Anima Rising

Wally returns from Krumau with a badly bruised face. She attempted to break into the prison with the help of the children to be with Egon. Wally escorts Judith to Emilie’s studio for another fitting. There, Oskar Kokoschka, another painter, begs Emilie for the measurements of Alma Mahler, the composer’s widow. Alma had an affair with Oskar before Mahler’s death. Now, she’s broken it off, so Oskar wants to make an exact replica of Alma to have sex with. Emilie refuses and sends Oskar away. She then tells Greta, one of her seamstresses, to sell Alma’s measurements to Oskar so that Greta can financially benefit.

Emilie works on Judith’s gown while discussing Alma, who’s now involved with Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius. Alma is a controversial but accomplished figure. Emilie resents that Oskar wants to reduce Alma to a sex doll. To her, men in general see women as objects.

As the women thank Emilie for the gramophone, Alma arrives for her own fitting. Emilie introduces her to Wally and Judith. Judith quotes Nietzsche calling women “the most dangerous plaything” (248) to Alma, who no longer cares for Nietzsche’s male-centered philosophy like she once did. Emilie cautions Wally and Judith: Alma chose to live “an elevated life” with Mahler (251), but he didn’t meet her sexual needs.

Wally escorts Judith to meet Carl Jung. As Baumann and Wally complete his rounds, Jung takes Judith to his office. Jung and Judith discuss her treatment with Freud before focusing on the figures of Raven and Sedna. Jung found a monograph written by a Danish man who had lived with the Greenland Inuit tribe and recorded their mythological traditions, including stories about Raven and Sedna that match Judith’s descriptions. Jung believes Judith has tapped into the collective unconscious, his theory that people of various cultural backgrounds can access the same myths, gods, and heroes. Judith brings up Akhlut, the god of the Underworld that appears as a wolf on land and an orca in the sea. She claims Geoff is Akhlut. Jung hypnotizes Judith, who picks up her story.

Judith woke after falling off the cliff with Adam and dying. Adam built a hut for them to live, and they settled into a dark monotony of survival. Adam beat and raped Judith daily. When she was unconscious or dead, Adam mutilated her. The white lines on Judith’s body that sometimes appear are scars from where Adam cut her to make her as ugly as him. Raven and Sedna explained that Adam was “soulless,” unable to visit the Underworld because he is made of “meat only” (259). Adam had learned English, French, and German after his resurrection but knew almost nothing about his past. Judith killed Adam many times, but he healed and revived each time. Finally, Judith killed him successfully. When they went hunting on the ice, Raven brought out the sun to make the ice clear and told Judith to hang back, allowing a polar bear to break through and eat Adam.

Judith then speaks in Raven’s voice. Raven reveals that he stole the sun, invented irony, and created the large tree that holds up the Underworld. Raven becomes bored and retreats, allowing Judith’s consciousness to return. Judith wonders if Adam survived the polar bear and now pursues her using Victor’s identity, as the Swiss men claimed to work for Victor Frankenstein. Judith remembers the name of the ship that Victor boarded before Adam ripped his head off: the Prometheus.

Wally tells Judith about the patients she saw with Baumann. Judith has remembered how to hunt, so she decides to pursue Van Beek. Geoff smells the Dutch man’s gun, stolen after he attempted to shoot Klimt, and leads her to the hotel where Van Beek is staying. Judith chokes the concierge until he leads her to the correct room, in which she finds Van Beek unconscious from drinking too much cough syrup. There is a sex worker in his room. Judith sends the woman away and wakes Van Beek by pinching the skin of his scrotum with the hammer of the gun. Van Beek wakes up and tries to shoot Judith, but his gun is empty. Judith interrogates Van Beek while Geoff transforms into his giant wolf form. Van Beek tells Judith that he’s been hired by someone in Amsterdam via telegram to follow Thiessen. Van Beek hadn’t heard the name Victor Frankenstein until the Swiss men said it. Thiessen was sent by a man named Walton. Geoff bites down on Van Beek’s torso, killing him and swallowing him whole.

