The Dogma Terror

Our eighth Dogma paper … what can we recall of that? What really happened? W.'s unsure; I'm unsure. Was there shouting? Was a paper ripped up? Were we forcibly ejected from the auditorium? Was there a diplomatic incident? Did I strip naked? Did W.? Did I strip him, W., naked? Something happened, we're sure of that, but we only have screen memories of the whole fiasco. We remember only owls, swooping through the night.

And the ninth? W. spke of my shortcomings, I of his. He cursed me and I cursed him.We came to blows. It was a performance piece, we agreed. It was a gestural form of Dogma.

The tenth, the notorious tenth was for our benefit only. We gave it in secret, under cover. No one must know! That's what we said to ourselves. Dogma has to undergo a profound occultation. We had to draw it back to the sources. To draw ourselves back! It was like a sweat lodge, we remember.

And the eleventh? It was in the great outdoors, we remember. On one of our walks over Jennycliff to Bovissands. I held forth for over an hour, W. remembers, visibly moved. The clouds parted. All of nature paused to listen. But I spoke only to myself, W. says. My talk was inaudible to him. – 'You muttered. You murmured'. I was like a druid, W. says. It was as though I commanded great forces, and was casting a spell.

His presentation was much more sober, he remembers. It had to be; I needed a counterbalance. He berated and harangued me. He listed my faults, and my betrayals of him. It took a long time; nearly all the way back. He was still speaking as we crossed the bay in the water taxi, and he only stopped when we'd reached Platters.

The twelth? We don't want to remember the twelth. It was a misstep, W. says. It was misconceived from the first. We're not dancers, and we should never try to be. Of course, we were trying to dance as non-dancers, but who would know that?

We skipped the thirteenth presentation altogether. I was always superstitious, W. says. The fourteenth … was going to be an action presentation. It was to be Dogma's first murder. But we got scared and backed out. It wasn't yet time for the Dogma Terror.