When I was reading the book, questions kept popping into my head, Questions primarily about Holm's inspiration for investing the time to research and write such an insightful and thought-provoking book -- with chapters on the Fawtly Towers' connection to the occult, historical references and analysis of all of Basil's neuroses --- about a British sitcom with only 12 episodes that first aired some 30 years ago only on BBC 2?
I mean consider his curriculum vitae:
Lars Holger Holm was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Enchanted by the universal language of music, he began playing the violin at the age of seven. Early in his career he formed the Swedenborg String Quartet, which extensively toured Europe and the United States. A fervent student of world literature and philosophy, Lars has also produced a body of critical essays published in various newspapers and magazines. The writer served as a music critic to Stockholm's major newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Expressen. For several years he was a well known and popular host of classical music on Stockholm's Classic FM.
A list of his published works and translations from French, German and English includes:
Published Works
Come Snow. Psychic thriller, Leo Publishing 2005
Fawlty Towers - A Worshipper's Companion, Leo Publishing, 2004
Dionysos - A Sinuous Essay to Divine the Universe, Leo Publishing 2002
Gothic Transformations, Leo Publishing, 2002
The Dream of Ultima Thule - And other Germanic Utopias, Leo Publishing 2002
The Antechamber of Hell, Leo Publishing, 2001
A Writer's Guide, Ordfront, 2000
Sunset over Babel, Leo Publishing, 1999
Translations
C. Baudelaire: Le peintre de la vie moderne. “Det moderna livets målare”. Leo Publishing 2005
F. Nietzsche: Jenseits von Gut und Böse. "Bortom gott och ont", Symposion, 2003
J. Lantz: La chute de Sophie. "Sophies fall", Leo Publishing , 2001
C. Baudelaire: Le spleen de Paris. "Den ensamme flanören". Extensive introduction by the translator. Leo Publishing , 2000
R. Noll: The Jung Cult. "Jungkulten", Ordfront, 1997
Now, aren't you curious, too? Well then, read on. I think you will find his answers equally enlightening and entertaining.
Q: You have a diverse and esteemed career in music, literature and as an author. Most of your work has been in the classical vein. So why the detour to deconstruct and embellish a pop culture icon such as Fawlty Towers?
Stuffed as my ears and brain had been with Brahms - bloody "Brahms' third
racket!" -, realising that I had finally become an insignificant relic of a bygone era, I one day decided to leave my ivory tower to seek the cultural interface where my enthusiastic temper could still possibly make contact with a modern world of which I was still largely ignorant. However, I soon realised that the only thing in this world which had ever met with massive popularity without hurting my delicate sense of decorum, paradoxically was another moss-overgrown relic from the past. It suited me perfectly that he was not even a real person. But one thing I could never understand was why they laughed at him. "What are you laughing at?" I kept asking imaginary spectators, "The man is right. In addition, he has the audacity to express his convictions in less than uncertain terms. I like him, and for your benefit I'll make him the hero of my next book."
Q:
You note that you believe that on one level, writing Fawlty Towers was
great divorce therapy for John Cleese and Connie Booth. And it seems as
if writing Fawlty Towers -- A Worshipper's Companion, was a
similar exercise for you. Were you a Fawlty Towers fan before your
divorce? Or did you come across it during or afterward and become taken
with its description of "the horrors of being married"?
A: I did not see Fawlty Towers when it first came out, since in those days I was far too busy running after my own Dulcinea of Toboso to have the patience to sit down and watch TV. It must have been sometime in the latter half of the 1980s that I first came across this inimitable master piece. And yes, absolutely. It was not until I had gone through the purgatory of marriage and subsequent divorce that I fully realised what a prophet, what a cry in the wilderness, this living, larger-than-life statue of John Cleese himself actually is. He was my comfort in the Valley of Death, he anointed my wounds with the balm of perennial humour, he gave me the strength to believe in my destiny - again ... Oh great Basil, patron saint of all married men, to you I owe my new life; it is for this very reason that my book is no secular guide to a monument in ruins, but a "worshipper's companion" to a living truth!
Q: Several times in Fawlty Towers Revisited, cast members discuss how one can find a way to feel for Basil even though he's such an awful, despicable character. Why is that?
A: As I said. I have never understood the poor sods who find Basil unsympathetic. I even find it disgraceful that his own creators indulge in such unworthy considerations - it is almost like hearing Saint-Peter deny his master. To me Basil is a genius, and like all true geniuses endowed with an extraordinary capacity for exaggeration. This capacity is not the simple result of meanness coupled with ignorance, but the natural corollary of an exceptional imagination. The problem - and this is the tragedy of Fawlty Towers - is that Basil is stuck in a domestic situation far below his station. To have him running around as a servant in a small hotel on the notoriously rain-ridden English Riviera is like dumping Leonardo da Vinci in a noisy Kindergarten - with no hope of ever getting out of there. No doubt, he too would have begun to see terrifying giants and bewitched knights where others only see - children.
Q: How did you develop the condensed biographies of Fawlty Towers' inhabitants?
A: I invented them. By extrapolating from what is known and can be known about the regulars of the hotel, I created their biographies in the image of what could have been. It is a little bit like Leibnitz' conception of God. He didn't create the best of worlds, but only the best of possible worlds.
Q: What inspired you to research and investigate the occult of Fawlty Towers?
A: This is the metaphysical dimension of their work. Already as members of the Monty Python, John Cleese and Connie Booth took a special interest in the arcane aspect of history. One only needs to recall that one of the films they participated in bears the title Monty Python and the holy Grail, the Grail being a perfectly illusive object, perhaps just an "objectified" spiritual essence.
