Portrait of Alicia
A Parable
by
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Master: O, Hunchback, you say I should believe that all shall prosper in Heaven—
But your priests tell me only when I surrender all my earthly treasure? Is this fair? Bosh!
Then I hear the priests beg again,
O, and by the way, give us your one-in-ten,
And later on, or more as God commands! O, by the way, give us your one-in-ten, as God commands!
Hunchback: [he stares into the audience a time, the Magistrate begins to doze]
O my, such roarin’ talk!
Well, a bit of his old majesty, that was, now his best shot’s fired, he can sleep.
Stranger: Perhaps he’s just tired, or a wee tipsy, could be he needs a blessing.
Hunchback: Hell with him! One day be God’s turn t’ kick ‘im back!
Master: [recovering, lifts his arm] Hunchback, think on it! I know I’m right!
Priests cast their lines to snag a creel of unthinking souls,
Woo even the squalling infant! Is this a compact truly kept? No!
There isn’t flint enough in them to investigate a well-worn rock with wide open eyes.
They’ve no idea how these are made, they call on the faith a priori,
Never trusting intellect! They create no wealth, nay, they implore their betters
For a handout as does a common woman working to earn the title of a whore!
And rhey pray and contemplate—but on what?
On the meaning of their faith! Bah—that’s all priests offer me–[pause]
Except for one I faced, and him? Never mind! He was no less a hypocrite.
Hunchback: [wearily] Master, let it go, ye needn’t think on him.
He was a man flawed, true, but still just a man, warn;t no devil.
He wus of God’s minions.
Master: [struggles to sit up] You think so? Yes? You’d be unkindly wrong!
He posed Alicia naked! Placed her there forever in my wall, smashed our romantic peace!
That painting ruined everything! He deserves no forgiving!
[viciously] Damn him! Damn
Hunchback:
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How high is a man’s reach before guilt overwhelms his ambition? Is God, love, and loyalty found among the rich? Is extravagance restricted to aristocrats? In a stark and compelling critique, this work focuses on one man, his wife, friends, and social status to ask the question: “Is man redeemable?” Follow along as a magistrate, his beautiful wife Alicia, and Adrian, family friend and talented painter-priest are embroiled in a cruel and corrupt plutocracy long ago gone rotten. A deformed moral universe where even loving smiles are threatened by venality is the backdrop for the clash of these characters as they are immersed in the deceit, violence, and intrigue of a man sworn to uphold the law. Scrutinize for yourself human frailty as murder, adultery, and insanity inexorably unravel from a complex emotional tangle. Trained originally in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Romantic periods of English Literature at Arizona State University, the author has over a lifetime collected scenes from his raw experience and observations. He has blended these diverse aspects of English literary traditions and applied them to America to create a unique and provocative story of that complex relationships a man has with his heart, his deity, his peers, but most important with the ethics of successful living close to career and family, particularly his stance regarding a woman. An English instructor in both college and high school for seven years, the author found more challenging the profession of electrical engineering power systems design. But this work was not his love, rather a livelihood. With Portrait of Alicia, a first novel, he has returned to his first calling: writing. The novel took nine years to complete. This work is one many would call experimental. However, by representing the minute-to-minute interaction of dramatic personae as experimental. It is life intensified. This book tells us how the human condition perceives and judges life at levels far beyond what we learn from just our senses. The story appears to be a straightforward conversation among several powerful and melodramatic personalities each working inside a separate motivation and agenda.
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