Читать книгу The American Shore - Samuel R. Delany - Страница 13

There were₂ seven Alexandrians involved in the Battery plot—Jack, who was the youngest and from the Bronx, Celeste DiCecca, Sniffles and MaryJane, Tancred Miller, Amparo (of course), and of course, the leader and mastermind, Bill Harper, better known as Little Mister Kissy Lips. Who was passionately, hopelessly in love with Amparo. Who was nearly thirteen (she would be, fully, by September this year), and breasts just beginning. Very very beautiful skin, like₃ lucite. Amparo Martinez.₄

Their first, nothing operation was in the East 60’s, a broker or something like that. All they netted was₅ cufflinks, a watch, a leather satchel that wasn’t leather after all, some buttons, and the usual lot of useless credit cards.₆ He stayed calm through the whole thing, even with Sniffles slicing off buttons, and soothing. None of them had the nerve to ask, though they all wondered, how often he’d been through this scene before. What they were about wasn’t an innovation. It was partly that, the need to innovate, that led them to think up the plot.₇ The only really memorable part of the holdup was the name laminated on the cards, which was, weirdly enough, Lowen, Richard W. An omen (the connection being that they were all at the Alexander Lowen School), but of what?₈

Little Mister Kissy Lips kept the cufflinks for himself, gave the buttons to Amparo (who gave them to her uncle), and donated the rest (the watch was a piece of crap) to the Conservation booth outside the Plaza right where he lived.₉

His father was a teevee executive. In, as he would quip, both senses.₁₀ They had got married young, his mama and papa, and divorced soon after but not before he’d come to fill out their quota. Papa, the executive, remarried, a man this time and somewhat more happily. Anyhow it lasted long enough that the offspring, the leader and mastermind, had to learn to adjust to the situation, it being permanent.₁₁ Mama simply went down to the Everglades and disappeared, sploosh.₁₂

In short, he was well to do. Which is how, more than by overwhelming talent, he got into the Lowen School in the first place.₁₃ He had the right kind of body though, so with half a desire there was no reason in the city of New York he couldn’t grow up to be a professional dancer, even a choreographer. He’d have the connections for it, as Papa was fond of pointing out.

For the time being, however, his bent was literary and religious rather than balletic.₁₄ He loved, and what seventh grader doesn’t, the abstracter foxtrots and more metaphysical twists of a Dostoevsky, a Gide, a Mailer.₁₅ He longed for the experience of some vivider pain than the mere daily hollowness knotted into his tight young belly, and no weekly stomp-and-holler of group therapy with other jejune eleven-year-olds was going to get him his stripes in the major leagues of suffering, crime, and resurrection. Only a bonafide crime would do that, and of all the crimes available₁₆ murder certainly carried the most prestige, as no less an authority than Loretta Couplard was ready to attest, Loretta Couplard being not only the director and co-owner of the Lowen School₁₇ but the author, as well, of two nationally televised scripts, both about famous murders of the 20th Century.₁₈ They’d even done a unit in social studies on the topic: A History of Crime in Urban America.₁₉

The first of Loretta’s murders was a comedy involving Pauline Campbell, R.N., of Ann Arbor, Michigan, circa 1951, whose skull had been smashed by three drunken teenagers. They had meant to knock her unconscious so they could screw her, which was 1951 in a nutshell.₂₀ The eighteen-year-olds, Bill Morey and Max Pell, got life; Dave Royal (Loretta’s hero) was a year younger and got off with twenty-two years.₂₁

Her second murder was tragic in tone and consequently inspired more respect, though not among the critics, unfortunately. Possibly because her heroine, also a Pauline₂₂ (Pauline Wichura), though more interesting and complicated, had also been more famous in her own day and ever since. Which made the competition, one best-selling novel and a serious film biography, considerably stiffer.₂₃ Miss Wichura had been a welfare worker in Atlanta, Georgia, very much into environment and the population problem, this being the immediate pre-Regents period when anyone and everyone was legitimately starting to fret. Pauline decided to do something, viz., reduce the population herself and in the fairest way possible. So whenever any of the families she visited produced one child above the three she’d fixed, rather generously, as the upward limit, she found some unobtrusive way of thinning that family back to the preferred maximal size. Between 1989 and 1993 Pauline’s journals (Random House, 1994) record twenty-six murders, plus an additional fourteen failed attempts.₂₄ In addition she had the highest welfare department record in the U.S. for abortions and sterilizations among the families whom she advised.₂₅

“Which proves, I think,” Little Mister Kissy Lips had explained one day after school to his friend Jack, “that a murder doesn’t have to be of someone famous to be a form of idealism.”₂₆

