This Is Paradise (part three)

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Photo of Tosh Berman by Mike Slack. Copyright by the photographer 2021

What kind of old creep can make a beautiful young girl take off her clothes to be photographed by him for his pleasure? As my manager, she refused to loan me her copy of his memoir, and I had to buy it at the store with a 30% discount. It bothered me that he will get a financial cut from me purchasing his book. Still, I have to admit that I'm curious to know how a human being as vile as he becomes the monster he is now. I promised her that I would read the book, and I'm the dutiful employee who will do the assignment. The book is in short chapters, and I can read a lot of it during my two fifteen-minute breaks as well as the 30-minute lunch break. I will admit that the book moves nicely from his childhood years in Los Angeles and the North Bay area but was struck by the surroundings of his life in Topanga Canyon, which is an area between Malibu and Woodland Hills, in the San Fernando Valley. I've been there numerous times as a teenager, and at the time, it struck me as a paradise for Stoners. I have to imagine that the author was a Stoner as well. But as I read on, I became alarmed that he did things way more than a druggie. Should I go on?

While living with his parents, it seems that he made his separate living quarters into a sex den, where he followed every depraved desire that he could think up. It appeared he had the habit of inviting six or seven of his fellow female students to come over and stay there for numerous days. According to him, the Police arrived and arrested him for grooming young ladies, although he was the only male on the premises, and there were no signs of drugs or even alcohol. The Police found numerous girls naked and seemed to be exhausted and physically and spiritually fulfilled. Since the author was the same age as the females, there were no charges, but he was upset (at least in the book) that the Police took away his photographs of naked girls he took while educating them in a manner of an Errol Flynn or Marquis de Sade. 

In many ways, the author of this memoir is very sophisticated and knew a lot about art (underground "dirty") films and extraordinary loud satan-like music. Girls were attracted to him on a surface basis because he is not bad-looking and seems to have the energy to satisfy whatever deprived needs they have. The book ends when he turns 21, and it is alarming to me, now that he's in his sixties, he is still a depraved human. I feel bad about my manager hooking up with him. She's a very hard worker who spends a lot of time making sure employees like me do their best in the book shop. She made Paradise Bookshop what it is, the book lover's dream of selecting books, and well-trained clerks. 

I imagine she and the author started to talk about books in the bookstore in a flirtatious manner. More likely, he recommended that she reads Anaïs Nin's erotic novels, or maybe even The Story of O. Perhaps even hinting that he knows about forbidden pleasures. One thing leads to another, and then you know it comes the time when she shows me erotic pictures of her in the nude taken by this author. Need I go on?

End of part three, part four... to be continued.