Nicola Barker: Clear: A Transparent Novel

Bottom line: Schaefer’s just owning that shit. (Man, you’ve got to own your shit. Fact .)

So maybe I think about Shane a little too much, sometimes. And maybe I’m prone to overanalysing everything, but then ‘life is in the details’, as they say (‘they’ in this particular instance being the Special Features Writer in a copy of Elle Decoration , which I paged idly through at the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Clinic in Bow last Tuesday, who was holding forth — and so passionately- about leather-look wallpaper. It’s the coming thing).

It was his first book, actually. Shane . It was Schaefer’s first. I read his other big one — can’t remember the title ( fuck it. That’s so… uh …).

Company of Cowards!

Ting- ting!

Yeah. It just wasn’t so good.

But then lightning rarely strikes, etc.

Hmmn .

Are you …? Am I …?

Let’s press rwnd for a moment, shall we?

Slow it right down…

Then just… uh …

… HOLD !

Good.

Freeze it for a second…

Yes …

Uh …

Oh. No .

Okay…

Just a couple of frames more…

Just a couple…

STOP !!!

That’s it !

That’s me . I’m just…

I’m very small right now. Okay? Bottom left-hand side of the picture…

If you could maybe…?

Bingo!

So we’re jumping around a little — the focus is all shot — the sound’s terrible. But I think if you look closely you can just about see me, hanging around, unobtrusively, almost lost in the background…

I’m sitting, slightly hunched over (my habitual posture — I have a clinical condition known as ‘Masturbator’s Back’), my free hand jammed deep inside my trouser pocket and my headset blasting (ODB, eff -ing and blinding for all he’s worth — which is quite a lot), and I’m thinking about Shane while I munch on my sandwich (it’s lunchtime). I happen to be straddling this gonad-freezing marble wall by the mother of all rivers (No. Not the Nile. You want Agatha Christie? Then look under C).

The River Thames:

Tah-dah!

In all her sweet autumnal glory. Tower Bridge is quite literally towering behind me — her huge, turquoise ramparts (okay, so I’m no whizz on architecture) flying out from between my two puny shoulder blades like a couple of crazy bat -wings (this image so very nearly works that I’m tempted to leave it in. Yes, it is a tad far-fetched — especially when you consider the angles and everything — but I think Jack would’ve approved. I think Jack would say, ‘You’re doin’ real good work here, kid; but just remember the story. Keep your mind focused on the narrative , because that’s what truly counts in this business. That’s what really matters here.’

Is this guy some kind of saint , or what?).

We’re in only the second week of Master Illusionist David Blaine’s spectacular Public Starvation Pageant, Above the Below (so how the fuck does he go about translating that into plain English, without sounding a complete twat?).

It’s day 8 or day 9–I forget which (can’t quite read it on that handy 44-day digital clock of his from where I’m currently sitting) — but it already feels like it’s been going on for ever (we’ve had the golf balls, the eggs, the girls baring their breasts, we’ve had the paint gun, the fences raised, the security doubled and Shiraz Azam with his all-nite bhangra drum…).

Don’t think (for a moment) that it’s just some lucky accident that I’m perched here (right in the hub , you might say), because I work (as a clerical assistant, much against my will, my instinct, my inclinations) in the only building directly adjacent to this psychotic happening (you might’ve seen us — in all the design magazines — early last year): a huge, grey-green-glass Alessi milk-jug of a structure (a tipsy fat penguin): the Greater London Authority Building (we were the centre of the world till they went and built that stupid gherkin near Aldgate. Now we’re just last night’s chip paper. Modernity’s like a badly trained dog: try and make it heel, even for a moment, and it turns and bites the hand that fed it. Snap ).

I’m sitting a little way along from all of the kerfuffle. The press are still very much in attendance, having their field day, ‘making’ all their pictures, ‘writing’ all their commentaries ( uh , is it just me, or don’t they actually realise that this slightly chubby, very famous 30-year-old illusionist isn’t really going anywhere? Don’t panic, lads, you have about 36 more days to sort out your copy. Sit back, relax . Just do as the magician does).

It’s a tragic fact, but Blaine is definitely bringing out the worst in we Brits. I don’t know if this is what he wants (if it’s all part of the buzz for this American Christo-like) or if it’s what he expected, but he’s headlining it in most of the tabloids today. They’re calling him a fake, a cheat, a freak, a liar. They’re up in bloody arms , basically. And it’s a moral issue, apparently. Because it’s in Very Bad Taste to starve yourself if you have the option not to- yeah , so why not go and tell all those fucked-up, deviant Anorexics that? — especially (especially) if you’re calling it Art (and pocketing a- purely coincidental- 5 mill. pay-out).

Cynical? Moi ?

Look , I’m just sitting on this damn wall and watching all the colour unfold around me. I don’t quite know if I’m loving it or loathing it (you’ll find me on the fence. I’m the kind of guy who used to actively enjoy leaning on his bike’s crossbar as a kid). But who ( who ?) can deny that it’s a big story? It’s a big setting —I mean Mary Mother of Jesus , how the hell did the council give permission for all this crap? Right here, on their doorstep? In the middle of everything?

It’s just a wild guess, but I’m definitely getting the impression that some poor bastard has currently got his nuts in a vice over this whole farrago.

‘ Uh …’ he’s stuttering, ‘I thought it might attract the tourists , Mr Mayor. I thought it might be a nice…an impressive culmination to some of the other cultural events we’ve been staging in the park throughout the summer. I mean the kids loved the visit from the local city-farm, didn’t they? All the goats and hens and everything? And then there was that cookery demonstration in the striped marquee. That went swimmingly…’

The cleaners (let’s get down to brass tacks) are absolutely fucking livid (I’m not certain if they have the mayoral ear, but if they do, then that fall guy’s nuts are definitely for the high jump).

I’m actually on nodding terms with Georgi (Gee-orgi. Twenty-two. Toothless. Romanian. Angriest man in the world right now).

Georgi already deals with a lot of shit (he sells me dope, the occasional E), because the life of a cleaner on this part of the river is not an easy one. The whole area’s paved — and enclosed — for one thing. And it’s a huge tourist draw, a landmark (the whole world feels like it already owns this view, and in some ways — if affection begets possession — it does).

It needs to look good — at all times — and because of the tons of dodgy marble and smooth cement and dramatic architecture, any stray detritus just — kind of— sits there. It stands out. It looks bad . It needs to be dealt with, and quickly (So fuckin’ jump to it, lad), else all we proud Londoners (okay I’ve lived here 10 years, so I think I qualify) start to look shoddy.