But of course idealism was only half the story: the other half was curiosity.₂₇ And beyond idealism and curiosity there was probably even another half, the basic childhood need to grow up and kill someone.₂₈

They settled on the Battery₂₉ because, one, none of them ever were there ordinarily; two, it was posh and at the same time relatively, three, uncrowded, at least once the night shift were snug in their towers tending their machines. The night shift seldom ate their lunches down in the park. And, four, because it was beautiful,₃₀ especially now at the beginning of summer.₃₁ The dark water, chromed with oil, flopping against the buttressed shore; the silences blowing in off the Upper Bay, silences large enough sometimes that you could sort out the different noises of the city behind them, the purr and quaver of the skyscrapers, the ground-shivering mysterioso of the expressways, and every now and then the strange sourceless screams that are the melody of New York’s theme song; the blue-pink of sunsets in a visible sky; the people’s faces, calmed by the sea and their own nearness to death, lined up in rhythmic rows on the green benches.₃₂ Why even the statues looked beautiful here, as though someone had believed in them once, the way people must have believed in the statues in the Cloisters, so long ago.₃₃

His favorite was the gigantic killer-eagle landing in the middle of the monoliths in the memorial for the soldiers, sailors, and airmen killed in World War II. The largest eagle, probably, in all Manhattan.₃₄ His talons ripped apart what was surely the largest artichoke.₃₅

Amparo, who went along with some of Miss Couplard’s ideas,₃₆ preferred the more humanistic qualities of the memorial (him on top and an angel gently probing an enormous book with her sword)₃₇ for Verrazano,₃₈ who was not, as it turned out, the contractor who put up the bridge₃₉ that had, so famously, collapsed.₄₀ Instead, as the bronze plate in back proclaimed:₄₁

IN APRIL 1524THE FLORENTINE-BORN NAVIGATORVERRAZANOLED THE FRENCH CARAVEL LA DAUPHINETO THE DISCOVERY OFTHE HARBOR OF NEW YORKAND NAMED THESE SHORES ANGOULEMEIN HONOR OF FRANCIS I KING OF FRANCE ₄₂

“Angouleme” they all agreed, except Tancred, who favored the more prevalent and briefer name, was much classier. Tancred was ruled out of order and the decision became unanimous.₄₃

It was there, by the statue, looking across the bay of Angouleme to Jersey,₄₄ that they took the oath that bound them to perpetual secrecy. Whoever spoke of what they were about to do, unless he were being tortured by the Police, solemnly called upon his co-conspirators to insure his silence by other means. Death.₄₅ All revolutionary organizations take similar precautions, as the history unit on Modern Revolutions had made clear.₄₆

How he got the name:₄₇ it had been Papa’s theory that what modern life cried out for was a sweetening of old-fashioned sentimentality. Ergo, among all the other indignities this theory gave rise to, scenes like the following:₄₈ “Who’s my Little Mister Kissy Lips!” Papa would bawl out, sweetly, right in the middle of Rockefeller Center (or a restaurant, or in front of the school), and he’d shout right back, “I am!” At least until he knew better.₄₉

Mama had been, variously, “Rosebud,” “Peg O’ My Heart,” and (this only at the end) “The Snow Queen.”₅₀ Mama, being adult, had been able to vanish with no other trace than the postcard that still came every Xmas postmarked from Key Largo, but Little Mister Kissy Lips was stuck with the New Sentimentality willy-nilly.₅₁ True, by age seven he’d been able to insist on being called “Bill” around the house (or, as Papa would have it, “Just Plain Bill”).₅₂ But that left the staff at the Plaza to contend with,₅₃ and Papa’s assistants, schoolmates, anyone who’d ever heard the name.₅₄ Then a year ago, aged ten and able to reason, he laid down the new law—that his name was Little Mister Kissy Lips, the whole awful mouthful, each and every time. His reasoning being that if anyone would be getting his face rubbed in shit by this it would be Papa, who deserved it. Papa didn’t seem to get the point,₅₅ or else he got it and another point besides, you could never be sure how stupid or how subtle he really was, which is the worst kind of enemy.₅₆

Meanwhile at the nationwide level the New Sentimentality had been a rather overwhelming smash.₅₇ “The Orphans,” which Papa produced₅₈ and sometimes was credited with writing,₅₉ pulled down the top Thursday evening ratings for two years. Now it was being overhauled for a daytime slot.₆₀ For one hour every day our lives were going to be a lot sweeter,₆₁ and chances were Papa would be a millionaire or more as a result. On the sunny side this meant that he’d be the son of a millionaire.₆₂ Though he generally had contempt for the way money corrupted everything it touched, he had to admit that in certain cases it didn’t have to be a bad thing. It boiled down to this (which he’d always known): that Papa was a necessary evil.₆₃

