Zeroville
A Novel
Steve Erickson
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Chapter 147
Chapter 148
Chapter 149
Chapter 150
Chapter 151
Chapter 152
Chapter 153
Chapter 154
Chapter 155
Chapter 156
Chapter 157
Chapter 158
Chapter 159
Chapter 160
Chapter 161
Chapter 162
Chapter 163
Chapter 164
Chapter 165
Chapter 166
Chapter 167
Chapter 168
Chapter 169
Chapter 170
Chapter 171
Chapter 172
Chapter 173
Chapter 174
Chapter 175
Chapter 176
Chapter 177
Chapter 178
Chapter 179
Chapter 180
Chapter 181
Chapter 182
Chapter 183
Chapter 184
Chapter 185
Chapter 186
Chapter 187
Chapter 188
Chapter 189
Chapter 190
Chapter 191
Chapter 192
Chapter 193
Chapter 194
Chapter 195
Chapter 196
Chapter 197
Chapter 198
Chapter 199
Chapter 200
Chapter 201
Chapter 202
Chapter 203
Chapter 204
Chapter 205
Chapter 206
Chapter 207
Chapter 208
Chapter 209
Chapter 210
Chapter 211
Chapter 212
Chapter 213
Chapter 214
Chapter 215
Chapter 216
Chapter 217
Chapter 218
Chapter 219
Chapter 220
Chapter 221
Chapter 222
Chapter 223
Chapter 224
Chapter 225
Chapter 226
Chapter 227
Chapter 226
Chapter 225
Chapter 224
Chapter 223
Chapter 222
Chapter 221
Chapter 220
Chapter 219
Chapter 218
Chapter 217
Chapter 216
Chapter 215
Chapter 214
Chapter 213
Chapter 212
Chapter 211
Chapter 210
Chapter 209
Chapter 208
Chapter 207
Chapter 206
Chapter 205
Chapter 204
Chapter 203
Chapter 202
Chapter 201
Chapter 200
Chapter 199
Chapter 198
Chapter 197
Chapter 196
Chapter 195
Chapter 194
Chapter 193
Chapter 192
Chapter 191
Chapter 190
Chapter 189
Chapter 188
Chapter 187
Chapter 186
Chapter 185
Chapter 184
Chapter 183
Chapter 182
Chapter 181
Chapter 180
Chapter 179
Chapter 178
Chapter 177
Chapter 176
Chapter 175
Chapter 174
Chapter 173
Chapter 172
Chapter 171
Chapter 170
Chapter 169
Chapter 168
Chapter 167
Chapter 166
Chapter 165
Chapter 164
Chapter 163
Chapter 162
Chapter 161
Chapter 160
Chapter 159
Chapter 158
Chapter 157
Chapter 156
Chapter 155
Chapter 154
Chapter 153
Chapter 152
Chapter 151
Chapter 150
Chapter 149
Chapter 148
Chapter 147
Chapter 146
Chapter 145
Chapter 144
Chapter 143
Chapter 142
Chapter 141
Chapter 140
Chapter 139
Chapter 138
Chapter 137
Chapter 136
Chapter 135
Chapter 134
Chapter 133
Chapter 132
Chapter 131
Chapter 130
Chapter 129
Chapter 128
Chapter 127
Chapter 126
Chapter 125
Chapter 124
Chapter 123
Chapter 122
Chapter 121
Chapter 120
Chapter 119
Chapter 118
Chapter 117
Chapter 116
Chapter 115
Chapter 114
Chapter 113
Chapter 112
Chapter 111
Chapter 110
Chapter 109
Chapter 108
Chapter 107
Chapter 106
Chapter 105
Chapter 104
Chapter 103
Chapter 102
Chapter 101
Chapter 100
Chapter 99
Chapter 98
Chapter 97
Chapter 96
Chapter 95
Chapter 94
Chapter 93
Chapter 92
Chapter 91
Chapter 90
Chapter 89
Chapter 88
Chapter 87
Chapter 86
Chapter 85
Chapter 84
Chapter 83
Chapter 82
Chapter 81
Chapter 80
Chapter 79
Chapter 78
Chapter 77
Chapter 76
Chapter 75
Chapter 74
Chapter 73
Chapter 72
Chapter 71
Chapter 70
Chapter 69
Chapter 68
Chapter 67
Chapter 66
Chapter 65
Chapter 64
Chapter 63
Chapter 62
Chapter 61
Chapter 60
Chapter 59
Chapter 58
Chapter 57
Chapter 56
Chapter 55
Chapter 54
Chapter 53
Chapter 52
Chapter 51
Chapter 50
Chapter 49
Chapter 48
Chapter 47
Chapter 46
Chapter 45
Chapter 44
Chapter 43
Chapter 42
Chapter 41
Chapter 40
Chapter 39
Chapter 38
Chapter 37
Chapter 36
Chapter 35
Chapter 34
Chapter 33
Chapter 32
Chapter 31
Chapter 30
Chapter 29
Chapter 28
Chapter 27
Chapter 26
Chapter 25
Chapter 24
Chapter 23
Chapter 22
Chapter 21
Chapter 20
Chapter 19
Chapter 18
Chapter 17
Chapter 16
Chapter 15
Chapter 14
Chapter 13
Chapter 12
Chapter 11
Chapter 10
Chapter 9
Chapter 8
Chapter 7
Chapter 6
Chapter 5
Chapter 4
Chapter 3
Chapter 2
Chapter 1
Chapter 0
Acknowledgments
I believe that cinema was here
from the beginning of the world.
JOSEF VON STERNBERG
1.
