A funny passage. The year: 1991. The context: A talk by Wallace Fowlie to a teenaged audience about the poetry of Rimbaud and the rock musician Jim Morrison:
I have often wondered why you still listen to the Doors …. I imagine you like the music, the poems of the songs, Jim’s voice, and his rebelliousness. Perhaps also you are puzzled by the mysteriousness of his death in Paris.
As soon as I said that, a youngster in the last row jumped to his feet, pointed his hand at me, and yelled out” “He’s not dead. He’s in Africa” …. [I] said “If that is true, it will help my talk, because Rimbaud went to Africa”. …. I pointed out that there was a death certificate signed by a Paris doctor. The boy’s answer came immediately …. “No doctor has been found who corresponds to that signature.” This was news to me, and I asked the student, “Where did you learn that?” “In the last issue of Rolling Stone“.
From: Wallace Fowlie, Rimbaud and Jim Morrison. The Rebel As Poet: A Memoir. Durham and London: Duke University Press (1993).
Some t’ings, they just don’t change.
Stylishly Bookish 