The Man, the Past & the Future!

The Man

This myth has been interpreted differently by successive generations. At first Erik was depicted as a ghoulish madman, but then the world came to see him as a romantic anti-hero, fated to be alone because of his scarred face and soul. But I wondered, what is the truth about him?

The first mention of Erik was by Gaston Leroux in his classic fictional novel, The Phantom of the Opera, published in 1910. The opening passages of the book tell of a skeleton being uncovered beneath the Garner Opera House in Paris. Leroux wrote that the discovery is said to have occurred in 1907 when gramophone disks (early recordings) of famous opera stars were being buried there in a time capsule. Leroux had heard about a skeleton being found in the dark basements of the opera house as well as rumors that a ghost haunted the famous building. In his novel he wrote that newspaper reports claimed the bones were from a victim of the Communards who had executed people in that basement during their takeover of Paris in 1871. But the narrator of Leroux’s novel claimed that the bones were the remains of the infamous Phantom.

Leroux uses some historical facts to ground his story. It is a fact that in 1907 gramophone disks of opera singers were buried for posterity in the subcellars of the Garnier. In fact, that very real time capsule was unearthed a hundred years later! There is an article about it in the Smithsonian Magazine (click the button below and read the full article), published in March 2008. The article has a photo of the men who buried the large metal urns containing the recordings. Leroux was one of France’s preeminent journalists and would have known about the burying of the time capsule. That, along with the rumors of the ghost, clearly triggered his imagination.

In Leroux’s novel, the skeleton has an unusual feature—it is wearing a gold ring. The book’s narrator believed that the ring proved the remains to be the Phantom of the Opera rather than a victim of the Communards. But as a student of history, that passage triggered my imagination, and I wondered why couldn’t the skeleton be both Erik’s remains and proof he met his death at the hands of the Communards? Leroux does not place dates on the events in his book, but it seemed to me that history could establish when Erik lived and died. The Communards actually occupied the Garnier from April to May of 1871 during their rebellion. So that pinpointed a date for Erik’s death in my novel, Phantom Future—at least until fate and the Wheaton’s time travel technology intervenes.

The placing of the time capsule in 1907 sparked Leroux’s inspiration for his novel which was published in 1910. In Leroux’s book, the story is told through the eyes of the narrator as he interviews people and gathers documents and bits of rumor to piece together the story of the Phantom which occurred decades before.

But Leroux’s book covers just the final months of Erik’s life, and only four pages of the epilogue give a glimpse into the rest of his life. So the book does not explain how Erik developed his masterful abilities. The epilogue merely states: “There is an entire period in Erik’s life that is fairly obscure.” Then Leroux depicts briefly Erik’s stay in Persia, flagging a mysterious period in his life.

When I read Leroux’s novel, so many unanswered questions came to my mind. When was Erik born? He was a master of the violin and organ; a composer; a singer with a hypnotic voice; a magician; and an architect. Those skills require years of study and other masters to teach him. To me, this issue was perplexing. I wondered who were these mentors? How did Erik meet them? Just how did he learn and develop his many extraordinary abilities? What was Erik doing during all those missing years in his life? In the Phantom Future series, I delve into these questions and explain not only about his determination and struggles to develop his unique talents, but also the famous, fascinating people who would cross his path and help him!

So who is the real Phantom? On the last page of the book, Leroux wrote this about Erik:
“He wanted only to be someone, like everyone else.… And he was required to hide his genius or else play tricks with it. Had he had ordinary features, he would have been one of the noblest members of the human race! He had a heart capacious enough to contain the whole world…”

Leroux describes Erik as “one of the noblest members of the human race!” Declares that he had a “capacious” heart. Capacious means generous and enormous. These qualities seem at odds with the physical qualities and actions that are most often associated with Erik, the Phantom. This, too, made me wonder–what kind of man would Erik have been to also have those qualities? Because of his rejection by society and isolation, it seemed to me that his behaviors—especially his reaction when his mask was removed and his scarred face revealed—were more the result of post-traumatic stress rather than those of a madman.

