Best. Documentary. Ever.

Last night Richard and I walked downtown to see a documentary about Henry Darger, In the Realm of the Unreal.
Who the @#$%&* is Henry Darger?
Well, he was a Chicago janitor. He lived alone in one room, talked to himself a lot, rummaged through trash, and went to Mass every single day. He had no TV, no radio. Didn't smoke, didn't drink. Never went on a date and had only one friend, who died rather young. He was forced to retire at age 73.
Then he was placed in a Catholic charity home, where he died in 1973. In his room, his landlord discovered thousands of works of art including panoramic battle scenes on 10-foot lengths of butcher paper, a handwritten autobiography, and a 15,000-page novel.

Born 1892 in Chicago, Henry Darger didn't remember his mom. She died when he was small, and his younger sister was adopted. His dad died in a poorhouse (the same one in which Darger would die). He was sent to a Catholic boys' home and later to a work farm, from which he tried to run away. According to his autobiography, he was retrieved by a "cowboy" who tied a rope around his neck and forced him to walk behind his horse (Henry would later become preoccupied with the injustice of child slave labour, not to mention strangulation). His peers teased and bullied him because he felt compelled to make strange noises. Darger ended up in a "bughouse asylum" for "feeble-minded children".
Darger became a hospital janitor and lived in single rented rooms. He was drafted during WWI; he didn't see battle, but found Army life so distasteful that he exaggerated his poor eyesight to gain discharge. For the next 56 years, he collected images of children from newspapers, colouring books, etc., and pasted them onto the pages of discarded phone books. He wrote a novel (possibly the longest in existence), In the Realms of the Unreal, about a global war between Christians and child-slavemasters he called "Glandellinians". The protagonists were the 7 pre-pubescent Vivian sisters, heroic and angelic-looking blonde girls who spoke and fought like men. Rebel child warriors fought alongside adult soldiers, often in the nude because the Glandellinians kept their slaves unclothed. Darger illustrated Realms with paintings, montages, and sketches - many of them on lengths of butcher paper taped together to form 10-foot-long "canvasses". For economy's sake, Darger would paint on both sides of the paper.
Darger's paintings were most often group scenes of children, and/or battle scenes. Oddly, the Vivian girls were invariably drawn with penises - Darger had probably never seen female genitalia. In the real world he didn't seem to like children, but his realm of the unreal was centred around them, particularly a child martyr named Anne (based on a young murder victim).
In addition to his novel, Darger kept detailed lists of war costs, casualties, captures, and battles (with whimsical names like Onion Fields and Googie). The Glandellinian generals had villain names; the generals who fought for child emancipation had names like "Goodheart". The finest general was named Evans and the most evil general was named Manley, after a schoolyard bully. Inexplicably, the evil generals were usually depicted wearing Confederate uniforms and mortarboards. Darger cast himself as a good general of legendary status, who longed to avenge Anne's murder and to meet the equally legendary Vivian sisters, who were so brave and heroic that only the most pure-hearted of men dared approach them. The Vivian sisters survived innumerable tortures and indignities at the hands of their enemies, but always perservered - slaughtering their enemies with ease. They were courageous, devout, and passionately devoted to their cause.
Darger's most disturbing artwork showed crucified and disembowelled children suffering at the hands of the Glandellinian army, but these grim scenes were overpowered by beautiful artwork full of cherubic children with the wings of butterflies, dragon-bodied beings protecting children, and children playing amid fantastical flowers. Darger created a world of pain and brutality, but also one of immense purity and strength. The Vivian sisters never aged; they remained young and noble. Darger lamented the loss of his own childhood, but didn't care to relive the loss and loneliness of his early years. At one point he tried to adopt a Catholic orphan, and was crushed when his application was denied. The only other living being he expressed any interest in was the mongrel dog of his final landlady, musician Kiyoko Lerner. He could often be heard talking to himself in various voices, different dialects - acting out his characters?

Darger had other hobbies. He penned an autobiography rife with misspellings and poor grammar, written in his loopy and slightly unsteady hand. He read a lot of children's literature, being especially fond of the Oz books, and often borrowed names from children's novels for his own stories (Penrod, for instance). And for at least ten years, Darger kept track of all weather forecasts for the city of Chicago and compared them to the actual weather, deriding weathermen for their "lies". He was preoccupied with storm systems and the devastation caused by hurricanes.

Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner and a friendly neighbor looked after Darger in his old age, but he ended up in the same Catholic poorhouse in which his father had died. It was then that the Lerners discovered - and scrupulously preserved - his artwork and writings. No one had known of them.

Darger wrote two endings to Realms. In the first, the Christian army and the Vivian sisters were triumphant. In the second, the evil General Manley won. Even in his imaginary world, beauty and darkness battled continually.

Henry Darger died one day after his 81st birthday. His room - overflowing with art supplies, pictures of happy children, and the storybooks that had inspired him - was kept intact by the Lerners until 2000. Because of them, his art survived his isolated existence and continues to inspire.

Today, a double-sided Darger painting on plain brown paper sells for $70,000.