This was why every evening when Papa buzzed himself into the suite he’d shout out, “Where’s my Little Mister Kissy Lips,” and he’d reply, “Here, Papa!”₆₄ The cherry on this sundae of love₆₅ was a big wet kiss, and then one more for their new “Rosebud,” Jimmy Ness. (Who drank, and was not in all likelihood going to last much longer.)₆₆ They’d all three sit down to the nice family dinner Jimmyness had cooked, and Papa would tell them about the cheerful, positive things that had happened that day at CBS, and Little Mister Kissy Lips would tell all about the bright fine things that had happened to him. Jimmy would sulk.₆₇ Then Papa and Jimmy would go somewhere or just disappear into the private Everglades of sex,₆₈ and Little Mister Kissy Lips would buzz himself out into the corridor (Papa knew better than to be repressive about hours),₆₉ and within half an hour he’d be at the Verrazano statue₇₀ with the six other Alexandrians,₇₁ five if Celeste had a lesson,₇₂ to plot the murder of the victim they’d all finally agreed on.₇₃

No one had been able to find out his name.₇₄ They called him Alyona Ivanovna, after the old pawnbroker woman that Raskolnikov kills with an ax.₇₅

The spectrum of possible victims had never been wide.₇₆ The common financial types of the area would be carrying credit cards like Lowen, Richard W.,₇₇ while the generality of pensioners filling the benches were even less tempting. As Miss Couplard had explained, our economy was being refeudalized and cash was going the way of the ostrich, the octopus, and the moccasin flower.₇₈

It was such extinctions as these, but especially seagulls, that were the worry of the first lady they’d considered, a Miss Kraus,₇₉ unless the name at the bottom of her handlettered poster (STOP THE SLAUGHTER of The Innocents!! etc.) belonged to someone else.₈₀ Why, if she were Miss Kraus, was she wearing what seemed to be the old-fashioned diamond ring and gold band of a Mrs.?₈₁ But the more crucial problem, which they couldn’t see how to solve was: was the diamond real?₈₂

Possibility Number Two₈₃ was in the tradition of the original Orphans of the Storm, the Gish sisters.₈₄ A lovely semiprofessional who whiled away the daylight pretending to be blind and serenading the benches. Her pathos was rich, if a bit worked-up; her repertoire was archaeological; and her gross was fair, especially when the rain added its own bit of too-much.₈₅ However: Sniffles (who’d done this research) was certain she had a gun tucked away under the rags.₈₆

Three was the least poetic possibility, just the concessionaire in back of the giant eagle selling Fun and Synthamon. His appeal was commercial. But he had a licensed Weimaraner, and though Weimaraners can be dealt with, Amparo liked them.₈₇

“You’re just a Romantic,” Little Mister Kissy Lips said. “Give me one good reason.”

“His eyes,” she said. “They’re amber. He’d haunt us.”₈₈

They were snuggling together in one of the deep embrasures cut into the stone of Castle Clinton, her head wedged into his armpit, his fingers gliding across the lotion on her breasts₈₉ (summer was just beginning). Silence, warm breezes, sunlight on water, it was all ineffable, as though only the sheerest of veils intruded between them and an understanding of something (all this) really meaningful.₉₀ Because they thought it was their own innocence that was to blame, like a smog in their souls’ atmosphere, they wanted more than ever to be rid of it at times, like this, when they approached so close.₉₁

“Why not the dirty old man, then?” she asked, meaning Alyona.

“Because he is a dirty old man.”

“That’s no reason. He must take in at least as much money as that singer.”₉₂

“That’s not what I mean.” What he meant wasn’t easy to define. It wasn’t as though he’d be too easy to kill. If you’d seen him in the first minutes of a program, you’d know he was marked for destruction by the second commercial. He was the defiant homesteader, the crusty senior member of a research team who understood Algol and Fortran but couldn’t read the secrets of his own heart. He was the Senator from South Carolina with his own peculiar brand of integrity but a racist nevertheless. Killing that sort was too much like one of Papa’s scripts to be a satisfying gesture of rebellion.₉₃

But what he said, mistaking his own deeper meaning, was: “It’s because he deserves it, because we’d be doing society a favor. Don’t ask me to give reasons.”

“Well, I won’t pretend I understand that, but do you know what I think, Little Mister Kissy Lips?” She pushed his hand away.

“You think I’m scared.”₉₄

“Maybe you should be scared.”

“Maybe you should shut up and leave this to me. I said we’re going to do it. We’ll do it.”

