When I was at the height of the “Destuktion” phase of the GANTOB projekt this summer, I sent out dozens of parcels with books and pamphlets. This was a kathartik process and reduced klutter. As we are potentially going to be forced to leave of The Manse in coming months, as part of a sweeping programme of kirk mergers, my Destruktive tendencies may well have saved a lot of pain or expensive storage later on.
The Benefaktor emailed me again the morning after The Photographer’s wedding. He wanted some background reading to The KLF and Bill Drummond, so I agreed to send him a KLF fanzine by Pete Robinson (pink cover) and a spare copy of Drummond’s book 45 (Abacus edition).
I was in a rush to catch the post because there is hardly any weekend service where we live. I bound the parcel up and taped an envelope with his address to the front. The Benefaktor told me at our first proper meeting (not the snatched encounter described in The House Guest*) that this was my second mistake.
Now, as recipients of a GANTOB parcel will know, I work anonymously. This is one of the key konnektions back to the original karakter in The JAMs’ book 2023: A trilogy. Postmarks are not much use in tracking down who sent you a parcel nowadays. They cover broad geographical areas. And batches of letters and parcels are sometimes sent to other areas for processing. But the details left on a multiply reused jiffy bags can be gold dust. The postcode that The Benefaktor – ever-inquisitive – found under the stuck-down envelope was a giveaway. He had written those same letters and numbers a dozen times before when communicating with Ali about the foodbank on which TB is a director.
The Benefaktor acknowledged my parcel by email. He was very grateful etc. He hoped to clarify his question. But I heard no more by The Kompetition deadline (the end of August 2023). His original question was therefore filed away with several other applications on the theme of “What The F*** Is Going On”. I would be sending him an unnumbered copy of the book as a “runner up”.
Little did I know that all that time The Benefaktor was circling, waiting, planning for the moment to announce that my kover was blown, that he was muskling in to guide the next steps.
GANTOB
15 November 2023
* See Kompanion Volume
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