Endnote No. 1

There is considerable interest in the fugue-state writings of a young convalescent-cum-outsider-artiste named Junie Temple.1 

¹ Debate and uncertainty persist regarding the psalmist’s lineage and rightful surname, and while it is not the focal point of this study, it might be useful to establish a “ground zero” of facts surrounding his birth and early life in order to (A) determine his motivations for writing in the first place and, thus, to (B) provide an interpretive scaffolding that allows us to understand the work more fully. That said, the story is complicated. There are many gaps and multiple, conflicting accounts. We must operate in terms of most likely cases, allowing for unknown variables and partial evidence, in an effort to uncover an imperfect but working version (or versions) of what is essentially a composite sketch of “Junie Temple.” With all of that in mind: Our subject is of indeterminate descent; his biological father is unknown. Features suggest mixed racial and/or ethnic provenance, subtly and variably manifest. Even the identity of his biological mother is disputed, but the preponderance of evidence suggests she is a reclusive woman called Grace Evers who, perhaps in order to devote all her energy and attention to her vocation as a visual artist of no small talent, abdicated parental responsibility at some point prior to her son’s adolescence. His adoptive parents are, in fact, his (likely) biological mother’s estranged twin sister, the former Lily Evers, and her husband, the Reverend Brother Billy Ray “Christian” Temple II. (It bears mentioning that there is even some question as to the true identities of the Evers twins who, as local lore would have it, had a propensity for swapping identities for long stretches of time throughout their childhood and adolescence—fooling even their own parents at times—a practice [habit?] they may have kept up into their early adulthood.) Even cursory examination of the text itself would indicate this unconventional arrangement was, at best, an uneasy one, particularly in regards to the psalmist’s relationship with Reverend Brother Temple, who vociferously and publically denounced his sister-in-law’s lifestyle and who made it clearly known he believed the boy was forever tainted by the formative years he spent with her…