Hey Bryan- Found a book the other day titled In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz- published in 2000, author of Michela Wong, it seems to be about Zaire, and the abuses of Mobutu, and on the cover was a foreign dollar, with 1994 clearly visible on it. Probably means nothing, but it was odd to see such a blatant synchronsity with the Mystery in the bookstore. OH! and the first chapters title is from everybodys favorite song, Hotel California. the bit about you can never leave. J[redacted]
hance:Here's an Amazon link.
Hey, just discovered your site today due to the wiki. I noticed the "Kurtz" clue, which means something to me...I did not see any comments about it on your site so apologies if you are already aware. "footsteps of Kurtz" could only mean one thing, to me anyway, that's a reference to "Heart of Darkness", by Joseph Conrad. This is the text that the film "Apocalypse Now" was based on. You might know that already, BUT in the scene where Kurtz (Marlon Brando) meets his assassin (Martin Sheen) there's a stack of books on a table sitting next to Kurtz..the bible is one of the books, another is "The Golden Bough, A study in Magic and Religion" by Frazer. It's a hard to find book (I happen to have the 1922 edition). It's a rather esoteric book; here's a link to the online full-text version: http://www.bartleby.com/196/ I consider Golden Bough showing up in Apocalypse Now to not be an accident. It's a circular reference back to Heart of Darkness. The two books are related. Read the chapter "The Killing of the Devine King", (chapter 24, Golden Bough) and compare that to the Apocalypse Now screenplay, and to Heart of Darkness. Have not read your entire site yet, but both Heart of Darkness as well as Golden Bough are where I'd investigate the "Kurtz" reference.