"Burma Born, Oxford Educated"

The following is an excerpt from an email sent from Art to Will on 2 May 2013.

I'm working on Arthur White a little and at least a phase of his character has to involve this charismatic cult figure, who, at this point, bears a lot of resemblance to Dr. Carlton Farthington of The Principles of Theory: A Systematic Approach to Ideas fame.

I like the idea that Arthur, disillusioned with touring and the general superficiality of modern life, falls for this "Burma-born, Oxford-educated" guru in Japan.  Something makes me think that Farthington isn't based in Japan though, that he was visiting some followers or having a fundraiser, and that his "compound" or "temple complex" or "institute" is based in Borneo or Laos or some other less-developed nation where these kinds of things can flourish without a lot of outside interference.

An aspiration of Arthur's after meeting Dr. Farthington is to bring him to the United States, to get him a residency at some college/university, or even build him an institute where his teachings can reach the larger audience they "deserve."  This may or may not happen.  Maybe Arthur is able to eventually hit bottom and get out of the whole thing himself.  Alternatively, maybe this is when Will decides it's time to pull the trigger with ECT.  

On the other hand, perhaps Dr. Farthington does make it to America.  If he does, I can cannibalize some of the Principles of Theory material about the interdisciplinary, multidimensional summer pilot program gone horribly wrong, ending in the dismemberment of Dr. Farthington, two Oberlin students, and Officer Morales of the Ann Arbor Police Department.  I think the whole thing is loosely inspired by The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension.

In a potential interview, I can imagine Arthur rambling on about this sort of thing with Will impatiently interjecting, steering the subject back to music, the band, goals, etc.  The cool thing is that it actually wouldn't need to be terribly coherent.

I want to keep the philosophy deliberately inscrutable.  Even the title of the "text" my friend and I were working on was utterly meaningless: Principles of Theory: A Systematic Approach to Ideas.  You can impose exactly nothing and everything onto that title.  So I think we should say little about the actual content except confusing statements (which is basically what's in the book).