Sommerville and Spongetown (Abandoned Novel)

Where is Eden PHISON qui circuit omnem terram Hevilath ubi nascitur aurum[which circles all the land of Havilah where gold is born] . . . Layout Cappadocian Highlands and toward Ararat. The east fork of the big bend of the Euphrates was once stolen from the Tigris. — Lafferty, note on the back of Sommerville

Map — Island — Treasure: Map Gives 16 S 118° 35' 18" E which is antipodal to 16° N 61° 24' 42" W. Map location would show about 700 miles south of East end of Java and northwest of Australia near Timor Sea. Actual Location GUADELOUPE Island in French West Indies. Map to be mirror image of southeast coast of Guadeloupe Island and adjacent ocean without scale or legend other than South Pacific Latitude and Longitude. False search at Pacific Location. Stories of Pirate Coast (Trucial Oman) and long Arabian voyages. — Spongetown

Paradise has a longitude of sixty-one degrees, forty-four minutes, and forty-two seconds West. And a latitude of exactly sixteen degrees North. This is the Terrestrial Paradise. — The Devil Is Dead

“I seem to always live in retrospect . . . and this is a shame in one so young. I am never living things. It is always as if I have already lived them. When I was a little girl five years old living on an island there it was as though all the great things which had already happened to me when I was only three and living on another island. As long as I can remember I have lived with my memories. The best thing for someone like me who is always looking back is for me to become a legend. And in a way that is what she did.” — Spongetown

Today's obscure material is a reconstruction of a Lafferty novel that never came to be, along with an account of how -ville became -town, and how that shift fits into the broader Argo mythology—and the ghost story. It is intended to be fun, but it is a pretty deep cut.

Here we have two of the least-known texts in the Tulsa archive: Sommerville and Spongetown. That may even overstate their visibility. So far as I know, only Andrew Ferguson and I have read them. It is not indisputable which of the two notebooks was written first, though I will give my reasons for believing that Sommerville has chronological priority and speculate on what may have happened afterward.

In 2012, Ferguson published a piece in The New York Review of Science Fiction (issue 281) on Lafferty’s unpublished work. It’s very good overall, but he does not address the manuscripts in much detail. One annotation that I did not understand concerned Spongetown. Ferguson writes,

Spongetown (undated): 31 handwritten notebook pages, a story about the demagogue Simon Somerville. May be another resetting of the Faust myth. Pages elsewhere labeled “Sommerville” comprise character sketches for the same story and indicate that it would somehow have involved the four rivers of Eden.

Spongetown does not mention Simon and there is nothing in the notebook about Faust. Nor is there a Faustian theme. But the connection is now clearer to me, so my thoughts today will focus first on the surviving pages of the Spongetown notebook—Lafferty’s scrawled notes for a fascinating but abandoned novel. The novel was to be a murder-treasure adventure built around the 1930 killing of millionaire Protagonos Ploutos. That crime sets off a tangled hunt for a hidden treasure, its map surviving only in two halves. After summarizing the plot of this sketched novel, where the writing process appears to have stalled, I’ll conclude with a few comments on the shorter Sommerville notebook: how it works as a first-draft character bible, and what I believe happened to the project as Sommerville developed into Spongetown and influenced how Finnegan went from Archipelago to The Devil is Dead.

One half of the treasure map in Spongetown belongs to Jacob Zeltstange, an eccentric geographer-turned-treasure hunter. The other is held by Desidera Dorcas, a Caribbean-Greek bar owner with a mysterious past, who insists Jacob must marry her before she’ll show it to him. The story ranges across the Caribbean, Florida’s Spongetown, the Indian Ocean, and the old waters of pirate lore.

There isn’t much here, but Jacob Zeltstange’s hunt for the treasure is repeatedly thwarted by Desidera because she refuses to reveal her half of the map unless he marries her. He accepts this condition, but he doesn’t fulfill it. Their weird marriage is consummated “accidentally,” and Jacob forgets to examine the map on their honeymoon night. Before he does anything about this and gets a look at the map, Desidera is arrested for killing an employee who assaulted her. Desidera has a huge amount of physical strength, so it is plausible. She says she would have confessed had anyone asked, but she ends up serving three years in prison. During this time, Jacob attempts unsuccessful treasure hunts based on incomplete information. He time he comes back, begging for access to the real map.

Lafferty reveals a little about Desidera’s early life, but it is thin: a childhood spent drifting among Caribbean and Greek islands. Think lush gardens, multilingual households, strange pets, and statues carved by her volatile, billionaire father.