On Vikar’s shaved head is tattooed the right and left lobes of his brain. One lobe is occupied by an extreme close-up of Elizabeth Taylor and the other by Montgomery Clift, their faces barely apart, lips barely apart, in each other’s arms on a terrace, the two most beautiful people in the history of the movies, she the female version of him, and he the male version of her.
2.
This is the summer of 1969, two days after Vikar’s twenty-fourth birthday, when everyone’s hair is long and no one shaves his head unless he’s a Buddhist monk, and no one has tattoos unless he’s a biker or in a circus.
He’s been in Los Angeles an hour. He’s just gotten off a six-day bus trip from Philadelphia, riding day and night, and eating a French dip sandwich at Philippe’s a few blocks up from Olvera Street, the oldest road in the city.
3.
There in Philippe’s, a hippie nods at Vikar’s head and says, “Dig it, man. My favorite movie.”
Vikar nods. “I believe it’s a very good movie.”
“Love that scene at the end, man. There at the Planetarium.”
Vikar stands and in one motion brings the food tray flying up, roast beef and au jus spraying the restaurant—
—and brings the tray crashing down on the blasphemer across the table from him. He manages to catch the napkin floating down like a parachute, in time to wipe his mouth.
Oh, mother, he thinks. “A Place in the Sun, George Stevens,” he says to the fallen man, pointing at his own head, “NOT Rebel Without a Cause,” and strides out.
4.
Tattooed under Vikar’s left eye is a red teardrop.
5.
Is it possible he’s traveled three thousand miles to the Movie Capital of the World only to find people who don’t know the difference between Montgomery Clift and James Dean, who don’t know the difference between Elizabeth Taylor and Natalie Wood? A few blocks north of Philippe’s, the city starts to run out and Vikar turns back. He asks a girl with straight blond hair in a diaphanous granny dress where Hollywood is. Soon he notices that all the girls in Los Angeles have straight blond hair and diaphanous granny dresses.
6.
She gives him a ride, staring at his head. She seems odd to him; he wants her to watch the road. I believe perhaps she’s been taking illicit narcotics, he thinks to himself.
“Uh,” she finally starts to say, and he can see it right there in her eyes: James Dean, Natalie Wood … What will he do? She’s driving and, besides, she’s a girl. You can’t smash a girl over the head with a food tray.
“Montgomery Clift,” he heads off her blunder, “Elizabeth Taylor.”
“Elizabeth Taylor,” she nods. “I’ve heard of her …” pondering it a moment. “Far out.”
He realizes she has no idea who Montgomery Clift is. “You can let me off here,” he says, and she drops him where Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards fork, at a small theater—
7.
—where he goes to the movies.
A silent European film from the late twenties, it’s the worst print Vikar has seen—less a movie than a patchwork of celluloid—but he’s spellbound. In the late Middle Ages a young
woman, identified in the credits only as “Mlle Falconetti,” is interrogated and hounded by a room of monks. The woman doesn’t give a performance, as such; Vikar has never seen acting that seemed less to be acting. It’s more an inhabitation. The movie is shot completely in close-ups, including the unbearable ending, when the young woman is burned at the stake.
8.
Afterward, he makes his way farther west along Sunset before cutting up to Hollywood Boulevard. Where once was the Moulin Rouge nightclub at the corner of Vine is now a psychedelic club called the Kaleidoscope. Vikar really has no idea what a psychedelic club is. Along Hollywood Boulevard are shabby old jewelry shops, used bookstores, souvenir stands, porn theaters. He’s startled there are no movie stars walking down the street. Still hungry from having sacrificed his French dip sandwich at Philippe’s, he orders a chicken pot pie at Musso & Frank, where Billy Wilder used to lunch with Raymond Chandler while they were writing Double Indemnity, both drinking heavily because they couldn’t stand each other.
9.
He spends a few minutes looking at the footprints outside the Chinese Theatre. He can find neither Elizabeth Taylor nor Montgomery Clift. At the box office he buys a ticket and goes inside to watch the movie.
As Vikar traveled on what seemed an endless bus to Hollywood, the Traveler hurtles through space toward infinity. Dimensions fall away from the Traveler faster and faster until, by the end of the movie, he’s an old man in a white room where a black monolith appears to him at the moment of death. He becomes an embryonic, perhaps divine Starchild. Vikar has come to Los Angeles as a kind of starchild as well, a product of no parentage he acknowledges, vestiges of an earlier childhood falling away from him like dimensions. Vikar tells himself, I’ve found a place where God does not kill children but is a Child Himself.
He’s now seen two movies, one of the Middle Ages and one of the future, in his first seven hours in Los Angeles. Vikar crosses Hollywood Boulevard to the Roosevelt Hotel, built by Louis B. Mayer, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford in the year the movies discovered sound.
10.
Vikar walks through the Roosevelt lobby, which has a statue of Charlie Chaplin. With its stone arches and palm fronds, it’s slightly seedy; the first Academy Awards were held here forty years before. At the front desk, he asks for room 928.
The young clerk behind the front desk says, “That room’s not available.” His long hair is tucked into his collar beneath his coat and tie.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Seventeen years ago,” Vikar says, “Montgomery Clift lived in that room.”
“Who?”
Vikar restrains the urge to pick up the small bell from the desk and lodge it in the philistine’s forehead. For a moment he considers the image of the clerk having a bell for a third eye, like a cyclops. People could walk up and ring it, and every time they did, this infidel would remember Montgomery Clift. “Montgomery Clift,” Vikar says, “lived here after making A Place in the Sun, when he was filming From Here to Eternity.”
11.
The clerk says, “Hey, man, have you seen Easy Rider? I usually don’t go to movies. I’m into the Music.”