“To him then?”

“Okay.₉₅ But for gosh sakes, Amparo, we’ve got to think of something to call the bastard besides ‘the dirty old man’!”₉₆

She rolled over out of his armpit and kissed him.₉₇ They glittered all over with little beads of sweat. The summer began to shimmer with the excitement of first night. They had been waiting so long and now the curtain was rising.₉₈

M-Day was scheduled for the first weekend in July, a patriotic holiday.₉₉ The computers would have time to tend to their own needs (which have been variously described as “confession,” “dreaming,” and “throwing up”),₁₀₀ and the Battery would be as empty as it ever gets.

Meanwhile their problem was the same as any kids face anywhere during summer vacation, how to fill the time.₁₀₁

There were books, there were the Shakespeare puppets if you were willing to queue up for that long, there was always teevee,₁₀₂ and when you couldn’t stand sitting any longer there were the obstacle courses in Central Park, but the density there was at lemming level. The Battery, because it didn’t try to meet anyone’s needs, seldom got so overpopulated.₁₀₃ If there had been more Alexandrians and all willing to fight for the space, they might have played ball.₁₀₄ Well, another summer …

What else?₁₀₅ There were marches for the political, and religions at various energy levels for the apolitical. There would have been dancing, but the Lowen School had spoiled them for most amateur events around the city.₁₀₆

As for the supreme pastime of sex, for all of them except Little Mister Kissy Lips and Amparo (and even for them, when it came right down to orgasm)₁₀₇ this was still something that happened on a screen, a wonderful hypothesis that lacked empirical proof.₁₀₈

One way or another it was all consumership, everything they might have done, and they were tired, who isn’t, of being passive.₁₀₉ They were twelve years old, or eleven, or ten, and they couldn’t wait any longer. For what? they wanted to know.₁₁₀

So, except when they were just loafing around solo, all these putative resources, the books, the puppets, the sports, arts, politics, and religions, were in the same category of usefulness as merit badges or weekends in Calcutta,₁₁₁ which is a name you can still find on a few old maps of India.₁₁₂ Their lives were not enhanced, and their summer passed as summers have passed immemorially. They slumped and moped and lounged about and teased each other and complained.₁₁₃ They acted out desultory, shy fantasies and had long pointless arguments about the more peripheral facts of existence—the habits of jungle animals or how bricks had been made₁₁₄ or the history of World War II.₁₁₅

One day they added up all the names on the monoliths set up for the soldiers, sailors, and airmen.₁₁₆ The final figure they got was 4,800.

“Wow,” said Tancred.

“But that can’t be all of them,” MaryJane insisted, speaking for the rest. Even that “wow” had sounded half ironic.₁₁₇

“Why not?” asked Tancred, who could never resist disagreeing. “They came from every different state and every branch of the service. It has to be complete or the people who had relatives left off would have protested.”₁₁₈

“But so few? It wouldn’t be possible to have fought more than one battle at that rate.”₁₁₉

“Maybe …” Sniffles began quietly. But he was seldom listened to.₁₂₀

“Wars were different then,” Tancred explained with the authority of a prime-time news analyst. “In those days more people were killed by their own automobiles than in wars. It’s a fact.”₁₂₁

“Four thousand, eight hundred?”

“… a lottery?”₁₂₂

Celeste waved away everything Sniffles had said or would ever say.₁₂₃ “MaryJane is right, Tancred. It’s simply a ludicrous number. Why, in that same war the Germans gassed seven million Jews.”

“Six million Jews,” Little Mister Kissy Lips corrected. “But it’s the same idea.₁₂₄ Maybe the ones here got killed in a particular campaign.”

“Then it would say so.”₁₂₅ Tancred was adamant, and he even got them to admit at last that 4,800 was an impressive figure, especially with every name spelled out in stone letters.₁₂₆

One other amazing statistic was commemorated in the park: over a thirty-three-year period Castle Clinton had processed 7.7 million₁₂₇ immigrants into the United States.₁₂₈

Little Mister Kissy Lips sat down and figured out that₁₂₉ it would take 12,800 stone slabs the size of the ones listing the soldiers, sailors, and airmen in order to write out all the immigrants’ names,₁₃₀ with country of origin,₁₃₁ and an area of five square miles to set that many slabs up in, or all of Manhattan from here to 28th Street.₁₃₂ But would it be worth the trouble, after all? Would it be that much different from the way things were already?₁₃₃

Alyona Ivanovna:₁₃₄

An archipelago of irregular brown islands were mapped on the tan sea of his bald head. The mainlands of his hair were marble outcroppings, especially his beard, white and crisp and coiling.₁₃₅ The teeth were standard MODICUM issue; clothes, as clean as any fabric that old can be. Nor did he smell, particularly. And yet ….