The courtyard was grown denser than a jungle with pools on several levels, flowing by channels in the top lip of the wandering walls, pedestaled basins and a two-foot wide stream that coiled around like a lost snake . . . For friends was the Ecrevisse (the land crab), a monkey named Monique, the dogs of the neighborhood, that sweetest singer of the islands the tree toad, and Felice, Angele, Reine, Escargot, Grenouille, and Maurice—six little children, of whom the first five were black and the sixth was purple? If you do not choose to believe that his complexion was such, that is your loss. You will have missed the opportunity of believing in the only purple person that God ever made.

He is an envious, dishonest, and frustrated artist. He also disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind only debts, rumors, and his uneasy partnership with Ploutos. Desidera’s memories create the kind of ambiguity Lafferty likes and would probably have been deepened if Lafferty had developed it. She does not know her true birthday (she was born on St. Catherine’s day, but which St. Catherine?), birthplace, or even which stories from her parents were real. Only two people get partial access to these memories: Jacob and Detective Martin McCloy.

McCloy becomes a presence as both investigator and friend. He’s of piece with some of the other detectives in early Lafferty and is the kind of figure who shows up later in works such as Apocalypses. In the Salonika Hotel and Robbers Roost, he spars verbally with Abel Gruenwald, one of Lafferty’s Jews, a financier described as a “Phoenician” and devil worshipper.

“For he was in fact a Phoenician. He took interest on money and he worshipped the devil. And if he did no longer throw children into the fiery furnace, yet his fathers had done it in Sidon or Carthage or Pittsburgh—or some of those commercial towns. Never a boat sailed or a bond issue launched, nor a new shaft sunk in OPHIR or LANCASHIRE but in went its child.”

There is some thematic overlap here with "Phoenic," but here, Lafferty brings together satire, folklore, and religious commentary, and he throws in accusations of ancient child-sacrificing sea traders. We get some Moloch. Gruenwald pressures Desidera with investment schemes that promise profit but repel her. McCloy observes Gruenwald’s gestures and lies, storing them in his labyrinthine memory, while Desidera brushes aside their rivalry. Spongetown would have been a blend of noir humor, ancient myth, and Caribbean superstition.

Jacob, meanwhile, writes rambling, philosophical letters from his travels across oceans and deserts. These letters show his obsessions with alchemy, cosmology, the Brothers Grimm, and the metaphysics of centers and orbits. He believes the key to transmutation—and perhaps to understanding the universe—can be found in fairy tales and ancient wisdom. This looks to me like perhaps the earliest place Lafferty makes the connection between the Grimms and his religious thinking ("The Man Who Lost His Magic").

I am convinced that there is a key in the Brothers GRIMM. I have been studying the HOUSEHOLD TALES diligently of late. The key to ALCHEMY I mean. I have been told that I am not wise to do this, that nobody believes in ALCHEMY anymore. This is not true . . . I believe that this is not a myth but a fact and that it is not from evil but from good. An alchemist had to be in the state of grace in order to perform the operation . . . Now there is one difficulty in that the brothers themselves may not have known that they had the key. But their household tales are the repository of all Aryan wisdom . . . and being the treasure of such wisdom it should contain the key to that wisdom. There is a further fact that the word is earlier than the thing, that is older than mined gold.

Jacob is an interesting Lafferty prototype because he treats folklore as coded science (one thinks of Lafferty saying in an interview that all science is mythology) and sees the Indian Ocean as a region still haunted by evil, where Lucifer himself may have fallen. He meditates on the “little rooster,” sun-worship, and the geocentric versus heliocentric debate, being a little like Casey in the Argo legend: you get Lafferty’s concoction of scientific history and poetic speculation. Like Casey’s notes in Archipelago, his digressions show both his brilliance and his quixotic impracticality.

The quirky research notes become important. In a way, they are the “factual” backbone beneath the mythmaking, another version of Lafferty playing with the text of history. It turns out that the treasure map’s South Pacific coordinates are a deliberate misdirection: the actual location lies on Guadeloupe in the French West Indies, and the map is a mirror image of the island’s southeastern coastline.

And this takes us to Sommerville.

That notebook outlines the personae for a narrative centered around Protagoras Ploutos (outline below). Here is a wealthy and manipulative figure residing in Grackle, Florida. Ploutos, the devil, is a catalyst for the other characters, most notably Simon Sommerville, a failed businessman who transforms into a powerful political demagogue after entering a metaphysical pact with Ploutos during a “life-hiatus” or “Faustian Climax.” Notably, Ploutos is murdered, so that makes this notebook the first time Lafferty played with the idea that the devil is dead. In fact, it is probably the source of that idea for Lafferty. The character bible describes Ploutos as a collector of disparate and flawed individuals, often employing them after they attempt to swindle him. In this way, he is like Papadiabolus in The Devil is Dead with his crew of ne’er-do-wells. This entourage includes Charles and Carlotta Cumberland. They are a husband-and-wife grifter team that specializes in intimidation and seduction (and blackmail with photos, which links them thematically to the blackmail attempt on Melchisedech Duffy). There is also Jerome Johnson, a brilliant but unhygienic engineer and thief, described as a “statue made of mud.”

