Duration 3.07

Ashile Fallko, like Marat, died in his bath. Novelist, historian and ornithological journalist, Fallko got into this bath about 11 pm, on the June 13th, on the night of the Violent Unknown Event, and was still in it on the 17th, four days and nights later, a total of some 93 hours. Severely paralysed, speechless and incontinent, he was discovered by accident by a looter. Admitted to hospital suffering from exposure, congested lungs, shock and a rapidly developing skin eczema, Ashile Fallko was slow to recover as he was slow to dry out.
The Directory declared him to be a middle-aged female man speaking Ringer.

Against medical advice, Ashile insisted on returning to his flat. He began to document his case and then the case histories of other VUE patients, to lobby for recognition of their condition and to persuade international cooperation to put aside appropriate funds for the rehabilitation of VUE victims.

Since his skin eczema was eased by submersion in warm salt water, he dictated most of his letters, articles, essays and stories from his bath. For convenience every room in the flat, including this bathroom was equipped with a microphone connected to a central tape recorder in the hall. It is said of Fallko that if the Violent Unknown Event had not happened, then Fallko would have invented it.

A furious scourge and a shrill critic of institutions, Ashile hounded the VUE Commission and in total succeeded in getting five directors removed or dismissed, and it is reported he developed a strong case against Van Hoyten and FOX, and was waiting for an opportunity to use it. Over a period of six years, he employed over thirty secretaries, most of whom left, variously complaining of the workload, the crowds in his bathroom, the smell or Fallko's emotional and physical demands. 

Fallko was periodically readmitted to hospital suffering from exhaustion, depression or scalding. Persuaded into the role of a contemporary Marat, Fallko only needed a zealous executioner and a celebrated painter to complete the necessary cycle. The execution he had to commit himself. It was said that FOX had finally trapped him in a technical hypocrisy. The suicide weapon appears to have been a two-bar electric fire and the images for posterity were taken by a police photographer. The bathroom being wired for dictation, the equipment recorded a last message.

:(scream)

A message as poignant as anything written with a pen which was also a feather.

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