Liberation by Christopher Isherwood

Author:Christopher Isherwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

September 26. All right, now we’re going to get this record restarted, despite all internal opposition.

Jonathan Fryer, my biographer-to-be, left Los Angeles this morning. A big pudgy boy, slightly pretty and slightly feminine with a moustache. He describes himself as bisexual, has B.O., a rather charming smile and a very low, almost inaudible voice which may have something to do with the fact that he is subject to a mild form of epilepsy. (He becomes altogether unable to speak just before the fit starts.) Other points of interest are that he is illegitimate, with parents who adopted him; has never met his mother. That he doesn’t get along with his foster parents and doesn’t want to live in England, so he is about to become a Belgian citizen; he already lives in Brussels. That he speaks Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian (I think) and that he has just published his first book, nonfiction, about the Great Wall of China. The Book Society in England has recommended it. That he has been in Hong Kong, where he studied at the University and became a Taoist, and in Vietnam, where he became a Quaker. . . . Don began by not altogether trusting him and I wasn’t sure, either. We ended by rather liking and respecting him, and we both kissed him when saying goodbye.

On the 23rd, Jim Gates left the monastery and went to stay with Peter Hirschfeld, the ex-monk, who is now married to Deepti, the ex-nun. Jim kept talking to us about his unfitness for being a monk and about his lust. I never really took this seriously but it now appears that he meant it quite literally. He was terribly bothered because he found Larry attractive and also Peter Hirschfeld and also a young Belgian who has been around the center lately. No sooner had he settled into the Hirschfelds’ apartment than he went out to a neighborhood bar, The Rusty Nail—ironically enough, the Hirschfelds live on Hayworth, just south of Santa Monica Boulevard, right around the corner from the sex section. Jim found The Rusty Nail absolutely delightful, not one bit sordid, and he went off with a guy who propositioned him. The guy wanted to be tied up and beaten and Jim obliged, and Jim even enjoyed that, although it isn’t his thing and the guy didn’t particularly attract him.

What does seem absolutely fascinating to me, and to Don, is that Jim, who was always just a bit too holy to be true, is now reacting in what must surely be regarded as an absolutely sincere no-shit manner, instead of moaning that he’s a sinner, as one might have expected. With the result that he seems far more spiritually “advanced” than he did while he was a monk.

Swami, of course, was terribly upset, so were Krishnananda, Chetanananda and Asaktananda, who heard of it somehow and phoned Jim, begging him to go back to the monastery. Incidentally, Jim said that he feels Krishna is very different since his illness.

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