. . . Having looked closely at all the texts and the themes within we can therefore draw the following conclusions with regard to the three possible perspectives:
Perspective One (coincidental origination): as we have seen, the centrality of text 9 renders this perspective exceptionally unlikely at best. This perspective can therefore be largely dismissed.
Perspective Two (origination in reaction to shock): this perspective appears to fit the available evidence best, the most likely implied scenario being as follows—James stumbles inadvertently upon the scene of Miss Palmer’s demise—he watches from the distance, shocked at both what he is seeing and his own reaction to the sight; in addition finding it uncomfortably sexually exciting—in a state of near hysteria he returns home and, being of a sensitive artistic bent, launches into an inspired fit of writing resulting in text 9—following this he is haunted by the ecstatic thrill of cathartic creation and begins obsessively attempting to reach that peak once again by recasting the characters and scenes, but to no avail—eventually he comes to believe that publication is his only chance for resolution, and so, having heard about the book being researched for the Amanda Palmer Trust, embarks upon a series of highly sophisticated schemes, many involving criminal forms of manipulation, to essentially highjack editorial control of the selection process, naturally choosing exclusively his own works.
Perspective Three (origination as an attempt to cleanse guilt at direct involvement): initially this perspective was considered a fair candidate, however, after further consideration it has been concluded that Perspective Three is not compatible with the number of, and variation of tone amongst, the presented texts. Had this writing been related directly to guilt many precedents suggest it would be more focussed around the actual events and less around fantastical and religious reinterpretations. In addition this perspective makes little sense of the quest towards control clearly expressed in a number of the texts. . . . had James been previously associated with Miss Palmer this perspective would fit the psychological profile better, however no evidence exists to suggest any previous contact. . . .
. . . We therefore feel fairly confident in offering the following psychological profile of Mr. Tobias James, with the cautionary reminder that, despite the wealth of evidence and well-established theory to hand; it is, in reality, little more than informed speculation:
Tobias James most likely suffers from an acute-displaced-Samson-complex-by-proxy, that being a deep-seated character-ological defect stemming from faulty object relations normally leading to existential despair and suicidal longing. In the case of Mr. James this complex is further complicated by a further addiction to control which prevents actual expression through any means other than representations, usually fictional, although at times spilling through into fictionalised physical presentations of himself. The resulting acute displacement of the compulsion to re-enact a sudden unexpected instant of betrayal and/or rage (most probably involving his stumbling accidentally upon the scene of Miss Palmer’s demise) is thus expressed through the extensive and considerable rewriting of events until they have become almost sanitised by the act of repetition and the subsequent decay of intensity: thus we would assume that those texts embodying acts of violence were among the first to be written, and those texts which read more like children’s parables would have been written later . . . (It is worth noting that almost all the texts portray betrayal in one sense or another) . . . This displacement of the power to act into fictionalised territory is further symbolised by his wearing a false moustache whilst presenting himself to the world—and his removal of said moustache when presenting his physical image to himself (such as in the photographic studio) . . .
. . . We would therefore consider Mr. James to be highly intelligent, manipulative, without scruples, a consummate liar, and indeed a borderline sociopath, (all characteristics essential in a writer of any real substance) although we would not consider him to be dangerous in an immediate sense of the word.
It should be noted that all of the above are the opinions of Dr. Simmons and her team, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor, nor the Amanda Palmer Trust as a whole. They are printed here for reference purposes only.
APPENDIX V
A Brief Comment on the Many Rumours and Speculations Surrounding Tobias James and the Death of Amanda Palmer
It is of course no great surprise that where facts fail to deliver, rumours flock to fill the gap, particularly in this age where speed of communication is measured in megabytes per second, publication on the internet remains entirely unregulated, and many millions of people spend their working days sat, bored, in front of networked computers. Quite how, and by whom, word of Tobias James (and the multiple frauds he committed against the APT) was first leaked remains unknown, despite our many efforts, but whatever few facts had been leaked were soon overshadowed by the many rumours and speculations that have, over recent months, been filling the pages of various chat-rooms and blog-sites. As has been clearly demonstrated we at the APT do indeed harbour many suspicions against Mr. James and most certainly feel he has a case to answer, however we would strongly caution the reader against taking too seriously any speculations which go beyond that which has already been presented here.
As is usually the case with rumours, they can be divided into four broad categories: those which are palpably absurd but somehow touch upon a desire in people for them to be true; those which are more plausible and yet have no basis whatever in fact; those that touch upon truth yet bend it considerably out of shape; and those that turn out to have been correct all along. In the interests of maintaining good relations with the BPD we have agreed to not mention any of those more plausible rumours lest we inadvertently reveal information currently deemed “sensitive”, and instead present here a few of the more absurd and clearly unsubstantiated speculations currently making the rounds. As might be expected they include all the usual suspects:
Alien abduction – that Mr. James was some form of shape-shifting alien shot down by the US Air Force over New Mexico, hence his lack of a recorded past; that his false moustache is worn to disguise his inability to mimic the human philtrum; that his mission is to capture a prime specimen of fertile breeding stock for medical experimentation back on his planet (it has been proposed by some that this particularly species may procreate through the exchange of vocalised sound frequencies, therefore effectively through song rather than physical contact, hence the choice of Miss Palmer). However, given Mr. James’ clear command of written English/American idioms this seems unlikely. In addition, the one photograph we have of James clearly displays a fine example of a human philtrum.
