Shakespeare
was Theodora’s favorite playwright, and she persisted in requesting
that we visit the Folger Shakespeare Library. Eventually, I agreed to go
to Washington, D.C. with her. A fellow participant at one of our
platonic orgies had suggested that we visit Victor Virga while we were
in D.C. because he was looking for people like us who would work at his
new place of business. Until then capitalism had failed to recognize my
unique talents, and consequently, I had been forced to live a less than
luxurious life. I wanted the life of a poor, suffering artist to be a
cliché, not a reality.
Victor
had just opened up the Kennedy Center for the Performing Parts a few
months before, and he was having only moderate success. Victor had held
numerous jobs with various companies before then, but had rarely stayed
with one for more than a few years because he didn’t follow the rules
like he should have. Verily, here was a man after my own heart. He had
gotten tired of working for others and this time was running his own
business. Victor’s forte was in being able to sniff out a market, create
a product or service, and provide that famous American managerial
know-how to turn a profit.
He
knew plenty of people from the upper crusts of society, one happy
consequence of going to the right schools, and of getting fired too many
times, and he was determined to use this knowledge to his advantage.
Victor was corporate handsome, not model handsome, and was slim, both
because he kept in shape and because he was constantly, frenetically
moving around. He was headstrong with a temper, something I could easily
identify with. When he was angry, he could launch into a tolutiloquent
tirade that would tax anyone’s tolerance of him. He seemed to edit words
out of his sentences so as not to waste time. Like the Russians, he
found definite and indefinite articles to be a waste of time and rarely
used them, but other than that, this capitalist had little in common
with his communistic counterparts.
Some
people thought Victor worshipped Mammon as others worshipped Christ,
but to Victor money was just a way of keeping score. He thrived on the
whole process of competition and the creative destruction that drove it.
Victor knew where to build, whom to hire, how to lure the elites in,
and what the elites really wanted.
Victor’s
inspiration for the Kennedy Center came from one of his visits to the
Bohemian Grove in upstate California which he had been invited to
through his contacts in the government and in the motion picture
industry. His idea was to create a year-round Bohemian Grove, though
with women available, where the elites could gather. “Great nations of
past had cultured demi-mondes for the rich—Japan, France, Rome. Sign of high cultural achievement. Why shouldn’t we?” Victor asked Theodora and me.
To
get ideas for my artistic creations, I asked myself, what did
Washingtonians want from life? Why were they in the nation’s capital?
What services could we provide that would draw them in like lemmings? A
visitor only has to be in Washington for a few minutes and see the
marble and stone Cathedrals of Government Power that the politolatrous
Bureaucrats built to themselves to realize that most of Washington’s
automatons probably think God is just another taxpayer to serve them. It
was quite obvious to me why there was no official Patron Saint of
Government Workers.
After
spending a month in the capital, the answer to my Marketing 101
questions seemed obvious. Washingtonians are a bunch of cultured,
egotistical, lumpen-elitist snobs who live in their own dream world
completely divorced from the rest of the country. Everything they do had
to show that they The Bureaucrats are superior to the poor miserable
souls in the rest of the country who only exist to pay for their
masters’ existence. To ensure this, the government provides cultural
events galore for its workers. One need only visit the city and see all
the galleries, theaters, orchestras, ballets, and other centers of
artistic creation, happily supported by government grants, to discover
how true this is.
What
is the essential nature of a Washingtonian? (God, I’m beginning to
sound like Aquinas). Whether they are politicians, members of the
military, businessmen, foreign diplomats, reporters or lobbyists,
Washingtonians want power. They want to be at the center of action where
they can control and manipulate their chosen area of political
interference
The
Kennedy Center as created as a mollitious Mecca for millionaires and
politicians where all their dreams could come true. We created an ersatz
cultural milieu at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Parts so
visitors could escape their dull bureaucratic lives and the pressures of
daily power plays to live in the aristocratic world they knew they
deserved. Who in Washington wouldn’t want to bethink themselves a member
of royalty served by artists who could provide mental and sexual
stimulation? Money created a world of fantasy that had never existed,
but which the customers wanted to believe in. Thus the Kennedy Center,
which never received any money from the National Endowment for the Arts,
took on those inveterate values of good taste, elegance, and culture
that were the secrets of its success.
The
officials and bureaucrats in Washington wanted to change the world, and
I wanted to change them. At last I had the forum I needed to convert
Washington to my Weltanshauung. As I saw it, in America, there
was a revolving door of power between Washington, Wall Street and the
Ivy League academics. Influence one and you influence them all.
Nuns
just want to have fun! But when three former Catholic nuns have too
much fun and get in trouble with the law, they become nuns on the run.
Driving
back to Washington D.C. where they work at the Kennedy Center for the
Performing Parts, the three sisters are arrested in Tennessee. After
defeating the local deputy in strip poker, they escape from jail, and
are pursued by the zealous Detective Schmuck Hole, who has personally
offered a $10,000 reward for their capture on The 700 Club. Little do
they know that when the three sisters visit the Washington Monument,
their lives will change forever.
Set
in 1979, The Three Sisters is a sacrilegious satire that skewers not
only organized religion, but the government, the media, intellectuals,
corporate greed and every other part of the establishment. Maybe not the
greatest story ever told, but possibly the funniest.
Buy @ Amazon
Genre – Humor, Satire, Catholicism, Politics
Rating – R
More details about the author
Connect with Bryan Taylor on Facebook
Website www.threesistersnovel.com
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