Had he bathed every morning you’d still have looked at him and thought he was filthy, the way floorboards in old brownstones seem to need cleaning moments after they’ve been scrubbed. The dirt had been bonded to the wrinkled flesh and the wrinkled clothes,₁₃₆ and nothing less than surgery or burning would get it out.₁₃₇

His habits were as orderly as a polka dot napkin.₁₃₈ He lived at a Chelsea dorm for the elderly, a discovery they owed to a rainstorm that had forced him to take the subway home one day instead of, as usual, walking.₁₃₉ On the hottest nights he might sleep over in the park, nesting in one of the Castle windows.₁₄₀ He bought his lunches from a Water Street specialty shop, Dumas Fils: cheeses, imported fruit, smoked fish, bottles of cream, food for the gods. Otherwise he did without, though his dorm must have supplied prosaic necessities like breakfast. It was a strange way for a panhandler to spend his quarters, drugs being the norm.₁₄₁

His professional approach was out-and-out aggression. For instance, his hand in your face and, “How about it, Jack?” Or, confidingly, “I need sixty cents to get home.” It was amazing how often he scored,₁₄₂ but actually it wasn’t amazing. He had charisma.

And someone who relies on charisma wouldn’t have a gun.₁₄₃

Agewise he might have been sixty, seventy, seventy-five, a bit more even, or much less. It all depended on the kind of life he’d led, and where.₁₄₄ He had an accent none of them could identify. It was not ­English, not French, not Spanish, and probably not Russian.₁₄₅

Aside from his burrow in the Castle wall there were two distinct places he preferred.₁₄₆ One, the wide-open stretch of pavement along the water. This was where he worked, walking up past the Castle and down as far as the concession stand.₁₄₇ The passage of one of the great Navy cruisers, the USS Dana or the USS Melville, would bring him, and the whole Battery, to a standstill, as though a whole parade were going by, white, soundless, slow as a dream. It was a part of history, and even the Alexandrians were impressed,₁₄₈ though three of them had taken the cruise down to Andros Island and back.₁₄₉ Sometimes though, he’d stand by the guardrail for long stretches of time without any real reason, just looking at the Jersey sky and the Jersey shore. After a while he might start talking to himself, the barest whisper but very much in earnest to judge by the way his forehead wrinkled.₁₅₀ They never once saw him sit on one of the benches.₁₅₁

The other place he liked was the aviary.₁₅₂ On days when they’d been ignored he’d contribute peanuts or breadcrumbs to the cause of the birds’ existence.₁₅₃ There were pigeons, parrots, a family of robins, and a proletarian swarm of what the sign declared to be chickadees, though Celeste, who’d gone to the library to make sure, said they were nothing more than a rather swank breed of sparrow.₁₅₄ Here, too, naturally, the militant Miss Kraus stationed herself₁₅₅ when she bore testimony.₁₅₆ One of her peculiarities (and the reason, probably, she was never asked to move on)₁₅₇ was that under no circumstances did she ever deign to argue. Even sympathizers pried no more out of her than a grim smile and a curt nod.₁₅₈

One Tuesday, a week before M-Day (it was the early A.M. and only three Alexandrians were on hand to witness this confrontation),₁₅₉ Alyona so far put aside his own reticence as to try to start a conversation going with Miss Kraus.₁₆₀

He stood squarely in front of her and began by reading aloud, slowly, in that distressingly indefinite accent, from the text₁₆₁ of STOP THE SLAUGHTER:₁₆₂ “The Department of the Interior of the United States Government, under the secret direction of the Zionist Ford Foundation, is systematically poisoning the oceans of the World with so-called ‘food farms’. Is this “peaceful application of Nuclear Power”? Unquote, the New York Times, August 2, 2024. Or a new Moondoggle!! Nature World, Jan. Can we afford to remain indifferent any longer. Every day 15,000 seagulls die as a direct result of Systematic Genocides while elected Officials falsify and distort the evidence. Learn the facts. Write to the Congressmen. Make your voice heard!!”₁₆₃

As Alyona had droned on, Miss Kraus turned a deeper and deeper red. Tightening her fingers about the turquoise broomhandle to which the placard was stapled, she began to jerk the poster up and down rapidly,₁₆₄ as though this man with his foreign accent were some bird of prey who’d perched on it.₁₆₅

“Is that what you think?” he asked, having read all the way down to the signature despite her jiggling tactic.₁₆₆ He touched his bushy white beard and wrinkled his face into a philosophical expression.₁₆₇ “I’d like to know more about it, yes, I would. I’d be interested in hearing what you think.”