The next day, as they walk home from the clinic, Wally tells Judith that she wants to achieve greatness by attaching herself to a genius. Wally contemplates marrying Egon, as Gertie plans to marry Anton, or marrying Baumann and becoming his nurse. Wally invites Judith to stay with her at her flat until Egon returns, and Judith accepts. Judith worries about becoming an object to men, like the Alma doll. Wally assures her she won’t be. Judith shows Wally how Geoff can transform into a giant wolf. Although Wally finds it frightening, she stays Judith’s friend.

Judith and Jung have another session. Jung wired a London colleague for information and learned that an English ship called Prometheus had sailed from England to Russia before going on an exploration expedition to find the Northwest Passage in 1799. The ship’s captain, John Walton, survived; Walton’s great-great-grandson owns a shipping company in London. Jung doesn’t understand how Judith knows about the ship, as that knowledge doesn’t fit his theory of collective subconscious. Judith remembers being on the Prometheus before Victor and Adam made her into a “sex puppet” (282). Judith reiterates that she has died four times: first, in 1799 in Scotland; second, on the island; and fourth, in Vienna. Judith doesn’t remember her third death.

Jung brings up Sedna the Sea Wife, daughter of the creator god Anguta. According to Inuit myth, Sedna refused to marry a man in her village but instead wanted to marry a wandering hunter who was a bird in disguise. Anguta threw Sedna into the sea and cut off her fingers when she tried to climb back into the boat. Her fingers became seals, walruses, and whales. Judith tells Jung that in the Underworld, Anguta hits men in the genitals for “violations of the taboo” (284).

Jung tries to categorize Inuit gods into his archetypes (tricksters, mothers, destroyers). Judith bristles at his insistence that they aren’t real. She slaps her arms until the scars appear, reminding Jung that her past is real. He apologizes, but insists that understanding why Sedna and Raven serve as Judith’s patron gods will be helpful. He hypnotizes Judith again, and her backstory continues.

After Adam’s death by polar bear, Judith survived on the island with the help of Sedna, Raven, and the knowledge of the People. Raven takes over and tells Jung that he received his shiny feathers from obsidian that Sedna fashioned into blades. Raven tried to teach Judith to fly, but Judith was too afraid. Judith returns and remembers her third death: On the island, she jumped into a glacial crevice intentionally. After dying by suicide, she went to the Underworld. Judith also remembers that her fourth death happened after she tore Thiessen’s head off.

Wally and Judith pick up the gown from Emilie, tying Geoff up outside. Emilie insists on employing both women so that they no longer rely financially on commodifying themselves for men. Judith will work as a seamstress, and Wally as a waitress in the café. The women leave with the gown and find an Englishman petting Geoff.

The man introduces himself as Robert Walton, and Judith recognizes him from the Prometheus. Judith is shocked he’s still alive after 112 years. Walton explains: Although Adam killed Victor before Walton could use Judith’s blood to heal him, Walton kept the vial of Judith’s blood and injected himself with it. Judith’s blood brought Geoff back to life, so Walton kept him as his dog. Walton has been strong and healthy until recently. Now, he is dying but thinks transfusions of Judith’s blood will make him healthy again. He sent Thiessen to find Judith and retrieve her safely, but Judith recalls that Thiessen threatened to kill her the night that she tore his head off. Walton did not send Van Beek. Walton offers to take Judith to England and set her up in her own house with a permanent income. Judith doesn’t want to sell herself again but promises to think about it, taking Walton’s calling card.

Judith returns to the studio and poses for Klimt in the gown. She tells him that she might need to leave soon and makes him promise to take care of Wally and Ella. Klimt urges her to stay until the painting’s complete, and Judith agrees. He also asks her to stop calling him Gus, because she makes it sound like “a dog’s name” (304).