Government conspiracy – that Mr. James was an orphan who was adopted by an elite group within the CIA and trained from childhood for this particular type of infiltration mission. When the order came through that Miss Palmer was to be “taken out” he turned rogue and has placed her in a safe house having left a carefully constructed false trail. The texts he then placed in this book contain coded messages to other rogue cells and were they to be decoded they could bring down the whole CIA, if not the US government. Again there is an obvious however... James is known to have left behind his memory card when fleeing the internet cafe, which is hardly what one would expect from a crack agent trained since childhood. In addition, there is no obvious reason why Miss Palmer would be considered any kind of threat to the US government.
“Love child” – that Mr. James is Miss Palmer’s son from a teenage affair attributed to many improbable men, and a few that, though more possible, are equally unlikely. Among the more extraordinary claims is that he is Miss Palmer’s “love child” with John Denver, and it seems that in 1986, when in her early teens, Miss Palmer did indeed run away with the John Denver road-show for a week, however there is no evidence that she at any point became pregnant, nor gave birth to a child. In addition this rumour bears no relation to anything that we do know about Mr. James, nor does it attempt to explain his writi
ng of the texts or the case of Text Number Nine. It is however interesting to note that though this rumour is entirely compatible with the government conspiracy rumour (had the love child been put up for adoption) no rumour we have come across has yet made this link.
Love affair – that Mr. James and Miss Palmer had been conducting a secret love affair over the year previous to her apparent demise, and that the pressures of her extraordinary and sudden success as an artist and performer had pushed them both to the limit with regard to maintaining a healthy secret relationship. As a result Miss Palmer decided to stage her own death and Mr. James used all his many means to distract attention from this fact by sowing the seeds of discord and mistrust amongst all who knew her, and indeed all who are involved in investigating her death. This rumour might seem faintly plausible (though entirely unsubstantiated) were it not for the fact that Miss Palmer is well known to have had little or no interest in younger men, preferring considerably older men and, more often still, older women, for her sexual and love liaisons.
Self perpetuation – that Mr. James himself is personally responsible for starting all of the above rumours and many others unmentioned in an attempt raise his own public profile and to generate intrigue and menace in the run-up to publication of this book, thus hoping to considerably boost sales and therefore his own royalty income and literary prestige. This rumour is among the more compelling, chiming as it does with an increased public understanding of the means and power of marketing ploys, however the APT can assure the reader that Mr. James will be receiving no royalties from sales of this book (all profits, if any, will go towards the funding of further APT artistic projects) nor does the APT have any contact whatsoever with Mr. James, or any idea as to his current whereabouts.
There are, of course, many further rumours and speculations, some of them more ludicrous, some more plausible, but all, as yet, entirely unsubstantiated. Those mentioned above are merely the most repeated. For the curious reader who wishes to take this line of research further a cursory internet search (“Amanda Palmer” “Tobias James”) will reveal many thousands of pages that link the two names, in most cases directly, however, the APT wishes to make it clear that it in no way endorses the making of such a search, nor can it be held in any way responsible for the content of third party websites.
POSTSCRIPT
A Letter from Tobias James
Once again the run-up to publication of this second edition was interrupted in a most unexpected way. Around ten days prior to printing, just as the type-setting had been completed, the APT received a letter purporting to be from Tobias James himself. Immediately a meeting of the APT Board of Director’s was called and, after surprisingly little debate it was unanimously agreed that the letter should be included, in full, as a postscript to this book, with the following cautionary comments:
1. It must be born in mind that there is no real evidence that this letter is from Tobias James himself, and that it could well be nothing more than a cynical hoax, possibly by one of the disgraced members of the previous Board of Directors who is known to bear a grudge against the APT for the public dishonour incurred due to the circumstances of his/her summary dismissal.
2. Even if understood to have been written by Mr. James there is no reason to assume that any of the statements or opinions contained within are in fact true or real as James has already demonstrated his consummate skills as a liar and manipulator many times over.
However, if the letter were proven at a later date to be genuine, and the statements and opinions it contains demonstrated to be true, it would seem inappropriate, nay irresponsible, for it not to be included here as it would effectively constitute major evidence in the case both for and against Mr. James.
