and Perpetuity, your own turf — you own little spot in the Solar System— Yeah baby, we’re giving out realms and principalities and planets! So this your chance, Seer Boy— One in three Angels, most desires—   A:         The ‘Human Condition’ B:        A girlfriend C:        To be a Prince in Hell rather than a slave in Heav’n? You have 15 seconds to answer Jasper, what will it be?   Ticking sounds then the buzzer goes off   GAME MASTER: Come Jasper—did you understand the question?!!!   a pause, then very slowly—   JASPER: The answer is— we are Angels, we have no desire…   A buzzer goes off. Booing.   GAME MASTER: That is the WRONG answer! You lie, Jasper—you do have desires—     JASPER: Perhaps, but nothing like yours Lucifer. My function has changed me, I have peered into the new creation, and my only crime is wanting to experience humanity. You on the other hand are corrupted by your own beauty— Once the shining paradigm of Angeldom. Now the scourge of Heaven. You were once truly perfect, but How you have fallen, Son of the Morning—   LUCIFER: Silence! You have neither rank nor right to address me! This pathetic need to experience humanity—how does that makes you superior to the rest of us? How you deceive yourself, O Angel of Prophecy! You have stepped outside of the Program, You have transgressed  the Will of God and questioned his Mind and the limitations of your existence— So no matter how noble your intentions, it’s a downward spiral from here Jasper. You’re to come with me, Understand? You whiny little divining device, You are part of my contingent! You’re a rebel. A wild thing! From now on it’s all downward Jasper…   MILO: No! The Lord rebuke you! You are no Angel of Light! Jasper you don’t have to go with him! You—

1st WITNESS: 110100101010010101010 10100101010101 0010101001010101010 001010101010101010 100101010101010010101 0101010101010010101 010101001010101010 101001010101010101010 10101001010101 001010101010101 0————     010101010101001 101010100101010 11111110000011 11111010010101? 11110010101100 0————         111111010010101 010010101001010101 0111111111000———————?       0———————         1111110100101 01010101001010101 010101010101 00101010101 100101010101010 101010010101010 101010101010101 010010101010101         0101010010101 000000000000000 00000000000000000 0————— 111111010101010101 010101011001 111111111110101 001011011111101 001101010110111 000101010101001   10101011010010110101 010101001010 10101101001010 10101010101010   101010101010101 00011010010110 100101011010100 1010101100101010110 101001010101011001 100101010100101 010101010 0—————     0—————     0——————

2nd WITNESS 010101010010101010 10010101010101010 10101001010101010 10101010101010100 1010101010100101 01010101010011 0010101010010 10101010 110100110101010011 00101011010011 01001010101000————— 00001010101010? 00101010101010010 1010101010100110 1010010101010————     000000000010110 101001010101010 0—————?         0——————       11101010010101010101 010010101010101001 1010101010100101010 1001011010101010010 1010101010101 010010101010101010 010101010010   1010101010101010101 001010101010101 1111111000     0100101010101010 01011000000010 0——— 1010010101010101 10101010010101101001 0101010101100101010 10101010101010101010 010101010101010     101010101010101010101 010101010101010101010 101010101010101010111 010101010101 0—————     0——————   0——————     0——————     0——————

 

The light continues to change, and JASPER continues to be swallowed by darkness. MILO backs off and finally the stage darkens and mutes, but not entirely, the light/atmosphere changes— The TWO WITNESSES, and MILO are lit differently to be revealed as subway commuters. JASPER appears as a blind panhandler/ busker or crazed end time prophet? Some character on the train. A lost soul.  Subway noises are heard, the 2ND WITNESS folds his newspaper and addresses the audience,

 

 

2ND WITNESS:

Every evening at rush hour, the same story. Every evening at rush hour I ride the train and try to read the sports page. I generally ignore him. Then there was the time I left the paper on the platform and I was forced to listen. Bizarre imagination, what drugs cooked that up? Another time, I marveled at his story telling skills, his command of the language, how much had been spent on his education? How had it come to this?

Tonight it occurred to me that he has never asked for money, perhaps he is not even a pan-handler. He is compelled, driven by his demons to tell this tale. An endless unsated compulsion, a circle of hellfire. Certain damnation for sure…

 

There’s always something genius about crazy people—

 

He alights from the train, walks up the stairs and exits the subway station. Outside, the bright evening sky, one star in particular grows brighter than the rest.

 

It’s possible I had it all mixed up in Sunday School, history lessons—is it the Son of the Morning, or the Evening Star, or the Morning Star. And did he fall, is he still falling or that predicament is slated somewhere in the future. And

that’s why he still hangs there: it is yet to come and it has happened and is happening now.

 

The stage darkens, the one star grows brighter and brighter; the beginnings of a deep rumble as the star engulfs the entire vista with its glow.

 

Black out.