#mag004

“It was a painting of an eye. Very detailed, and at first I almost would have said almost photorealistic, but the more I looked at it, the more I saw the patterns and symmetries that formed into a single image, until I was so focused on them that I started to have difficulty seeing the eye itself.”

Case #0132806, Dominic Swain Release date: 30 March 2016 First listen: 13th Oct 2020, still on the morning feed duty.

The first instance of Jonny picking on the theatre kids, the first mention of our Gerard, and the first time I heard the name ‘Leitner’.

- The theatre industry is just ripe for the taking for some of The Entities: the punishing scheduled, the costumes and make up, the sets, the props, the shadowy, dark, secret places of a theatre building, the fleetingness of a pay cheque, the faceless audiences, the politics, the aging out of roles... OK, at one point in season 5 I was jokingly indignant for Jonny ‘coming for the theatre kids’, but 1) I was reminded that Jonny himself is very much a theatre kid and 2) it’s kind of a gold mine to be fair.

- I’ve done a lot of amdram, and I am forever grateful to the theatre techs. They make us look and sound good and they stop flats and suspended lights from falling on us. So thank you, you sweet theatre ninjas. May the blackouts always be long enough for you to do your thing.

- Right, hang tight, I’m going to do a quick wiki dive on ‘The Trojan Women’. Post sacking of Troy, husbands dead, families enslaved. And… oh it’s a yikes fest friends. It’s just a laundry list of atrocities. Cassandra though, definitely a candidate for The Eye, the gift of prophecy, with a little The Spiral or The Web thrown in, no one ever believing her.

- Hey, look, I love history and I love messing with history. I lose my tiny mind at the historical references this show pulls on. I freaking love the ahistorical setting of Rusty Quill Gaming. I didn’t think I’d ever identify with Oscar Wilde but goddamnit Alexander! I will keep doing this, this being assigning historical figures to The Entities. Fight me.

- OK, ‘The Seagull’, Chekov- NOPE. Nope not diving into that, too much like hard work.

- Ah, charity shops. Love ‘em. Can find beloved treasures and the most cursed shit in the same visit.

- ‘From the Library of Jurgen Leitner.’ I think at this stage, I was still naive to who this rat bastard was but to this day my phone autocorrects ‘Leitner’ to ‘LEITNER’ as I have screamed about his dusty ass to dodgelogic just that many times. I have a deep love of books and library collections and everything he stands for offends me on a cellular level. If I am ever asked to prepare an monologue for an audition it’s either going to be the statement from MAG165 or the ‘I Hate Jurgen Leitner’ rant.

- There’s one thing I’ve learnt from Rusty Quill; Latin = Bad News. Magnus trailer, chanting in Latin = Bad News. Rusty Quill Gaming, Ancient Rome, Latin = Bad News. A Leitner written in Latin = Bad News. Look, I know a lot of us did the Cambridge Latin Course, yes, including the writers of that one Doctor Who episode, but Caecilius can’t save us now!

- The choice of ozone smell makes perfect sense but there is something terribly unnerving about it. Something so terribly out of place.

- OK, this has nothing to do with the plot but he mentions the show he’s doing is ‘Much Ado About Nohing’ which is quiet possibly my favourite Shakespeare. I refuse to go to my grave quietly before I’ve had the chance to play Beatrice.

- 2007, grbookworm1818… Ms Robinson… screaming

- Leitner active in the 1990’s, 1995 he dropped from public view. OK we’re getting a time line.

- I wonder if there’s any significance to the name ‘Pinhole Books’.

- ‘Walking felt as natural as falling’… my dude.

- Mary Keay. Mary Fucking Keay… See, when we first meet her, tattooed and blasting death metal, I thought she was awesome… yikes. ‘Her Gerard kept and eye out’. And, unfairly again, I formed an opinion. One of a glowering, hulking enforcer.

- Fishing wire and safety razor… huh?!

- The eye painting. "Grant us the sight that we may not know, grant us the scent that we may not catch, grant us the sound that we may not call’. Our Gerard, a very talented artist. Our Gerard deserved so much better, I love our boy.

- ‘Tea tasting of dust and smoke’. I am not as well versed in tea as I’d like to be, but I have had Lapsang souchong tea before. It felt very decadent for my tastes, who’s used to whatever tea bag I can justify paying for, but I really enjoyed it. Every time I hiccuped or burped for the rest of the day I could taste smoke. I felt like a dragon.

- Place book in shadows, get tiny woodland creature bones?

- The Lichtenberg figure, and the first mention of Michael Crew. The smell, the sensation of falling. Waiting for something. For impact.

- Gerard Keay. My son. The description the statement giver gives of him is not flattering; obviously dyed hair, unshaven and haggard. But, I’m sorry, I you had Mary Keay for a mother, you’d be losing sleep too. Any why is everyone so mean about his hair. Can someone just treat him please, take him to a specialist, get it done right?

- £5k for ‘Ex Altiora’, £1,200 for ‘The Key of Solomon’. Where are they getting this sort of money? I’ll have to ask mum about the last fine arts auction she worked, see what sort of money books were making.

- Would have given it away but feared it ‘wouldn’t count’. There’s something about ownership here,something about responsibility. Reminds me of the golems of Ankh-Morepork in Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld buying themselves out of, well, slavery. With the passing of coin, no matter how much or little, something else intangible but vitally important also changes hands.

- This section of finding the news report of Gerard on trial for Mary’s murder painted my opinion of Gerard rather poorly. I thought he was some terrible, dangerous person, holding Mary captive somehow. God, I was so wrong.

- ‘If I never hear the name Jurgen Leitner again it will be too soon.’ Jooooon…. Jooooon whyyyyy….

- ‘Library Incident’ in 1994.

- Jon not trusting Martin’s research efforts, sending Sasha to double check. Rude.

- ‘Cause for some small alarm.’…. SMALL ALARM!?…. SIR! LEITNERS ON THE LOOSE ARE CAUSE FOR HEFFING BIG ALARM.

- Unable to locate Gerard Keay… soft weeping

- ‘Jurgen Leitner has done the world enough harm’. I mean… I agree whole heartedly, but, just see how that glass house treats you in 4 seasons’ time.

Supplemental: In looking for the ‘I Hate Jurgen Leitner’ video link, I found that there has been a dramatic reading in the style of The Archivist with a follow up statement taken post-brutal pipe murder included. Enjoy. 

Supplemental: dodgylogic has once again come through, a very dear friend who is at once my enabler and sponsor through this ridiculousness. But she had some insight into my question about the significance in the naming of Pinhole Books: 

jurgen lietner? stupid idiot motherfucking jurgen Leitner, goddamn fool book collecting, dust eating, rat old bastard, shithead idiot, avatar of the WHORE

“There were no illustrations in this book, and the only English words I could find were on the bookplate: “From the library of Jurgen Leitner”. Just like mine. Mary told me that the writing was in Sanskrit, but when I asked her if she could read it she just started laughing.”

Case #0132806

Statement of Dominic Swain, regarding a book briefly in his possession in the winter of 2012. Original statement given June 28th, 2013. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.