The Helmet of Horror

Chapter Fourteen

Monstradamus
Me?
Nutscracker
I could almost feel you shudder. He didn't mean you in person. He looked into the eyes of his imaginary viewer, waved his arms about like an eagle flapping its wings and yelled: 'Minotaure! Minotaure, c'est toi!! Tu es Minotaure!!!' Then he calmed down. He said you simply have to understand that the Minotaur is a projection of your mind and therefore he is nobody else but you.
Monstradamus
Did he say what we ought to do?
Nutscracker
What else? As long as there's a sponsor, carry on with the discourse!
Monstradamus
But what turns do we make in the labyrinth?
Nutscracker
We follow the turns the discourse takes.
Monstradamus
Interesting.
Nutscracker
To be honest, I didn't really understand what a discourse is, even after the hairy guy had just been talking about it.
Monstradamus
It's something like a glue that sticks the helmet of horror on really solidly. So you can't get it off again.
Nutscracker
Don't frighten me.
Monstradamus
You're the one who's been frightening me for the last hour. Were there any women candidates?
Nutscracker
Yes. There was one very attractive little heifer who looked like a psychiatrist. Her symbol was right for that, too: a bull on a chain lying on a couch. I don't remember everything she said now, but the main idea was that the only way to defeat the Minotaur is to stop thinking of yourself as a victim. Then he'll simply disappear. Everyone has his own Minotaur, she said, but in reality it's not he who pursues us, we pursue him. And the labyrinth in which we seek him is the dopamine chains of pleasure linking up into rings in the human brain  -  they're different for everyone, as unique as fingerprints. And as for which turns to make in the labyrinth, it's all very simple. Suppose you're standing at an intersection with ten identical corridors leading in different directions. Then of course your choice of which corridor to follow should not be determined by fears and superstitions, but by the promptings of simple common sense.
Monstradamus
So did you make a choice?
Nutscracker
How do you mean? Between corridors?
Monstradamus
Between candidates.
Nutscracker
I'm not really sure what position I'd be choosing the candidate for. Or what institution, or what term. Or how he'd be going to lead me out of the labyrinth, when the room has no doors or windows.
Monstradamus
He'll lead you out through the television. How else? You of all people should understand that. Is there anything else you remember?
Nutscracker
I watched it all on fast forward, just listened to each one for about five minutes to get the general idea. As long as they're talking it all seems interesting and new. Then you wind on the cassette and you've forgotten it all. Some American or other said that the labyrinth is the Internet. That it's inhabited by a some being that hacks into the mind, and that's the Minotaur. It's not really a bull-man, it's a spider-man. He said if there's a worldwide web, then there must be a soul-sucking spider. He also explained why the Minotaur has two names. It seems that 'Minotaur' is the politically correct version of the name 'Asterisk'. So every time we want to say 'Asterisk', we should say 'Minotaur'. But then 'Asterisk' is the politically correct version of the name 'Minotaur', and every time we want to say 'Minotaur' we should say 'Asterisk'. And so in principle we can use both names, only not when we want to, but the other way round. There was an interesting German who said that the Minotaur is the spirit of the time, the Zeitgeist , which has manifested itself in the form of mad cow disease, hence its symbolic representation in the form of a man with a bull's head. Its counterpart in art is postmodernism, which is the mad cow disease of a culture forced to feed on its own powdered bones. And in politics it's all that stuff you see and feel when you switch on the television. Then there was an Italian, dressed in black, who announced that the Minotaur  -  he said 'Mondotaur'  -  is a being whose physical body is the gross dollar supply. It's stupid to believe that everything is controlled through money, he said  -  why through it and not by money itself? The Mondotaur is the evil spirit that reigns over the world, and compels every single one of us to wander aimlessly through the foul, stinking labyrinth of his intestines. And his two horns are ... I've forgotten.
Monstradamus
It doesn't matter, I can imagine.
Nutscracker
Then a priest with kind eyes spoke and explained that the creator of the labyrinth is also our saviour, who loves us greatly. In much the same way as we love little children, he said.
Monstradamus
And what proposals did they all have?
Nutscracker
It all came down to how many times to turn right and how many times to turn left, and in which order. Everyone wanted to do it his own way.
Monstradamus
Perhaps that's the whole point. Not to think about where the way out is, but to realise that life is the crossroads where you're standing at this precise moment. Then the labyrinth will disappear as well. After all it only exists as a complete whole in our minds, and in reality there is nothing but a simple choice  -  which way to go next.
Nutscracker
Uhuh. And the Minotaur won't do anything to us, because the present 'us' will no longer exist when he catches up with us. One of them said that as well.
Organizm(-:
And now what's outside your door, Monstradamus? It's about time you told us, you're the only one left.
Monstradamus
You'll be disappointed, Organism.
Nutscracker
We'll see. So what have you got?
Monstradamus
A dead-end.
Nutscracker
I don't get it.
Monstradamus
A corridor a few metres long ending in a blank concrete wall with a single depressing graffito . Or at least I find it depressing. The imprint of a gigantic seal drawn in fluorescent lilac paint, like something on an official document from Hell. In the centre is the Roman numeral 'VII' and running out from it in a spiral is an endless string of symbols like the ones that street-gangs leave on walls. Nothing but zigzags, intricate curls, arrows and brackets  -  impossible to make out a single word. But all very suggestive.
Nutscracker
Just a dead-end?
