The Benefactor

The following is an excerpt of a 27 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.

Grotto with Statue of Pan, Villa Corsi-Salviati, Sesto Fiorentino

I am interested in taking this issue head on as I finish work on the remaining songs. I have identified an upper limit of 3 more songs (although your "Hey Rome" threw me off--it is also an Iceland song). I also need to record the acoustic, finger picking version of "Tokyo Nights."

I want to introduce an anonymous "Benefactor" figure to the story. I'm totally unsure who this is or what role he or she would play, but inside the diegetical approach, we will merely start talking about the Benefactor until he or she materializes. Instead of asking for money, I want to create an opening in the narrative for the Benefactor (or should I say, The Benefactor) to step into. Here's the reason: we can't concern ourselves with these matters too much...and the extent to which we would need to concern ourselves in order to be effective in the traditional way IS too much. Eventually, we could add an element to the blog at the top: Are you The Benefactor? with a link to a contact us form. Some shadowy figure who, like dark matter, has provided Arthur White and his universe an endless influence of energy such that we are not only expanding at a constant velocity outward, we are accelerating.

"Who is The Benefactor?" we wonder aloud to ourselves.

Of course, we have already been talking about The Benefactor all along. It is the "moss-covered fountain of Pan," through which water from the wilderness is brought in to irrigate the well trimmed rows and patterns of the garden." Actually it is the water that flows through Pan...and we know very little about whence that water originates or what lies outside the walled-in universe of this garden. Is The Benefactor an individual person or Person? Is The Benefactor a body of persons? And what is his or her motive in supporting us so completely? What does he or she want? What does he or she expect in return? In other words, what's the story there? Is this a nefarious or benevolent entity? Can this entity be connected in any way to characters or elements that have already been introduced, like Steffi Humboldt or the lodestone?

These are pressing questions...any ideas? Bottom line, I refuse to engage in any un-artistic discussions.

I want to summon The Benefactor.