In the film Life of Brian, after which the members of the group took farewell of one another and henceforth went separate ways, the Gnostic themes are so prevalent that any spectator with some knowledge of the alternative doctrines and interpretations of God's kingdom that were propagated in the early Christian era, simply can not disregard the fact that the script writers, including Gnostic director Terry Gilliam, constantly make references to secret doctrines and hidden messages. As an example we have the ascension of Terry Jones as the mother of Brian emerging out of an unfolding lotus-flower in the animated opening scene. Another typical thing about Gnostics is that they habitually make fun of dogma and, quite especially, all monotonotheism.
The occult reality is always there for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. The only thing I have done is to point out where the heavenly and mundane worlds interact in Fawlty Towers. The old Jewish arcane science par excellence is numerology, translating numerical combinations into spiritual messages. In medieval Europe alchemy and astrology were prominent sciences engaging even perfectly incorruptible scientists such as Copernicus and Newton.
It is my belief that the alchemical quest for the Philosopher's Stone, implied in the series, has met with success in my work, since I have unearthed for the reader the Holy Grail, that is, the illusive 13th episode, symbol of Master J.C. himself. Seek, and thou shalt find!
Q: How long did it take you to research and write Fawlty Towers - The Worshipper's Companion?
A: As soon as the decision had been made to give Basil satisfaction in this sublunary world, I applied myself to the task with the same dedication as chroniclers of historically important people do when confronted with an unusually talented individual. Only in this case I had the additional advantage of operating in a hermetically sealed universe - or so I believed.
With twelve unalterable episodes, each one a disciple of the Master, and a few apocryphal commentaries collected from the net and various publications, I realised that all I needed to do was to study every scene of the shows with the same attention as a chess master scrutinises every new position on the chess-board. I then applied my analyses and commentaries to every new significant position, and it turned out that practically every move in these games are worth commenting upon. Besides, I only consider my modest contribution to the Towers as a pioneering work to be continued, expanded and completed by other researchers in the field.
As for the practical side of this task, I took my time (at least a year or so) to collect the material and make notes of everything I could come to think of in relation to the theme. Most of the actual writing of the book was then made during the summer of 2003, when I isolated myself in a little cottage in Provence, sat down in the shade of oaks and instead of observing nature in her loveliness and beauty, observed the rules of an hermetic game taking place inside a box with a screen. It should be added that I did not at that time have access to the actual episodes, let alone to a TV. Most of the material was written from memory and only later checked against the script and the shows themselves. The script of the book was edited for publication in the fall of that same year and released in March 2004.
Q: Is the 13th episode, "The Robbers", for real? If so, why do you think it was never broadcast, even in later years as a TV special?
A: I have absolutely no idea why the 13th episode, called The Robbers, has never been aired. I only know that I saw it once in Bill Morton's flat not far from Piccadilly Circus on a particularly wet evening. Hadn't it been for this, I might myself have doubted the otherwise striking authenticity of the script, reproduced in the book.
As things stand, I can only assure the reader that the show, as far as I remember, was amazing. Rarely have I seen John Cleese and his crew reach such continuous heights of sublime entertainment, and the only reason I can see for not wanting this episode to reach the fans, is that it would perhaps create the false impression that there was so much more to wring out of the material, whereas, in fact, the 13th episode represents the ultimate solution to the problem of how to carry this tormented universe to a happy end.
As concerns the reason for never admitting its existence, let alone airing it, I must refer the reader to the BBC. They should know why. And poor Bill. The last time I tried to call him he had a parrot recorded on his answering machine, exclaiming: P-off!
Q: Given all of the time and research you have dedicated to Fawlty Towers, and writing Fawlty Towers - The Worshipper's Companion, what one element do you think was key to its enduring appeal and popularity throughout the past 30 years?
A: Sadly, I think it is the line "Don't mention the war!" in connection with Cleese's Hitler-impression. Actually, this clown routine is a straight loan from the Monty Python sketch "The Department of Silly-Walk". I would have omitted it as irrelevant in the context, but it is absolutely true that Cleese here scored sky-high in general popularity and probably will go down in history with it. Well, we all have our cross to bear.
Q: How would Nietzsche describe/summarize Fawlty Towers?
A: Man is something that rather not be. His sole justification lies in surpassing himself, in sacrificing himself for a greater being, for Super Man as my formula has it. Basil Fawlty, by virtue of being an English Pig-Dog, a miserable utilitarian, in short, a mediocre philosopher, is also, alas, the protagonist of a lamentable travesty of tragedy.
To this unprecedented low level of decadence has our civilisation reached, that contemporary drama does not even present us with real persons any longer, but with buffoons and riff-raff pulled out from the
nearest Spanish taverna.
– But Mr. Nietzsche, maybe you are mistaking the half-wit Spanish waiter Manuel for Basil Fawlty?
– What? I need my glasses to hear what you are saying. That, that is Basel, nicht wahr?
– No, no, that is Manuel, he is supposed to be funny.
– Aha, and who is zis crazy woman then, his sister?
– No, that's Sybil, Basil's wife.
– Well, she does look a bit like a sister, mine at least ... ha, ha, ha! Look, the little guy just fell down the stairs and then he placed a cake in the face of another little ridiculous man. That was really funny. I think I begin to like zis, what did you call it, Fawltry Cowers. But what is zis? "Don't mention the war?" Why? I greet every sign that a new heroic age of war is approaching. That's wrong. It should be, "Stop talking about war - just do it!". By the way, I believe I just gave mankind another immortal slogan to live by. I shall no longer listen to zis crap of Faulty Powers.