The remainder of the profiles describes the rest of Ploutos’s circle in the months leading up to his murder. Some of these characters become the important ones in Spongetown; one is dropped. The dropped one is Leland Lattimer, a handsome but unintelligent former wrestler. But we do get Jacob Zeltstange, who becomes the most interesting part of Spongetown to me, a geologist undergoing an existential crisis regarding the limits of human intellect. And, just as importantly, we get Desidra Dorcas, Ploutos’s beautiful secretary who is secretly searching for her father's lost fortune. So here is the core of Spongetown in incipient form, as Lafferty writes his way toward it in the bible, adding the important characters later. The cast is rounded out by Martin McCloy, who is here an aspiring detective who is ethically sound only when intoxicated and who arrived in Florida by accident while searching for gold. The notebook concludes with a set of notebook entries on the geographical location of the Biblical Eden based on the rivers Tigris, Euphrates, Phison, and Gihon.

So, here is my theory. The first notebook (Sommerville) is, as I have said, a conceptual “series bible,” creating a gritty, philosophical noir world populated by a “Big Six” of swindlers trapped in the orbit of the wealthy Protagoras Ploutos. This is early pre-SF Lafferty, the kind of ur-text he later rewrote in an SF register when he went back to put a coat of science fiction paint on early manuscripts. Here, Lafferty is focusing on his version of psychological profiling, specifically, the Faustian nature of the “demagogue” Simon Sommerville and the grifting mechanics of the Cumberlands. This makes me think that originally Lafferty envisioned an ensemble drama about the nature of evil and influence. They are case studies in moral corruption with touches of Lafferty humor.

The second notebook (Spongetown) looks to me like the operational “drafting phase,” where Lafferty narrows the scope to find the story. The big ensemble is sidelined in favor of a tall-tale romance between the giant geologist Jacob Zeltstange and the super-strong secretary Desidra Dorcas. Here, the vague “life decisions” of the first notebook are replaced by concrete plot mechanics: a murder mystery, an antipodal map puzzle, and eccentric epistolary sections about alchemy and cosmology. The tone shifts from low-mimetic pre-nucleation to something that looks more like what becomes Lafferty's signature.

The evolutionary link between the two is most visible in the geography. Again, on the back of Sommerville, Lafferty is spitballing on Biblical locations like Eden and Mount Ararat as potential settings. He will use this when he writes The Devil is Dead and gives the location of Eden. By the time he writes Spongetown, he has abandoned the Middle East for the Caribbean, repurposing his Ararat idea into a backstory trait for a minor character (Kudu Ben Kutz) and a quirk for Zeltstange.

Here we encounter many of the prenucleation forms of ideas that would later become pillars of the Argo legend: the fixed geographical location of Eden, the devil’s cultivation of a corrupted human crew, and the narrative conceit of a novel concerned with the aftermath of the devil’s death. Lafferty was clearly enjoying himself as he sketched these materials. The pages range widely, including notes on pirate histories, geological classifications of treasure deposits, pre-Columbian gold trade, and the cultural background of Spongetown’s sponge divers and circus performers. It is wonderfully strange material—likely to remain unexamined by most readers. To me, it looks like an early prenucleation attempt, the first stirring of many themes that would later become so familiar across Lafferty’s work. I often wish he had done more with it. And yet, in a sense, he did: the ideas first seeded in these tiny notebooks would be reworked to become the Argo legend when they were used to build the bridge from Archipelago to The Devil is Dead, looping them all into the Coscuin Chronicles. If Coscuin is ever published in full, the developmental significance of the fragments for understanding Lafferty’s movement from prenucleation to full ghost story will be clear.

Note:

One way to see the importance of these documents for the Argo legend is geography. Both coordinate descriptions, Sommerville and The Devil is Dead, are basically pointing to (almost) the same place on Earth: the Guadeloupe island group in the Caribbean.

First, the treasure-map location in Sommerville.

The map is labeled 16° S, 118° 35′ 18″ E.

The point antipodal (directly opposite on the globe) to that is 16° N, 61° 24′ 42″ W – you flip S→N and subtract the longitude from 180°, switching E→W.

Coordinates around 16° N, 61°-something W sit right on the Guadeloupe archipelago: for example, the main airport is at about 16° 15′ N, 61° 32′ W, and many mapped sites on Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre cluster near 16° N 61°-xx′ W.

