by
Paul Edward Lawrence
'So what is this ?' - Historical fiction, science fiction, a fantasy, erotic fiction, an adult fairy tale.. or something truly unique ?
The questions are then followed by an unequivocal statement - 'this is 'The Story of Jim' - 'Club Jaguar' - no more - and no less...'
In this 'critique' it is intended to link the themes and events of 'The Story of Gracchus' with those of 'The Story of Jim' in the hope of exploring the developing patterns and themes of the narrative - and don't expect lots of pretty pictures. This section is intended for those who like to read.
It all began a very long time ago.
Inspired by rather second rate novels and movies, the author began writing a story set during the early Roman 'Principate' - but like many first attempts at novel writing, it was soon abandoned, and the manuscript (this was long before word-processing) was lost.
Much later, however, the author once again took up the idea...
This time, the story begins with a young Roman boy, Marcus, standing on the deck of a ship, looking out to sea.
The boy - really a young man, in his late 'teens' - has been brought up in Athens
When his father is recalled to Rome, at the end of the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero, the boy and his father and mother travel from Piraeus, the port of Athens, to Brundisium, in South East of Italy, by boat.
Now, in a sense, the story begins to write itself.
The opening is prosaic - where can it go ?
Well if young Marcus is to do anything interesting, he needs to escape from the constant supervision of his parents and family - and in Roman times this is a real problem.
For the children of the wealthy - the 'patricians' - the father 'ruled' his offspring's' lives, and they only really became free on the death of the father - the 'pater familias'.
So the first significant incident, in a way, writes itself into the story.
The family never reach their destination, as the boat on which they are sailing is attacked by pirates.
Now this may sound like something from really bad Hollywood movie, but in fact, at the time that this story is set, piracy was a serious problem in the Mediterranean, and it took many years, and a huge expenditure before the emerging Roman empire was able to control the situation.
During the pirate attack, Marcus' mother and father are killed, carelessly and thoughtlessly, by the pirates, but Marcus, mistakenly thought to be a Greek 'cabin-boy', is taken to Cydonia, on the island of Crete, where he is sold as a slave to a Greek slave-dealer called Arion.
So why is Marcus spared, while his parents are disposed of ?
Well, the father is a low ranking official - middle aged, and well educated, he could make a useful slave, except the he could be easily traced by the Roman authorities, and technically, being a Roman Citizen, it would be illegal to sell the boy's father or mother as salves.
Easier to dispose of both him and his middle aged wife.
She has no particular skills, and up to that point has led an indolent life, served by slaves of her own.
The boy, however, is quite well educated, and stunningly handsome, and obviously could be sold for a very good price, not simply as a 'sex-slave', but rather as an attractive companion to a wealthy patrician man - or even a widowed woman.
So Arion takes a risk, and suspecting that the Greek speaking Marcos is not a Roman citizen, sells Marcus to a 'mystery buyer' at a fabulously high price.`
Then, after a high speed journey through the night, Marcus and the freedman, Terentius, - the 'mystery buyer' - arrive at a magnificent Villa in Baiae, near Neápolis, and t is there that Marcus' adventures begin ...
Now along with the possibilities of 'adventure' - various other 'themes' present themselves.
Most obviously the theme of the 'vagaries of fate'...
What began as a fine, bright morning, and the start for Marcus of a new life in the legendary city of Rome - ended in tragedy, a cold night spent naked in a cage, and along journey to an unknown destination, and an unknown fate - fate and yet more fate...
But it is not simply the unexpected manner in which events occur that it is pursued at this point.
A new theme, later repeated, now presents itself.
Marcus, in some sense is 'abandoned' - set adrift in an uncertain world and orphaned.
And now, consider the myths and legends of the world - the tales of great leaders and those who were responsible for important religious traditions - and even the heroes and heroines of so many stories and novels, and reflect on how many were orphaned, or of uncertain parentage and origins.
To be 'adrift' in the world, in so many cases, appears to be a requisite for 'greatness'- or simply what is required for a 'good adventure'.
In the society of slaves that Marcus then finds himself, the orphaned or abandoned individual is the norm rather than the exception.
The very event act of enslavement inevitably leads to a break with the subject's previous life, cutting them off from their previous family and friends.
But this theme also extends itself to the narrative of 'Club Jaguar' where, although none of the characters indigenous to the 'alternative reality' to which Marcus and the 'boys' have been 'transported' are 'enslaved', most find themselves cut off from their previous family and friends as a result of the problematic nature of the advanced industrial society in which they have been born.
But to return to 'The Story of Gracchus'...
The situation at the home of the patrician who has bought Marcus is unusual.
The patrician, known as Gracchus, appears to have no family, and all those who live and work in the huge villa are male.
Marcus presumes that his master is a misogynist, but that is not strictly the case.
Gracchus had been married - it was almost unknown for Roman patrician men not to marry - even if privately they were sexually attracted to young men and boys.
Gracchus has also had a son many years before - in a time when Gracchus owned slave girls - and the boy was the result of and illicit affair.
Unable to rid himself of the boy, Gracchus hid the boy away in his magnificent palazzo in Rome. - a guilty secret only known to his senior 'freedman', Terentius, and his best friend from boyhood, Novius.