Horror had frozen up every motion of her limbs. Her eyes blinked shut but she forced them open again.₁₆₈

“Maybe,” he went on remorselessly, “we can discuss this whole thing. Some time when you feel more like talking. All right?”₁₆₉

She mustered her smile, and a minimal nod.₁₇₀ He went away then.₁₇₁ She was safe, temporarily, but even so she waited till he’d gone halfway to the other end of the sea-front promenade₁₇₂ before she let the air collapse into her lungs. After a single deep breath the muscles of her hands thawed into trembling.₁₇₃

M-Day was an oil of summer, a catalog of everything painters are happiest painting—clouds, flags, leaves, sexy people, and in back of it all the flat empty baby-blue of the sky.₁₇₄ Little Mister Kissy Lips was the first one there, and Tancred, in a kind of kimono (it hid the pilfered Luger), was the last.₁₇₅ Celeste never came. (She’d just learned she’d been awarded the exchange scholarship to Sofia.) They decided they could do without Celeste,₁₇₆ but the other nonappearance was more crucial. Their victim had neglected to be on hand for M-Day.₁₇₇ Sniffles, whose voice was most like an adult’s over the phone, was delegated to go to the ­Citibank lobby and call the West 16th Street dorm.₁₇₈

The nurse who answered was a temporary.₁₇₉ Sniffles, always an inspired liar, insisted that his mother—“Mrs. Anderson, of course she lives there, Mrs. Alma F. Anderson”—had to be called to the phone. This was 248 West 16th, wasn’t it? Where was she if she wasn’t there?₁₈₀ The nurse, flustered, explained that the residents, all who were fit, had been driven off to a July 4th picnic at Lake Hopatcong as guests of a giant Jersey retirement condominium.₁₈₁ If he called bright and early tomorrow they’d be back and he could talk to his mother then.₁₈₂

So the initiation rites were postponed, it couldn’t be helped.₁₈₃ Amparo passed around some pills she’d taken from her mother’s jar, a consolation prize.₁₈₄ Jack left, apologizing that he was a borderline psychotic, which was the last that anyone saw of Jack till September.₁₈₅ The gang was disintegrating, like a sugar cube soaking up saliva, then crumbling into the tongue.₁₈₆ But what the hell—the sea still mirrored the same blue sky, the pigeons behind their wicket were no less iridescent, and trees grew for all of that.₁₈₇

They decided to be silly and made jokes about what the M really stood for in M-Day.₁₈₈ Sniffles started off with “Miss Nomer, Miss Carriage, and Miss Steak.”₁₈₉ Tancred, whose sense of humor did not exist or was very private, couldn’t do better than “Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses.”₁₉₀ Little Mister Kissy Lips said, “Merciful Heavens!”₁₉₁ MaryJane maintained reasonably that M was for MaryJane.₁₉₂ But Amparo said it stood for “Aplomb” and carried the day.₁₉₃

Then, proving that when you’re sailing the wind always blows from behind you,₁₉₄ they found Terry Riley’s day-long Orfeo at 99.5 on the FM dial.₁₉₅ They’d studied Orfeo in mime class₁₉₆ and by now it was part of their muscle and nerve.₁₉₇ As Orpheus descended into a hell that mushroomed from the size of a pea to the size of a planet, the Alexandrians metamorphosed into as credible a tribe of souls in torment as any since the days of Jacopo Peri.₁₉₈ Throughout the afternoon little audiences collected and dispersed to flood the sidewalk with libations of adult attention.₁₉₉ Expressively they surpassed themselves, both one by one and all together,₂₀₀ and though they couldn’t have held out₂₀₁ till the apotheosis (at 9:30)₂₀₂ without a stiff psychochemical wind in their sails,₂₀₃ what they had danced was authentic and very much their own.₂₀₄ When they left the Battery that night they felt better than they’d felt all summer long.₂₀₅ In a sense they had been exorcised.₂₀₆

But back at the Plaza Little Mister Kissy Lips couldn’t sleep.₂₀₇ No sooner was he through the locks than his guts knotted up into a Chinese puz­zle.₂₀₈ Only after he’d unlocked his window and crawled out onto the ledge did he get rid of the bad feelings.₂₀₉ The city was real. His room was not. The stone ledge was real and his bare buttocks absorbed reality from it. He watched slow movements in enormous distances and pulled his thoughts together.₂₁₀

He knew without having to talk to the rest that the murder would never take place.₂₁₁ The idea had never meant for them what it had meant for him. One pill and they were actors again, content to be images in a mirror.₂₁₂

