John Cairns

Born a bastard at Shoreham in 1938, I was fostered out in London and then to an aunt in Scotland before my mum married after the war to give me a father.

I had the highest IQ ever in Buckhaven and Methil and was junior school dux. Mum pawned the silver medal. I was top of the first year at Buckhaven High and thereafter relaxed into doing only what was necessary. I was, however, history dux before going onto Edinburgh where I decided against working for a first, being more interested in loving a man I left on his having an erection. He was my first case as an adult.

I wrote him and others out in a novel I posted off to Iris Murdoch whose thirteen page criticism is in the John Cairns Archive. The book gave me entry to the Glasgow literary scene and Betty Clark. The book made from my archived correspondence with her is coming out shortly from KiPublishing. Its title is CORRESPONDENCE. Although I’m the author and it’s designed by my unconscious, it also stands as the magnum opus of my friend Betty.

My unconscious came out on a holiday in Argyll and I became more interested in realising spiritual reality than that of material life as a teacher so did some supply in London while my style changed to one could convey the unconscious to consciousness. Sketch of a Just Man, a short story from that prolific period, was published in a magazine, Words 5, which accepted it as from somebody other.

To plumb the unconscious I used love unexpended on others to my artistic end and finally wrote ‘the book’, a replication of my life when as a child I was collaborating with my unconscious I called my man in living out scenes of dialogue kept intact in unconscious memory. My aunt realised she also was taking part in the book which was designed to keep her from death by giving her a reason for living. She was my first case. KiPublishing have a copy of ‘the book’.

‘Instance....’ (its short title, the full one being embedded in the text) is my most interesting take on unconscious communication since it swings between that to talk and back again continually. It’s also my one proactive story, to which any reader can provide a conclusion by using it to prove telepathy the only way it can be proved scientifically or, on trying, failing to.

[This bio is taken from Chomu's 'Dadaoism (An Anthology)' faute de mieux]