The “map” coast is a mirror of southeast Guadeloupe with fake “South Pacific” coordinates fits: it’s a decoy map whose true target is near Guadeloupe. The villa name “Latitude 16°N61°w” in Saint-François on the SE tip of Grande-Terre shows how 16° N, 61° W is used as shorthand for that area.

Second, the “Terrestrial Paradise” in The Devil Is Dead.

Lafferty’s line gives 16° N, 61° 44′ 42″ W for “Paradise.”

That is on the same latitude (16° N) and almost the same longitude as the antipodal point above, just 20 minutes of longitude farther west.

At 16° N, 20′ of longitude is only about 35–36 km (≈22 miles), so it’s essentially another spot along the same east–west line across Guadeloupe and its nearby islets. The longitudes and seconds (61° 24′ 42″ vs 61° 44′ 42″) even share the same digits, suggesting deliberate echoing.

Third, the relation.

Geographically: both sets of numbers land you in almost the same patch of ocean/islands around Guadeloupe at 16° N. One is the antipode of a fake South-Pacific coordinate; the other is the explicit “Paradise” of the novel.

Narratively/puzzling-wise: they’re two independent clues that converge on the Guadeloupe / 16° N, 61°-something W region—one hidden behind an antipodal trick and mirrored coastline, the other openly stated.

So the relation is: they are two very close points on the same latitude near Guadeloupe, with the first disguised via its antipodal twin and the second named as Eden.

Sommerville

I. The Phenomenon of the Demagog (Simon Sommerville)

1. Nature of the Power: A. Selection: Rightly selected by Old Ploutos for the role. B. Acquisition Method: Not always innate; sometimes granted via "life-hiatus" or

   "Faustian Climax." C. The Bargain: A moment of life decision where "a great deal is given away" in

   exchange for power.

   a. Comparison: Like Mephistopheles (soul mortgage) or Dr. Faustus.

   b. Advantage: Beneficial for those who "doesn't intend to use his soul anyway."

   c. Cost: Devils only ask for "a little adoration."

2. Geographical Incidence of the Power: A. Men who made the pact were born in:

   i. Simbirsk.

   ii. Eisleben.

   iii. Braunau.

   iv. Noyon.v. Gori.vi. Huntingdon.

   vii. Paris.viii. Birmingham, Alabama (Subject of this account).

3. Sommerville’s Pre-Power Existence:

   A. Background: "Not an unusual man."

   B. Lineage: Grandfather was a red-necked farmer; father rose from steel worker

   to minor mill official.

   C. Career Trajectory: Avoided the mills to become traveling salesman, store

   keeper, insurance man, "slightly over-aged college boy," football player, realtor,

   lawyer, thief, opportunist, swindler.

   D. Catalyst: Would not have reached "demagog" status without an accident.

4. The Interaction with Protagoras Ploutos:

   A. The Swindle: A "good clean swindle" where the "old fox was out-foxed."

   B. Ploutos's Reaction: A "cryptic loser" who engineered odd arrangements with

   victors to obscure who was actually ahead.

   C. The Meeting: Ploutos, Sommerville, and a third man reached a decision.

5. The Transformation (Life-Hiatus):

   A. Timing: Occurred in Sommerville's twenty-fifth year (one month before

   Ploutos's death).

   B. Exchange: Ceded qualities/values he never meant to use; received power.

   C. Result: Ceased being a "playboy or a bungler."

   D. New Abilities: "Always knew what he must do"; became a powerful talker

   possessing "pentecostal power for the goats as well as the lambs."

   
   

II. The Cumberlands (Charles and Carlotta)

1. Professional Standing:

   A. Rank: Not master swindlers, "hardly even second flight."

   B. Work Ethic: Worked hard and conscientiously.

2. Physical Assets:

   A. Charles: Extremely large, powerful, handsome (save for "great beetling craggy

   brows"), possessed a "bull-roarer" voice.

   B. Carlotta: Large, "bigger than she looked," fine appearance with abundant

   blonde hair, deep-bosomed, friendly.

   C. Voice: Carlotta’s voice could "make a man shiver with pleasure."

   D. Shared Talent: Undefeated in "mixed doubles drinking."

3. The "Shakedown" Methodology:

   A. The Setup: Carlotta (winsome) gets friendly with a gentleman.

   B. Alcohol Tolerance: Carlotta claims indifference after three drinks; actually can

   "out-drink ninety-four percent of the gentlemen."

   C. The Trap: Gentleman becomes intoxicated while Carlotta remains functional.

   D. Charles’s Entry:i. "Bull approach": Roaring entry.ii. "Ominous approach": Sudden,

   silent entry.