Monstradamus
That's all there is.
Nutscracker
All there is?
Monstradamus
Well, not quite. There's a table standing against the wall directly under the seal. And a stool by the table. And on the table there's a blank sheet of paper, a pencil and a pistol with a single bullet.
Nutscracker
What about the labyrinth?
Monstradamus
I think that starts afterwards.
Organizm(-:
Truly magnificent simplicity and elegance.
Monstradamus
There's nothing for you to be envious of. You've got a dead-end too, only it's longer and it has plywood partitions. And Nutcracker's got a television instead of plywood. We've all got dead-ends. Only it's not obvious straightaway, it just takes a little while.
Nutscracker
Maybe that's the whole point  -  whether it's obvious straightaway or not. Don't you think the 'little while' it takes might just be life?
Monstradamus
Maybe so. But I'm fed up of these labyrinths you can't get lost in or escape from. And all these Minotaurs with horns on their xxx who promise to lead us out to the stars in just a moment. I wonder what Theseus will see instead of all this. I'd give a lot to find out.
Nutscracker
What do you care what he'll see?
Monstradamus
IMHO, Nutcracker, the possibility of escape is determined by whether you can see the way out or not.
Nutscracker
I already told you, for the Helmholtz that's not exactly the way it is. The Helmholtz can see anything you like. Even the plan of his own helmet. For all the good it will do him.
Monstradamus
What I wonder is, has he got a head on his shoulders or a helmet of horror? Hey, Theseus! I know you can hear me!
Nutscracker
To be honest, Monstradamus, I used to think you were Theseus.
Organizm(-:
I was convinced Monstradamus was the Minotaur.
Monstradamus
I already told you, it all depends on which part of the separator labyrinth the bubble of hope was in when it burst.
Sartrik
Didn't you ever think I was Theseus?
Nutscracker
Well hello, Sartrik! You know, not even once ...
Organizm(-:
Somehow the idea never entered my head.
Sartrik
Organism, it's clear from your userpic that you're queer. Just look at that guilty smile and that gaping xxx.
Organizm(-:
That's it, I'm going. You can talk to him.
Nutscracker
Sartrik, that isn't a userpic. Perhaps we can call it a dialogue header. And that isn't a gaping xxx, it's a capital 'O'.
Sartrik
Monstradamus just said  -  right?  -  that everything is determined by what you see. I take that to mean that if someone can see the answer to the most important question of all, then he is Theseus. Am I right, Monstradamus?
Monstradamus
Possibly. But exactly what is the most important question of all?
Sartrik
Let me explain. Have you noticed that we never exist simultaneously, only by turns?
Monstradamus
An interesting observation. You mean the writing on the screen?
Sartrik
I mean in general. Since you didn't understand the question, I'll ask it a different way. The helmet of horror is a machine. What does it run on? What does it have instead of petrol?
Nutscracker
He's lost it, Monster. Delirium tremens . He needs a drip installed.
Monstradamus
Wait, Nutcracker. So what does it have instead of petrol?
Nutscracker
Vodka?
Sartrik
Why vodka? Do you think I'm a drunken xxx and I don't understand a thing? Instead of petrol it has Theseus.
Monstradamus
Explain that, please.
Sartrik
You remember Ariadne looking into the mirror and seeing that hat with a veil, and afterwards she realised it was the helmet of horror? The petrol that the whole deal was running on was her, get it? Everything's made out of the person who sees it. Because it can't possibly be made out of anything else. Without the person there won't be any hat or any veil, or any lilies-of-the-valley. Nothing. Get it? Theseus is the one who looks into the mirror, and the Minotaur is the one he sees, because he's wearing a helmet of horror.
Monstradamus
You mean to say the Minotaur is just an illusion?
Sartrik
If you listened to what I'm saying, then you'd know what I'm trying to say. He sees this bronze phizog with horns on it because he sees himself in the mirror through the holes. Without Theseus there is no xxx Minotaur.
Nutscracker
Did you get that, Monster?
Monstradamus
Naturally. If you put on a Batman mask and look in the mirror, you'll see Batman. But the mask will never see itself.
Sartrik
That's it. The helmet of horror is simply the reflection that Theseus sees, and that's all. But if he decides there really is a Minotaur and starts swearing blind at him and discussing the meaning of life with him, well that's when the Minotaur appears. And how! And then there's no way to get the helmet of horror off again. Get it now, you vermin? I know everything.
Nutscracker
I bet you he can see little pink Minotaurs running round the room. Now that's the kind of labyrinth I understand! And no need to bother going anywhere.
Monstradamus
And why are we vermin?
Sartrik
Because you're all nothing but bits and pieces of the helmet of horror. I figured that out ages ago. And that's the real xxx killer, when you realise that absolutely everybody  -  all your friends and all your enemies  -  are just little bits and pieces! I'm not talking about you. Meaning you're not my friends. And not my enemies. But you're bits and pieces, all right. You, Monstradamus, and you, Nutcracker  -  you're the horns. You'll stick out a bit too far some day. Ariadne's the labyrinth, but she's not such a bad girl, she's okay. Ugly's the past that makes me want to puke. And Organism's the future, that makes me want to puke five times worse. Who's left? Romeo and that Isolde of his? They're the double xxx that's cooking up the whole xxx mess.
Nutscracker
And so you're Theseus?
Sartrik
Yes. Because I never talk to you.
Nutscracker