Henosis Sage
2021-08-02 06:59:58 UTC
"What do I have within me to make it real," asked Paul sullenly.
It's very hard to be a public person like that. So I think every public person creates a kind of avatar, some holograph of themselves to present publicly, to save whatever is private in them. The problem is that eventually, your avatar will consume you.
They called Twitchell a colourful person. That colour was made up by himself. Travelled the world. Found his first guru in Paris. Trekked up the rarified hills in Darjeeling to meet his second. Quirky commissioned naval officer in World war 2, an author, right hand man to L Ron Hubbard , travel companion of Sant Kiral Singh and more. The many stories about himself had come thick and fast from his earliest days in Paducah. Few if any of the stories were true.
He mythologised himself. Why do people mythologise? To woo other people, and also to keep them at a distance, to feel inadequate but to boast about being over-adequate, all knowingly self-assured and important.
Twitchell constructed his myth to a large degree, and he made the mistake that all myth-makers do - he thought that he could control it. There comes a time when you can't anymore. It's taken on a life of it's own. Brad Steiger and Lancer books came along, sold the the myth to the world.
It became exhausting to be Twitchell. The Twitchell the publci thought was Twitchell, and, let's face it, holding court telling his stories, he was always in the public eye and the people expected Twitchell to be Twitchell.
His artful teaching and the gaudy myths that grew up around him were already becoming confused in the public mind. At times he was embarrassed by some of the tall tales when he saw them in print, but as his fame grew over the coming years it became harder and harder to tell the real Twitchell from the one he had created.
"How can I live up to this? Will my next book be better?"
It's very hard to be a public person like that. So I think every public person creates a kind of avatar, some holograph of themselves to present publicly, to save whatever is private in them. The problem is that eventually, your avatar will consume you.
They called Twitchell a colourful person. That colour was made up by himself. Travelled the world. Found his first guru in Paris. Trekked up the rarified hills in Darjeeling to meet his second. Quirky commissioned naval officer in World war 2, an author, right hand man to L Ron Hubbard , travel companion of Sant Kiral Singh and more. The many stories about himself had come thick and fast from his earliest days in Paducah. Few if any of the stories were true.
He mythologised himself. Why do people mythologise? To woo other people, and also to keep them at a distance, to feel inadequate but to boast about being over-adequate, all knowingly self-assured and important.
Twitchell constructed his myth to a large degree, and he made the mistake that all myth-makers do - he thought that he could control it. There comes a time when you can't anymore. It's taken on a life of it's own. Brad Steiger and Lancer books came along, sold the the myth to the world.
It became exhausting to be Twitchell. The Twitchell the publci thought was Twitchell, and, let's face it, holding court telling his stories, he was always in the public eye and the people expected Twitchell to be Twitchell.
His artful teaching and the gaudy myths that grew up around him were already becoming confused in the public mind. At times he was embarrassed by some of the tall tales when he saw them in print, but as his fame grew over the coming years it became harder and harder to tell the real Twitchell from the one he had created.
"How can I live up to this? Will my next book be better?"