   E. Coordination: Carlotta signals the pitch; Charles often shakes off signals to

   "burn them down the middle."

   F. Resolution Options: Cash on spot, blackmail via photos, physical assault, or

   "knock-out drops" (both acclimated to taking them if necessary).

4. The Ploutos Operation:

   A. Initial Phase: Ploutos (having "a little of the goat in him") got jolly with Carlotta.

   B. The Deception: Carlotta drank water/bitters; Ploutos believed it was ninety

   proof whiskey.

   C. The Scene: Ploutos sat on Carlotta's lap singing "Dr. Old McSteen."

   D. The Bungled Entry: Charles burst in roaring (ignoring the "high inside curve"

   signal for a "stubborn" fast ball).

   E. Ploutos's Reaction: Looked silly but not terrified (deafness rendered roaring as

   "babble").

   F. The Outcome:

   i. Ploutos refused to sign checks or fear photos (no wife/reputation to protect).

   ii. Physical shaking: Carlotta held him by heels; Charles frisked him for over a

   thousand dollars.

   iii. Humiliation: Carlotta spanked him ("tremendous hiding") before throwing him

   out.

5. Retribution and Employment:

   A. Kidnapping: A week later, Cumberlands forced into a car at gunpoint in broad

   daylight.

   B. Relocation: Driven to "imperial town of Grackle," Florida.

   C. Conversion: Spent a week in the Palmetto Palace; emerged as "creatures of

   Ploutos."

   D. Behavioral Change: Charles ceased roaring; Carlotta purred.

   E. Duties: Dispatched to distant cities to "put the frame on an odd journey."

   
   

III. Jerome Johnson

1. Classification and Origin:

   A. Group: One of the "big six."

   B. Home: Mobile, Alabama (salt water, cotton, coal, steel, lumber background).

   C. Status: A tramp, despite abilities. Labeled a "thief" by Ploutos (who "never made

   mistakes in classification").

2. Constitution and Defects:

   A. Composition: Seemed "unfinished" or made of "mud instead of marble."

   B. Mental State: Slothful mind; education acquired "accidentally" while hanging

   around Tuscaloosa for two years.

3. Misapplication of Skills:

   A. Mining Engineer: Used only for composing stock prospectuses for "un-worthy

   rock-piles."

   B. Metallurgist: Used for purchasing stolen scrap.

   C. Ship-yards: Owned them, left to work as a weigher.

   D. Finance: Genius level, but operated "little pound of flesh loan companies."

4. Financial Habits:

   A. Abandonment: Disappeared from a loan business leaving hundreds daily

   income and thousands in debts owed to him.

   B. Greed: "Not a greedy man" by Ploutos standards; never stayed rich for long.

5. Personal Characteristics:

   A. Moniker: "Laughing Boy."

   B. Manner: Good-natured wanderer with "proper disdain for the furniture of the

   world."

   C. Speech/Thought: Incredibly vulgar and filthy.

   D. Physique: A "whopper" (inch shorter than Zeltstange), darkly good looking, fast.

   E. Olfactory Issue: Possessed a certain foulness/aroma.

   a. Carlotta’s Reaction: Sniffed at him (not disdain, but detection).

   b. Hygiene: Refused to wear socks or underwear ("Lots of people do").

   c. Assessment: An "unsavory character in the truest sense."

   
   

IV. Leland Latimer

1. Profile:

   A. Comparison: Amiable thief like Johnson, but possessed "no mind at all."

   B. Persona: Personable dude, "Clean scientific" type.

   C. Wrestling Identity: "Lord Lansdown Latimer," tag partner of Count Oriskany.

   D. Competence: Could not remember how to cross legs for a grapevine, but put on a good show.

2. Connection to Cumberlands:

   A. Recognition: Recognized Carlotta during the kidnapping.

   B. Name Confusion: Asked if she was "The Tiger Lady"; Carlotta clarified timeline

   involved "Blonde Bombshell," "White Goddess from Nairobi," and "Elvira the

   Platinum Panther."

3. The Cumberlands' Wrestling History:

   A. The Act: Charles challenged locals for $100.

   B. The Twist: "Blonde girl" (Carlotta) accepts challenge.

   C. The Bout: Charles feigns embarrassment ("can't wrestle a lady"); Carlotta lifts

   and smashes him to the mat.

4. Role with Ploutos:

   A. Usage: Possibly kept as a "collector."

   B. Attributes: Audacity in danger; exceptional thief because he didn't look like one.

   C. Unpredictability: Hard to predict "because he had no mind."

   
   

V. Jacob Zeltstange

1. Status and Mindset:

   A. Age: Thirty at time of Ploutos's murder.

   B. Crisis: Reached a plateau of re-appraisal.

   C. Disillusionment: Found heroes were not really heroes ("feet of Clay" and "heads

   of mud").