Slowly, as he watched, the city turned itself off. Slowly the dawn divided the sky into an east and a west.₂₁₃ Had a pedestrian been going past on 58th Street and had that pedestrian looked up, he would have seen the bare soles of a boy’s feet swinging back and forth, angelically.₂₁₄

He would have to kill Alyona Ivanovna himself. Nothing else was possible.₂₁₅

Back in his bedroom,₂₁₆ long ago,₂₁₇ the phone was ringing its fuzzy nighttime ring.₂₁₈ That would be Tancred (or Amparo?) trying to talk him out of it. He foresaw their arguments. Celeste and Jack couldn’t be trusted now.₂₁₉ Or, more subtly: they’d all made themselves too visible with their Orfeo.₂₂₀ If there were even a small investigation, the benches would remember them, remember how well they had danced, and the police would know where to look.₂₂₁

But the real reason, which at least Amparo would have been ashamed to mention now that the pill was wearing off,₂₂₂ was that they’d begun to feel sorry for their victim. They’d got to know him too well over the last month and their resolve had been eroded by compassion.₂₂₃

A light came on in Papa’s window. Time to begin.₂₂₄ He stood up, golden in the sunbeams₂₂₅ of another perfect day,₂₂₆ and walked back along the foot-wide ledge to his own window.₂₂₇ His legs tingled from having sat so long.₂₂₈

He waited till Papa was in the shower,₂₂₉ then tippytoed to the old secretaire in his bedroom (W. & J. Sloan, 1952). Papa’s keychain was coiled atop the walnut veneer. Inside the secretaire’s drawer was an antique Mexican cigar box, and in the cigar box a velvet bag, and in the velvet bag Papa’s replica of a French dueling pistol, circa 1790.₂₃₀ These precautions were less for his son’s sake than on account of Jimmy Ness, who every so often felt obliged to show he was serious with his suicide threats.₂₃₁

He’d studied the booklet carefully when Papa had bought the pistol and was able to execute the loading procedure quickly and without error,₂₃₂ tamping the premeasured twist of powder down into the barrel and then the lead ball on top of it.₂₃₃

He cocked the hammer back a single click.

He locked the drawer.₂₃₄ He replaced the keys, just so. He buried, for now, the pistol in the stuffs and cushions of the Turkish corner, tilted upright to keep the ball from rolling out.₂₃₅ Then with what remained of yesterday’s ebullience he bounced into the bathroom and kissed Papa’s cheek,₂₃₆ damp with the morning’s allotted two gallons and redolent of 4711.₂₃₇

They had a cheery breakfast together in the coffee room,₂₃₈ which was identical to the breakfast they would have made for themselves except for the ritual of being waited on by a waitress.₂₃₉ Little Mister Kissy Lips gave an enthusiastic account of the Alexandrians’ performance of Orfeo, and Papa made his best effort of seeming not to condescend. When he’d been driven to the limit of this pretense,₂₄₀ Little Mister Kissy Lips touched him for a second pill,₂₄₁ and since it was better for a boy to get these things from his father than from a stranger on the street, he got it.₂₄₂

He reached the South Ferry stop at noon,₂₄₃ bursting with a sense of his own imminent liberation.₂₄₄ The weather was M-Day all over again,₂₄₅ as though at midnight out on the ledge he’d forced time to go backwards₂₄₆ to the point when things had started going wrong.₂₄₇ He’d dressed in his most anonymous shorts and the pistol hung from his belt in a dun dittybag.₂₄₈

Alyona Ivanovna was sitting on one of the benches₂₄₉ near the aviary, listening to Miss Kraus.₂₅₀ Her ring hand gripped the poster firmly,₂₅₁ while the right chopped at the air, eloquently awkward, like a mute’s first words following a miraculous cure.₂₅₂

Little Mister Kissy Lips went down the path and squatted in the shadow of his memorial.₂₅₃ It had lost its magic yesterday, when the statues had begun to look so silly to everyone.₂₅₄ They still looked silly. Verrazano was dressed like a Victorian industrialist taking a holiday in the Alps. The angel was wearing an angel’s usual bronze nightgown.₂₅₅

His good feelings were leaving his head by little and little, like aeolian sandstone attrited by the centuries of wind.₂₅₆ He thought of calling up Amparo,₂₅₇ but any comfort she might bring to him would be a mirage so long as his purpose in coming here remained unfulfilled.₂₅₈

He looked at his wrist, then remembered he’d left his watch home. The gigantic advertising clock on the facade of the First National Citi-bank said it was fifteen after two.₂₅₉ That wasn’t possible.₂₆₀