So many questions came to my mind. In The Phantom Future series I fill in Erik’s untold life before those final few months that Leroux wrote about. As a retired lawyer, I value first-person, written evidence. So I felt that the best way to record the truth about Erik’s life would be in a diary written by someone at the opera house who knew Erik. In Leroux’s novel, Adéle Giry is the box tender at the Garner who helped Erik collect his “wages” from the theater managers. It seemed to me that she was the perfect person to befriend Erik and write a diary that would include important happenings in his life as well as their friendship. In my books her poignant diary entries truly give insights into Erik’s “capacious” nature.

As an author, I like to get into each character’s own thoughts, feelings and soul, so I write in the unique style of first-person, present-tense. Each chapter is in the immediate perceptions and experience of that person. Leroux tells his story through the eyes of the narrator who never meets Erik. But in the Phantom Future series you experience the first-person viewpoints of over twenty people and perceive Erik through the eyes of many. And in Erik’s chapters, his own deeply personal thoughts and remembrances are revealed. As the story unfolds, the many viewpoints disclose the challenges of our future world and the efforts to cooperatively work together and overcome the life-ending fate that hangs over humankind.

Erik is indeed a fascinating character and the central connecting thread in the Phantom Future series. As a writer, I wondered if Erik were to emerge from legend as a real man, who would he be? How would the turbulent times he lived in affect his life? Would he ever find love? And finally, Adéle Giry in her final diary entry asks the question that I most wanted to explore, “I wonder, had they not rejected him, what his life would have meant to the world.”

The Past

In the Phantom Future series the worlds of the past and future collide—with Erik as the fateful connection. The past is the world of France during Erik’s life. Even if he were in his early 30s when he died in 1871, he would have experienced tumultuous times. He would have lived during the final days of the last French king and the short-lived Second French Republic which replaced him. But Erik also would have been old enough to witness the unexpected return of Napoleon’s nephew who overthrew that Republic and made himself emperor of the Second French Empire. During the last year of his life, Erik would have experienced the privations of the siege of Paris by the Prussians during the cold winter of 1870-71 and the violence of the Commune uprising the following spring.

All of these historical facts are not just events that are over and done and to be forgotten. These happenings represent the hardships of people who for centuries have struggled to overthrow authoritarian leaders that brought injustice, poverty and war. Events that mirror our own present and future. The past becomes the historical framework that connects my fictional Erik with the real challenges not only in our future, but that we witness unfolding each day in our current world.

The Future

In the future world quantum computers will be fully developed. Someone like Howard Wheaton will create them and become the new computer guru with fabulous wealth and extraordinary power. But the seeds of that other power—ownership of the internet and information—is already happening, as well as its consolidation in the hands of a mega-corporation. That wealth will also be overwhelming, and the control over what people hear and believe will be turned inevitably into propaganda. In the future these vying powers will each want to control time travel for their own ends. In the Phantom Future series, Erik becomes a pawn in their power play.

But the future also holds the fate of mankind because of natural events. We are already seeing wild fluctuations in our weather. Some say that is man-made. Others say it is a natural climate cycle of the earth. Whichever theory is correct, it is evident that extremes of weather are happening. That is a fact. Floods at levels that should happen only every 500 years are occurring each year now. Extreme heat and draught are already destroying crops. And ice storms in Texas leave people without power and freezing to death. All these impact our food and land and lives. Will humans meet these challenges with action or do nothing until it is too late? A Carrington event, a purely natural phenomenon, occurred in 1859 and will happen again. Will humans be ready for it? What is our fate if we are not? The crossroads of the past and future intersect with Erik and what could become our own phantom future.

Join me here the third Friday of each month for a new, fascinating look into the worlds of the past and our future. And of course, Erik!

Smithsonian Magazine article. A Record Find, about the 1907 time capsule buried beneath the Garnier Opera House!