Per Christian Malloch

My wife wonders why I sometimes tend to attract … strange people as friends. I am not sure. But it does happen on occasion. After all, I am a libertarian. So some of my friends are from that group, which probably tends to draw a disproportionate share of weirdos.

Anyway. A student named Per Christian Malloch emailed me sometime in the late 1990s I believe (probably 1997-98 or so), with some bizarre, mocking, but not entirely unfriendly comments about Hans Hoppe’s argumentation ethics and some of my related rights theories. I think he was initially silly, saying things like “I’m so Hoppy I found Hoppe.”

We ended up corresponding for a while. He was a very bright young student at Columbia at the time, as I recall. He was also into Satanism, and we corresponded about that too. I think it’s silly, but did not realize until he enlightened me that Satanism is apparently not about evil or Satan. I think. Whatever.

Per was into video games and writing about them, and weird projects like The Chicken Musical (2). I once theorized he had made up his name since it seemed to connote “Of Good and Evil” (“Per” meaning of, or pertaining to; Christian meaning good; and Mal meaning “evil”) which seems to go along with his obsession with amoralism, Satanism, even libertarianism. He never replied to this question, when I asked him. (It always bugs me when people simply evade a direct question.)

He must also have been into drugs because he apparently overdosed and was found dead in his dorm room or apartment in November 2000 (obituary). I found out from an email subject lined “Remembering Per” from one of his friends, who must have found Per’s email address list and sent it out. As I recall the others on the list appeared to be a bunch of black-leather wearing Goth types. I asked one of them what happened and I believe he told me about the drugs, but I have lost the emails.

Anyhoo, Per sent me a couple of articles, which I recently found and scanned (Daddy’s going paperless big-time). So I posted them here: Amoralism in One Lesson and The Theory of the Satanic Ritual and Satanic Magic.

Per was obviously bright, but burned out and snuffed out what would in all likelihood have been an interesting, possibly intellectually productive, life. Sad. De mortuis nil nisi bonum.

Coda: In Jan. 2005, a friend of Per’s, Canon Pence (so-called), stumbled across my post about Per and sent me this: For Per: Collected Works of Per Malloch, compiled by Canon Pence, 10/6/2001–12/6/2001.

Coda 2: In August 2005, I received this email:

By chance, I came across your blog article about Per Malloch. In it you write, “I once theorized he had made up his name since it seemed to connote “Of Good and Evil” (“Per” meaning of, or pertaining to; Christian meaning good; and Mal meaning “evil”) which seems to go along with his obsession with amoralism, Satanism, even libertarianism. He never replied to this question, when I asked him. (It always bugs me when people simply evade a direct question.)”

I can provide a bit of resolution, though I imagine you’ll be disappointed. I worked with Per’s father during the time that he (renowned broadcaster and composer/musicologist William Malloch) and Per’s mother were married and subsequently conceived Per. They were living at Bill’s long-time family home on Windsor Blvd in the Larchmont neighborhood of Los Angeles, near Hollywood. I’m not sure how Bill met his wife (and cannot recall her name, it was so long ago), but their wedded bliss was short-lived and not long after Per was born, she took the baby and left for home, which was in Scandinavia. (She was a stunningly beautiful woman, very Scandinavian looking — statuesque, blond, very pretty.) Bill was deeply bereft, not of her leaving, but of her taking their son; there was nothing he could do about it, however.

During the ensuing years, Per would visit his father for several weeks each year, and the two would “bach it” at the house on Windsor. Since I was working there doing research, copying parts, etc., I would see their interaction. They were very close, and nothing was too good for his son, as far as Bill was concerned. I remember one morning arriving for work and the two of them were starting in on their second pound of fried bacon! And giggling with delight the whole time. Per was a tow-headed 4 or 5 year old at the time, but built like a boy Viking.

Anyway, to answer your question about Per’s name, his mother chose his name, Per Christian, after family members on her side; of course he got Bill’s surname. And he also got Bill’s “pun”ishing sense of humor, apparently. Anyway, that’s all I had to tell you.

Jeannie [xx]

I wrote her back: “interesting; I am not disappointed, I am glad to finally have an answer to my question. Some of his goth (?) friends informed me of his death, since I guess I was on his email list. But I never heard the story. Was he just precocious? Experimenting w/ drugs? Depressed? What happened? He was very bright. It is sad.”

Her reply, somewhat expurgated:

I worked with Per’s father, award-winning broadcaster and composer/musicologist William Malloch, during the time when he and Per’s mother were married. They were living at Bill’s family home on Windsor Blvd in the Larchmont neighborhood of Los Angeles, near Hollywood. I don’t know how Bill met his wife, Gudrun, but their marriage was short-lived and dissolved not long after Per was born. Gudrun took the baby and returned home to Scandinavia. Gudrun was a strikingly beautiful woman, statuesque, blond and blue-eyed. Bill was deeply bereft, not of her leaving, but of her taking their son; there was nothing he could do about it, however.

During the ensuing years, Per would visit his father for several weeks each year, and the two would “bach’ it” at the house on Windsor. When I was working there assisting Bill’s research on authentic tempi of Handel’s music, I would see their interaction. They were very close, and nothing was too good for his son, as far as Bill was concerned. I remember one morning arriving for work and the two of them were starting in on their second pound of fried bacon, and giggling with delight the whole time. Per was a tow-headed boy with shining blue eyes, only 4 or 5 years old at the time, but built like a boy Viking. He was a sweet boy, but very strong-minded once he made his mind up about something.

As I recall, Gudrun chose his name, Per Christian, after family members on her side; of course he bore the Malloch surname. He also inherited Bill’s “pun”-ishing sense of humor, apparently.

Jeannie [x]