Lincoln in the Bardo

The Reverend hesitates to enter Lincoln. The last time he went into a human, it was when he and his friends influenced the young arguing couple to make love. Although this couple later married because of this experience, the husband returned a year later to reminisce about that fateful day, and the Reverend and the others reentered him to see the effect of their influence. In doing so, they learned that the marriage was never meant to be, ultimately resulting in great unhappiness and leading the woman to poison herself. Horrified by the effect of his actions, the Reverend promised himself that he’d never occupy a person again. However, because he feels such “affection” for Willie, and also harbors a sense of guilt for having failed to free the boy from the tendrils, he “renounce[s]” his oath and joins Bevins and Vollman inside the president.

Vollman, Bevins, and the Reverend swoop through the crowd and jump into Lincoln. Intrigued, several other souls follow them. Soon a large mass of individuals leap inside, entering both Lincoln and one another, “becoming multiply conjoined.” Having eluded Lieutenant Stone, the black “contingent” rushes inside, along with “too many” souls to “enumerate.” “So many wills, memories, complaints, desires, so much raw life-force,” Bevins says. As Lincoln walks behind Manders, Vollman asks the large group inside to focus its collective attention on telling the president “to stop.”

“Stop,” Bevins thinks, and everybody else expresses the sentiment in their own way, chanting: “Pause, cease, self-interrupt, desist, halt, discontinue all forward motion.” This experience, Bevins finds, is unprecedentedly wonderful. “What a pleasure,” he says. “What a pleasure it was, being in there. Together. United in common purpose. In there together, yet also within one another, thereby receiving glimpses of one another’s minds, and glimpses, also, of Mr. Lincoln’s mind. How good it felt, doing this together!”

The Reverend notes that he and the other souls haven’t always “been so solitary.” In fact, in “that previous place,” they often engaged in group activities, interacting with other people in many different circumstances. “My God, what a thing!” says Vollman. “To find oneself thus expanded!” The Reverend, for his part, wonders how he could have possibly forgotten the joys of coming together with others, a question Bevins answers by pointing out: “To stay, one must deeply and continuously dwell upon one’s primary reason for staying; even to the exclusion of all else.” Now, though, the souls find themselves “restored somewhat to [their] natural fullness.”

The many souls inside Lincoln look at one another and are astonished to discover that their physical appearances have changed. Vollman, for instance, is no longer naked, but clothed, and his member is a normal size. Similarly, Bevins has the correct number of body parts, and the Reverend no longer looks eternally shocked or scared. “Poor multiply raped Litzie became capable of speech, her first utterance consisting of words of thanks to Mrs. Hodge for speaking for her, during all those mute and lonely years,” Elson Farwell notes. Despite these wonderful transformations, though, Lincoln keeps walking—in fact, he even speeds up, eager to leave.