2. The Intellectual Dilemma:

   A. Discovery: Realized "there is nobody in the world very much smarter than I am."

   B. Reaction: Found the situation "intolerable."

   C. Existential Query: If no superior intellect drives the universe, "What makes it go

   anyhow?" Ponders if humanity acts as a collective consciousness or

   sleepwalkers.

3. The Quest:

   A. Resolution: Decided it was a "turning of the road" rather than an end.

   B. Goal: Devoted to a puzzle/quest involving Ploutos and Desidra Dorcas.

   C. Role: Geologist, traveler, Captain of one of Ploutos's plants.

VI. Desidra Dorcas

1. Employment and Motivation:

   A. Tenure: Joined Ploutos several months before his death.

   B. Father: Former wealthy associate of Ploutos.

   C. Objective: To find the money that vanished after her father's death.

2. Appearance and Nature:

   A. Beauty: Transcendent and timeless; "more beautiful when she was twenty than

   she could ever be again."

   B. Duality: "Innocent as a dove and as crafty as a serpent."

   C. Personality: Possessed a streak of Comedy; attracted even evil people.

3. Competence:

   A. Interaction with World: "All details and inanimate objects cooperated with her."

   B. Skills: Expert stenographer in half a dozen languages; discreet and wily.

   
   

VII. Martin McCloy

1. The Dual Cycles:

   A. The Drunk: Consistent, steady boozer, cheerful, makes his way in the world.

   B. The Sober (Trouble):

   i. Trigger: A "devil would get hold of him and bite his ear."

   ii. Theory: When a man stops drinking, a vacuum forms; the devil "gets up earlier

   in the morning than the angels" to fill it.

   iii. Behavior: Mean, erotic, quarrelsome, thief, skirt-chaser, slanderer, coveter of

   wives.

   C. The Cure: An "angel" mixes him a snort to restore his "old decent self."

2. Migration History:

   A. Intent: Left New York for Silver City, Nevada (streets paved with gold).

   B. Error: Took wrong road at a "Y in Pennsylvania."

   C. Destination: Ended up in Grackle, Florida.

3. Deception and Reality:

   A. Correspondence: Writes wife (Wendy) claiming he is in Silver City.

   B. Wife's Reply: Wendy writes to Grackle but pretends he is in Silver City, urging

   him not to hurry back.

   C. Current Status: A "famous detective," considered better than owning a gold

   mine.

   
   

VIII. Notebook Excerpts (Eden and Geography)

1. Locations of Interest:

   A. Phison: Circles land of Havilah ("where gold is born").

   B. Gihon: Circles Ethiopia.

   C. Chus/Cusch/Fassan: Noted as "South of Cyrus."

   D. Rivers: Tigris (Hiddekel), Euphrates, Halys (Kizil Irmak).

2. Geographical Layout:

   A. Region: Cappadocian Highlands towards Ararat.

   B. Hydrology Note: The "east fork of the big bend of the Euphrates was once

   stolen from the Tigris."

Spongetown

I. The Novel Outline and Plot Structure

1. The Opening and the Crime:

   A. The Event: Protagonos Ploutos is murdered on June 19, 1930, in his Gulf Coast home (evening or night).

   B. The Delay: The killer remains unidentified for "more than 25 years."

   C. Narrator's Hope: Expresses a wish that the interval "will not seem that long in the telling."

2. The Central Conflict:

   A. Zeltstange's Pursuit: Seeks the "other half of the map."

   B. Desidera's Lever: Insists Zeltstange must marry her to access said map.

3. The Murder at the Scene:

   A. The Act: Desidera kills an employee for molesting her.

   B. The Suspects: All "characters of suspicion" are present or near the scene.

   C. The Arrest: An officer apprehends Desidera, realizing her "exceptional strength"

   made the deed possible.

   D. Desidera's Defense: Note the pragmatic silence; "Nobody ever asked me if I did

   it . . . It wasn’t my place to tell the police their business."

   E. Sentence: She serves three years; Zeltstange is forced to wait.

4. The Marriage and the Honeymoon Fiasco:

   A. The Matchmaker: The "old millionaire" (Ploutos) had engineered their union in

   1930 to consolidate the map halves.

   B. The Negligence: Zeltstange "forgot to look at the map" on his honeymoon night.

   C. The Interruption: Desidera is arrested the very next day.

   D. The Consummation: Described by Zeltstange as occurring "only in the

   accidental and not in the purposeful intent."

5. The Financial Aftermath:

   A. Desidera's Inheritance: Her father was wealthy, but post-death, "there was no

   money to be found."

