SPOILERS ALERT! Although everyone already knows everything about this bestseller, and Keyes gave a lot of spoilers in the beginning. Anyway, I've been looking at "The Mysterious History of Billy Milligan" for a long time, but like many people on Bookmix, I never got around to it. But the Bookathon item... *Mari Iva Nova suddenly stops talking and disappears.
Daniel Keyes was an American author best known for his Hugo award-winning short story and Nebula award-winning novel Flowers for Algernon. Keyes was given the Author Emeritus honor by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2000.
*Rightening his glasses, Professor Valentin Ivanovich enters the spotlight* Daniel Keyes' documentary novel "The Mysterious Story of Billy Milligan," which has also been translated into Russian as "The Multiple Minds of Billy Milligan," was first published in 1981. It is the story of a young American whose head supposedly contained 23 full-fledged personalities plus one "united" one. They succeeded each other in Milligan's mind, "entering the blur. This led to bizarre and inadequate behavior, memory lapses and crimes - in October 1977 Milligan robbed and raped three women in Ohio. Milligan became the first person to be acquitted by a court of law because of a diagnosis of multiple personality. Keese's book became a cult and popularized the image of a man with a split personality, and its impact on literature and film cannot be overstated. *Valentin Ivanovich leaves.
*The 17-year-old Dasha enters the spot* Cult, yeah! Can this Keyes even write? His "Flowers for Algernon" is still okay, riding out a tearful theme and a fresh take - text with errors. What about this one? Six hundred pages of tedium! At first okay - interesting with these 23 personalities, etc. Then bang! - spoiler. Like the rapist's eyes were running. Well, it all became clear at once - in the description of the personalities 10 pages ago it was. And what's the next thing to read? In short, such weak books on such interesting topics to look for. He blew it, anyway. * Leaving *
* The translator screwed up too. "Arthur said to Arthur," "2216 Baker Street," what is that? I'd be fired for that. Shame on you! *Angeredly walks away*
*Natalie, a Frenchwoman, enters the spot and looks around incomprehensibly* Qui sont tous ces gens? Où sont mes choses? Est-ce que quelqu'un parle français? *Removes away*
*I can't say anything about the artistic value of the book, but the writer has pieced together a lot of disparate information - I hope he immediately properly copyrighted the novel and received royalties, the book sold well and is still selling. True, I can not understand the lawyers described in the novel - they are so trusting, I just can not believe it! And their actions, in my opinion, are very far from professional, although... *Andrey is pushed out of the spot.
*An enraged feminist Irina jumps into the spot* Have you lost your mind? All you men are assholes! "Far from professional"! Those dumb lawmakers let a rapist walk free just like that. Rapist! Yeah, he was raped as a kid, so what? He can get away with the punishment he deserves? Does he have multiple identities? But he has one dick, and it belongs to a very specific body! And he belongs behind bars, asshole! Oh, man, don't come near me, don't come near me, aah! *Too terrified to run away*
*Alcoholic Vasya is entering the stain... Friend, do you have a hangover? The pipes are on fire. Oh, I know a great recipe from my friend Regine. You buy some licks and pump them up... What? Licks? Oh, fuck. A-pel-see-ums. Come on! You pump it up with a syringe of white vodka, yes, vodka. And that's how you get into the gaol... Do you have a hangover? Pipes...
*Galina Vladimirovna in a housecoat timidly peeks into the stain* Oh, hello! I've just finished reading the detective story about Miss Marple. She'd have figured out this Billy of yours in no time. How? Well, he was confused the whole time. One minute he was saying, "He's one of his Reagan personalities, so he loves kids and never hurts them, and at the same time he never lies, and then he threatens to kill them, right in front of the lawyers, he said! And Billy also gives him the right personality - to take the handcuffs off, or to talk nicely - and then he's not there, controlling it, getting in the way. So he's a liar, the little dove. He lied, and everybody believed him. Miss Marple would have found him out. Oh, I've got milk on the stove! *Hurriedly shuffling out of the stain*
*Dmitry the neuroscientist enters the stain* It's not just the inconsistencies that make sense of Milligan. It's subjective - which means you can't believe it, because our brains are constantly deceiving themselves. But the lawyers and doctors didn't even think to check him with a polygraph - at that time it was not yet known that the "lie detector" was only the appearance of a test. But at least it was possible to try. It is a pity that there was no modern scientific equipment at the time. Even the CT scans we're all used to would've been able to get him right away. *♪ Going away ♪
*Innocentius the cucumber rolls into the stain. He lies quietly and motionless for a few seconds and, since he is only a cucumber, rolls away.
*A 13-year-old romantic Christine enters the spot* Man, he's so cute! Handsome! And what eyes - I drown in them oooo ... Man, I'm in love! And such a talented artist - he painted landscapes, portraits and these when food is on the table. Of course, anyone can offend an artist! Everybody rejected him, nobody understood him... Billy has such a rich inner world...
# In the blur limps Mischka Kosoy, convicted of robbery and grievous bodily harm # What a fool! Beautiful, romantic! Do you know what they do to people like that in prison? Billy-Dilly's crazy, for chrissake! He played the fool and skipped out from under the court, only to be seen! And instead of a cage and a stool, he went straight to a resort. If I get caught, I'll have a fink on my side! Give me the money and the car, or else he's such an actor that the cops are all blooming and the judge didn't sew the case. *♪ Spits greedily and goes off into the darkness ♪
*I can say one thing: the story - real, not fiction - hooked me more than the book itself. It's not clear to me whether Milligan was a charismatic fraud, a talented actor and a slacker who wanted an easy life and agreed to live on stolen money and rape women with impunity, or whether he actually suffered from a serious illness and needed horse doses of haloperidol, or maybe even electrocution, as in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." But whatever the case, I think he should not have been allowed to escape the punishment he deserved. In any case, the book itself could have been written in a more interesting way. *Leaves.
*The Yugoslav journalist Vsudunos Suvacic jumps up briskly in the spotlight* Me not understanding why my fellow newspapermen were made out to be bad and evil! That they printed "A Rapist at Large"! They being right or wrong - it doesn't matter. They take the facts and publish them, and the fact that your Billy is pissed off means there was something to it. The truth hurts! * Leaves *
*The Mari Iva Nova enters the spot... * ...Book Marathon item 22. A book based on true events... Huh? What? What was that just now? Where did the time go? Ah yes, multiple personalities are so contagious. I give the book three stars - solely for Keys' painstaking work. And all the "experts" who "distinguished themselves" in this case, I give it one - and not zero, because they could not only release the rapist, but also give him money, give him the keys to the new car and give him an apartment. Personally, I am convinced that Milligan is a talented liar who fooled everybody. But we'll never be able to prove it, because they can't put him in the CAT scanner anymore - he died of cancer in 2014.
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