Thus having fully emphasized all of the above points we offer the following text, in full, and with neither comment nor analysis, that you, the reader, might be in a position to make your own judgement:
Dear Mr. Kriwaczek, and indeed all at the APT who are involved in the palmeresque project,
I have read your little book with much interest and amusement—(please don’t overly trouble yourselves with how: I can assure you there are no further issues with “corruption” or “nobbling” amongst your colleagues and associates, merely lax security on your internet server, something you might wish to address at a later date). And I must commend you on your wildly imaginative portrayal of the character “Tobias James”; alas, if only I were half as mysterious and enigmatic! And as for your psychological analysis—well, I need not remind you, I am sure, that all that stuff is merely made-up shit, invented by a pseudo-scientific industry whose only reason for existence is to make up more shit to justify its existence! Still, it made for an entertaining read, for me at least, but then who doesn’t like reading about themselves, however absurd the contents.
But there is one important, nay, fundamental, point that you have missed, a point so essential that without grasping it you have largely misunderstood everything about my intentions and execution. Now don’t get me wrong, I completely understand—it can indeed be hard to see beyond the petty bubbles in which we live and work—the human mind is after all a pattern seeking machine; it searches out meaning by recognising forms, rules, roles; then seeks reinforcement from others. That is what belief systems are; that is how societies are built; that is how cliques evolve: those little bubbles of self-importance founded upon shared understandings, however absurd or laughable. And thus I must imagine that all among you who work so diligently for the Amanda Palmer Trust, who each day enter that building, pass the paintings, the posters and that grotesque sculpture in the foyer, who then sit in your artsy offices devotedly promoting and developing the life, works and memory of Miss Amanda Palmer, must hold her in some awe indeed. To you she must by now have become an icon of sorts, almost a goddess, a martyr, a figure-head, a leader, the very glue that holds your organisation and its vision together. But you see, to me, and this is what your little book completely fails to grasp, to me Miss Palmer herself, alive or dead, is of no consequence whatsoever!
Certainly she was a popular singer, by all accounts fairly good at her job, but, frankly, so what! Sure, she wrote her own songs, and some, it is claimed, may even get close to being almost poetic, but again, so what! And yes, she “looked good in clothes”, but so the fuck what! I mean, and I don’t expect you to understand this, but does that shit really count for anything at all? I mean, really? On the scale of things? Did she cure cancer? Did she solve the global population crisis? Did she end, or even temper, famine in the third world? Did she make even the smallest difference to the many urgent and important issues facing humanity and human beings each and every day? No, no and again no! She was an entertainer, nothing more, nothing less. She got up on stage and pranced about in her underwear singing songs . . .
And yet, and yet . . . to her fans, and here I mean her real fans, those for whom her music has become a part their identity, to them she is, alive or dead, a magician with the power to transform, to comfort, to empower and inspire . . . or so it seems . . . and that is where my true fascination lies, not with Miss Palmer herself, but with the faith invested in her by her fans, and the power they derive from it . . . Ok, re-reading that last passage I see I have allowed grandiloquence to cloud the issue, something of a habit of mine—what I mean to say is what really interests me, what made me involve myself with all this shit in the first place, is the imagined Miss Palmer, the Miss Palmer invented by the needs and requirements of her fans. The distinction is subtle and yet essential. It is that Miss Palmer whom I have been playing games with all along; it is that Miss Palmer whom I have killed repeatedly in hundreds of different ways, each born within the inevitable dichotomy between that Miss Palmer and her more “real” twin. The difference between the two is indeed both telling and painful. And now that the “real” Miss Palmer has been summarily dismissed from the equation, that Miss Palmer’s power seems to be growing un-checked, for a while at least. Thus I felt it was my duty to
meddle, to see if these things could be subverted, for the experiment, for the fun of it all. So please do not confuse the one issue with the other.
As for the questions you are no doubt keen to have me answer: am I really the author of all the texts including Text Number Nine? Was I in some way involved with Miss Palmer’s death? Did I witness it? Am I really a criminal mastermind who has turned all my powers towards infiltrating the editorial board of a small time Arts organisation for no profit other than self-satisfaction? . . .
Well, I wouldn’t want to spoil all your fun just yet . . .
But I will say this, you were right about my wallet—it was indeed a gift from my “elderly” uncle.
Most sincerely, Tobias James.
About the Editor
ROWEN KAYE was born in 1961 to a Hungarian father and French Mother living in Cricklewood, North London. (He changed his name to Rohan Kriwaczek to “outwardly express [his] inner exoticism” in 1981.) Young Rowen was a problem child from the beginning, and spent a great deal of his youth in and out of hospital for various, usually self-induced, injuries and illnesses. He left school at seventeen having achieved less than the bare minimum and spent the following fifteen years making little if any impression upon a remarkable number of artistic professions: illustrator, poet, composer, choreographer, interior designer, historical-hoaxer, plumber, musician, dramaturge, theoretical tap-dancer; it wasn’t until he became involved with the Guild of Funerary Violinists in the mid 1990s that he finally found his vocation as a gifted artistic executor, quickly rising to the position of Acting President of the venerable Guild. Following his evident success in that post he took on the additional role of Executive Curator for the Rohan Theatre in 2000, (the similarity of name is merely a coincidence), later re-establishing the Rohan Theatre Band and developing a new younger fan-base for the once celebrated institution.
On the Many Deaths of Amanda Palmer Page 18