   B. The Pattern: A recurring phenomenon for those associated with Ploutos.

6. The Conclusion:

   A. Final Status: The treasure remains.

   B. Final Line: "It is still there & next year he will go back and get it."

7. Proposed Chapter List:

   A. Includes settings ("In the Palmetto Palace," "Indian Ocean," "Caribbean").

   B. Includes character focuses ("Early Zeltstange," "Early Desidera," "McCloy").

   C. Includes thematic elements ("The Pirate," "Abdomen, Abdomen," "Final

   Marriage").

   
   

II. Dramatis Personae

1. Jacob Zeltstange:

   A. Identity: "A Child of the Century" (born Jan 1, 1900).

   B. Vocation: Pseudo-Scientist, Geographer, Geologist, Treasure Hunter.

   C. Activities: Searches for the "arc on Ararat" and sunken treasure; wildcatted oil in

   the midcontinental.

   D. Name Etymology: German for "tentpole" (father's nickname due to height),

   legally adopted.E. Metrics: 6' 6". Weighed 10 lbs at birth, 200 lbs at 20; gains "10

   lbs a decade for the rest of his life."

2. Desidera Dorcas:

   A. Origin: Caribbean and Spongetown, Florida; Greek.

   B. Appearance: "Ample, cheerful."

   C. The Map: Inherited the other half/key. Claims it is tattooed on her abdomen

   ("but it is not").

3. Supporting Cast:

   A. Martin McCloy: The Detective.

   B. Ploutos: The Murdered Millionaire.

   C. Abel Gruenwald: The Phoenician / Devil Worshipper.

4. The Crew:A. Kudu Ben Kutz:

   A Kurd formerly of the Arc on Ararat; prefers Caribbean treasure hunting.

   B. Gezireh Ben Bahr: Pearl Diver from Trucial Oman; recounts stories of the Flying

   Dutchman and Sinbad.

   C. The Circus Diver: Also functions as a tank swimmer.

   
   

III. Narrative Draft: Early Desidera

1. Ambiguities of Birth:

   A. Year: Born 1910, though described as a "lady of uncertain age."

   B. Date Confusion: Mother cited "St. Catherine's day" but neglected to specify

   which Saint (Alexandria, Genoa, Sienna, or Sweden). Likely Nov 25th (Alexandria).

   C. Location: Born on an island, though "peculiar" because she knows neither which

   island nor which ocean.

2. Residential History:

   A. Childhood: Greek islands, then the Antilles (Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia).B.

   Teens: Spongetown, Florida.

3. The House (Martinique or Guadeloupe):

   A. Structure: Stone, adobe, stucco; covered in Bougainvillea.

   B. The Jungle Courtyard: Dense vegetation, wandering walls, and a stream like a

   "lost snake."

   C. Aquatic Feature: Salt water tank housing blue rangoon fish, grunts, and queen

   trigger fish.

   D. Menagerie:

   a. "Ecrevisse" (land crab).

   b. "Monique" (monkey).

   c. Tree toad ("sweetest singer").

   d. The Children: Six total (Felice, Angele, Reine, Escargot, Grenouille, Maurice).

   i. The Anomaly: The first five were black; the sixth was purple.

   ii. Narrator's Challenge: "If you do not choose to believe . . . that is your loss."

   Insists he is the "only purple person that God ever made."

4. Art and Imagery:

   A. Statues: Blessed Virgin (blue robe) and Artemis (no robe); carved by Desidera's

   father to look like sisters.

5. Desidera's Development:

   A. Skills: Learned to dive in Spongetown.

   B. Status: "Became a lady" at father's insistence; also a businesswoman.C.

   Philosophy: "PLU D’ARGENT PLU D’AMUSEMENT" (more money, more fun).

   Developed an "unholy love" of money.

6. The Father:

   A. Temperament: Mean to family and bookies, yet "not satisfied with himself."

   B. Artistic Frustration: Carved faces; if they showed a "mean look," he smashed

   them with hammers.

   C. Integrity Issues: A "nervous liar" rather than a confirmed one; never satisfied

   with his fabrications.

   D. Financial Record: Lost five fortunes (one from father, four from predeceased

   brothers).

   E. Envy: "Eaten up with envy" but rarely implemented it via murder ("except just

   possibly on three occasions").

   F. Disappearance: Desidera refuses to confirm death; Ploutos claimed knowledge

   but withheld it.

   G. Grave-Dancing: Father promised to dance on Ploutos's grave; Desidera checks

   occasionally, despite noting her father "couldn't dance a step."

