and perspectives.
The voice came added to images of groups of people standing in formation, with civilian clothing standing sober and upright, usually in dark hues. A smart uniformization defines these subjects, in schools, laboratories, libraries and digital document archives. The video recording carried on:
—The Complete ones had been raised by the best to not give a chance to the worst. The legion was a single body, a collective-mind body, a way to respond to the forgotten Renaissance, and also a real tribute to the thinkers of the Lights.
Many groups of apprentices were ready with determination for the both physical and mental school exams, holding books on the hands while following their masters excitedly.
— When the Schools began reality was of another kind. The world had ceased to be a stage for action to become instead a stage for manipulated interests, a mise-en-scéne. It has been a while since science quit in explaining everything to everybody. The discourse of reality, the knowledge about the world, became complex in such a way that an aversion to science arose.
One could tell that the visual indications of the epoch belonged to the sixties (haircuts, dress codes, advertising and cars) where groups of young college men were typing political statutes and outlining intervention maps of underground operations in Paris, London, Stockholm and New York — and the voice continued:
— The Complete ones, before the other men, they argue with a classy posture, perfectly relaxed, yet still serious, all the problems the talkers share with them. Their words seem to cast utopias, democratic well-being and healthy group diplomacy. What they do is, basically, to export to third parties the logic that united them in loco. They apply a simple methodology: most of the times they argue the issues without mentioning per sefacts and names. Moreover, they do not disclose the conclusions they managed to achieve. The process in itself represents precisely the cure. They seem to wander, yet in reality they are saving lives, and far from playing with words, their focus was about real problems, politics, society and aesthetics; that is what they spoke about.
Rafael kept observing the characters in the photos. As if in a strategic formation, the Complete Men gathered in the street, forming groups of two plus two. They were wearing Person sunglasses with silver side bands and Airwalk shiny lace less shoes, the Velcro models were their favorite ones. With their hands tucked in their pockets, the Complete ones commented several issues among themselves, as if they were not hiding anything from anyone. Around them, the passers-by crossed the street concerned with their own daily routines, and they could not figure what these characters were up to. And the voice kept on:
— Because everything was done in The Schools, which were no more than collective gatherings of apprentices and masters, the common incomplete ones thought these were festivities, rallies, excursion, associative meetings, street markets or free performative arts. But the truth is that the Complete ones are skillful, and since they have adapted themselves to the milieuwhere they are, they just could not be detected by the surrounding audience. Those who know them know they called the others as ‘Incomplete ones’. — the movie ended all of a sudden. Rafael got more bored, and despite the things he watched in the recording, they led him to think over the configuration that allows the subculture constitution: Complete Men, operations, statutes, tactical goals, Schools full of apprentices and masters, and so on. Well, Rafael managed to stay up-to-date about the outlines of this strictly urban phenomenon, which, judging by the narrator in film, it has branches expanding all over England, France, Sweden and the US.
Rafael finished watching the movie late at night, and then he decided to call Roberta:
— Hello Rafael! So, do you have any news concerning our boys? — she gently asked.
— Yes, I have. But have not you watched the videotape?
— I’ve watched it, but it seemed a bit redundant to me… Not to mention that the tape was in a seriously bad condition. It did not add much to me… There was nothing more about it than it was already on the notes.
— Please notice Roberta, I also have watched the tape but with the sound up and from a certain point in time there is a narrator’s voice that speaks about the events. There is the part of The School, though there is a whole moment in which the voice guides us. To be honest with you it seems the most important of it all. — Rafael concluded, convinced he might have found a loose end.
— But I watched the tape with no sound on! Then that keeps me more curious. You must take a look at the notes too, ok?
— Yes, of course, but it seems that I start to better understand the contours of this Complete Men subculture.
— Great, I am happy about it. You already know if the thing pays off… count on me and we split the credits. All I need is to speak with some friends of mine who work in TV networks.
— Ok! — Rafael started to laugh.
— But look, do you know someone that is an expert in analyzing photography?
— Yes, why?
— Because the black and white pictures have a lot to tell.
— Ok! Please speak with Paulo Renato here at the newspaper office. Tell him I’m your friend. Stay sharp, kisses.
— Kiss. Look… I am very thankful — Rafael ended up widening his smile, he was as happy as ever.
October 19, 2000
BAM! Rafael woke up with the alarm clock in high volume playing a track from Alice In Chains, besides it was almost lunch time, so angrily he hit the small machine. Today is the day to meet and speak with Paulo Renato about the pictures Roberta has sent to him. There were hundreds of people passing by on the streets in plain Fall. Rafael left home in a hurry, without having lunch, and then he faced a gray day, with clouds and heavy moist air. One could almost frame an image of this day and place it in a museum for depressive romanticism. As usual, Rafael was feeling pissed off by having to penetrate the dense crowd in order to catch the public transportation. He hates masses of people. Moreover, his media player with headphones could not be turned on because he had forgotten to charge it. It was in one of these moments of euphoria, stress and lack of patience that he noticed a street billboard while he was on the bus, where it was written:
“We are the ones who wrote the book you are reading.
CM School”
"What the hell…?!”— he said to himself blasphemously while feeling awkward. “That is the kind of language that the Complete Men use and there is a matching signature on it. ‘CM School’ may only mean ‘Complete Men School’ or something like that. Holly Molly…!” Rafael was surprised with the coincidence and now he just began to doubt everything.
The bus crowded with people stopped. It opened its exit doors dumping its passengers and their umbrellas in the bus stop on a corner next to a blue-mirrored glass skyscraper that looked like if it was hugged by silver clouds. Rafael stepped in and then asked on the reception what the floor of the newspaper office was. Already in the elevator, Rafael was observing the pictures. He felt as if these pictures were trying to pull him into them, the respective black and white world of the stealth portrait. Rafael just could not look away from the characters in the photos. He felt closer and closer to them, and Harold Buds’s ambient music became louder intensifying his photo-real vertigo. He thought to himself “Who were these guys?” Rafael felt an inner tension every time he noticed the poses from the dark, sober, blurry characters, who most likely were the very Complete Men. The ambience, the figures and the complicity attitude from the photographer was something pretty mysterious. As a journalist,