7. The Ploutos Takeover:

   A. Transition: Ploutos moved into the Palmetto Palace as partner.

   B. The Vanishing Act: Father's assets disappeared; Ploutos "eaten everything."

   C. Relationship: Desidera claims she had the "old bat" in the palm of her hand.

   
   

IV. Narrative Draft: The Phoenician & The Alchemist

1. McCloy and Desidera's Musings:

   A. On Ploutos: Desidera "never liked him, but I hated others more."

   B. On Time: Desidera lives in retrospect; feels she has "already lived" events. Goal:

   "to become a legend."

2. Abel Gruenwald (The Phoenician):

   A. Origin: From a trade town (Tyre, Bridgeport, or Atlanta).

   B. Identifiers: Smells of "old money"; is a devil worshipper.

   C. Name: Not Hamilcar; modern Phoenicians use local names.

3. The Confrontation:

   A. McCloy's Indictment: Identifies Abel as a Phoenician, scoundrel, usurer, and child

   murderer.

   B. Abel's Defense: Claims to be German/Scotch and that Phoenicians are "extinct."

   C. The Reality: Phoenicians are no more extinct than the devil; they hide in plain

   sight (killing children and taking interest).

   D. Economic Distinction: Abel claims to make a living on the "difference" between

   interest paid and interest taken.

   E. Religious Cover: Abel claims to tithe and be a "good Presbyterian."

   F. McCloy's Rebuttal: Acknowledges many Presbyterians (and Anglicans, Baptists,

   etc.) are Phoenicians, but insists Abel still sacrifices children.

4. The Business Proposition:

   A. The Offer: Abel proposes a "safe investment" to Desidera.

   B. The Refusal: Desidera declines ("mean more money for me . . . I have enough").

   C. The Reaction: Abel pales and makes a gesture revealing him as a "worshipper

   of Moloch."

5. The Family Exchange:

   A. McCloy's Query: Asks how many children Abel has.

   B. Abel's Answer: "Three."

   C. Logistics: McCloy questions how he has children with a wife 2,000 miles away.

   D. Abel's Joke: "You might approach the lady nearer." (Noted as the only time Abel

   ever joked).

6. Zeltstange on Maritime Evil:

   A. The Ocean: Controlled by the devil.

   B. Indian Ocean: "Peculiar abode of the father of evil" (site of Lucifer's fall).

   C. Topography: A spot 700 miles off Trucial Oman where the ocean is raised in a

   "giant cone."

   D. Historical Villainy: Phoenicians, Pirates, Englishmen, and Privateers were not

   romantic figures but "bad men" who slaughtered children.

   
   

V. Narrative Draft: The Little Rooster (Zeltstange's Letters)

1. Alchemy and The Brothers Grimm:

   A. Theory: The key to alchemy resides in the Household Tales.

   B. Theology: An alchemist must be in a "state of grace."

   C. Material Evidence: Transmuted gold has a different texture than mined gold.

   D. Aryan Connection: Midas and Croesus were Aryan; the tales hold their wisdom.

2. The Little Rooster's Cosmology:

   A. Role: The last sun-worshipper; duty is to announce the sun.

   B. Heresy: Entertains the idea that the sun didn't rise, or that "all the rest of the

   worlds fell."

   C. Geocentric vs. Heliocentric:

   a. Ancient Logic: Since no fixed point exists, any point can be the center.

   b. The Problem: The "damnable tilt" of the earth and seasons.

   c. Parallax: The rooster thought he read parallax, but was mistaken (distances

   too short by "several billion times").

   d. Spatial Concept: "No inside and no outside . . . think just what a sphere looks

   like turned inside out."

   
   

VI. Research Notes & Background

1. Location Data:

   A. The Map: Coordinates (16 S 118° 35' 18" E) are antipodal to the actual location.

   B. Actual Location: Guadeloupe Island (French West Indies), 16° N 61° W.

   C. Features: Volcano Soufriere, sugar mills, rum distilleries.

   D. Spongetown (Sarasota): Greek Sponge Divers used by Zeltstange; includes "Circus Poodle Motif" and an old wooden ship.

2. Treasure Geology (Zeltstange's Dissertation):

   A. Scientific Description: "Intrusive occurrence of auriferous deposits" (gold).

   B. Nature: "Discoidal form" (coins) vs. nuggetory; "presumed artificial character."

   C. Markings: Stylized Hispanic markings, dates, and reagents.

3. Pirate Lore:

   A. Bartholomew Portuguese: Lost treasure in hurricanes (Jardines Bank).

   B. Black Beard: Edward Teach (or Thatch).

4. Historical Context:

   A. Gold Coast: Pre-Columbian gold reshuffled.

   B. Timeline: Pre-Columbian trade ceased at the time of the Black Death (1347).