Miss Kraus was still yammering away.₂₆₁

There was time to watch a cloud move across the sky from Jersey, over the Hudson, and past the sun. Unseen winds nibbled at its wispy edges. The cloud became his life, which would disappear without ever having turned into rain.₂₆₂

Later, and₂₆₃ the old man was walking up the sea promenade toward the Castle.₂₆₄ He stalked him, for miles.₂₆₅ And then they were alone, together, at the far end of the park.₂₆₆

“Hello,” he said, with the smile reserved for grown-ups of doubtful importance.₂₆₇

He looked directly at the dittybag, but Little Mister Kissy Lips didn’t lose his composure. He would be wondering whether to ask for money, which would be kept, if he’d had any, in the bag. The pistol made a noticeable bulge but not the kind of bulge one would ordinarily associate with a pistol.

“Sorry,” he said coolly. “I’m broke.”₂₆₈

“Did I ask?”

“You were going to.”₂₆₉

The old man made as if to return in the other direction, so he had to speak quickly, something that would hold him here.

“I saw you speaking with Miss Kraus.”₂₇₀

He was held.

“Congratulations—you broke through the ice!”₂₇₁

The old man half-smiled, half-frowned. “You know her?”₂₇₂

“Mm. You could say that we’re aware of her.”₂₇₃ The “we” had been a deliberate risk, an hors d’oeuvre. Touching a finger to each side of the strings by which the heavy bag hung from his belt, he urged on it a lazy pendular motion.₂₇₄ “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

There was nothing indulgent now in the man’s face. “I probably do.”₂₇₅

His smile had lost the hard edge of calculation. It was the same smile he’d have smiled for Papa, for Amparo, for Miss Couplard, for anyone he liked.₂₇₆ “Where do you come from? I mean, what country?”

“That’s none of your business, is it?”

“Well, I just wanted … to know.”

The old man (he had ceased, somehow, to be Alyona Ivanovna)₂₇₇ turned away and walked directly toward the squat stone cylinder of the old fortress.₂₇₈

He remembered how the plaque at the entrance—the same that had cited the 7.7 million—had said that Jenny Lind had sung there and it had been a great success.₂₇₉

The old man unzipped his fly and, lifting out his cock, began pissing on the wall.₂₈₀

Little Mister Kissy Lips fumbled with the strings of the bag. It was remarkable how long the old man stood there pissing because despite every effort of the stupid knot to stay tied he had the pistol out before the final sprinkle had been shaken out.₂₈₁

He laid the fulminate cap on the exposed nipple, drew the hammer back two clicks, past the safety, and aimed.₂₈₂

The man made no haste zipping up. Only then did he glance in Little Mister Kissy Lips’ direction. He saw the pistol aimed at him. They stood not twenty feet apart,₂₈₃ so he must have seen it.₂₈₄

He said, “Ha!”₂₈₅ And even this, rather than being addressed to the boy with the gun, was only a parenthesis from the faintly-aggrieved monologue he resumed each day at the edge of the water.₂₈₆ He turned away and a moment later he was back on the job, hand out, asking some fellow for a quarter.₂₈₇

—New York,

April, 1970

As our Pretext was a pretext in at least two ways, so we shall “refuse” the text of “Angouleme” in at least two ways. Having now read it, ponderingly, straightforwardly, we shall refuse that ponderous reading in favor of a subsequent, diffused one, interlarded and interlaced with meditations and mediations, heuristical diversions, and hermeneutical divagations. The carets point to the places where we shall shortly perforate the text with our own discourse, which will treat of the words between as discrete lexias, each lexia to be followed by one of a number of modes of commentary.

Currently the best known example of this approach to criticism of prose fiction is Roland Barthes’s S/Z (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1970), an essay on the Balzac novella “Sarrasine.” But it is hard to contemplate S/Z without thinking of its fictive predecessor, Nabokov’s Pale Fire (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1962), if not his Eugene Onegin (4 vols., Bollingen Series LXXII, Princeton University Press, 1964). And both Barthes and Nabokov are adumbrated by a work in like form leading to highly different ends. I mean Bernard Grebanier’s illuminating and insightful The Heart of Hamlet (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1960). But readers familiar with the range of science fiction criticism will detect, in the tenor, in the timbre, in the final informality of our text, in the trajectory at which our search after wonder initiates itself, if not in its ultimate angle of impact, the pervasive influence of Damon Knight’s The Annotated “Masks” (in Those Who Can: A Science Fiction Reader, Robin Scott Wilson, ed. New York: Mentor Books, New American Library, 1972): if we appropriate an extra-generic formality, what asks for the appropriation has its originary problematics bound up with and entwined throughout the s-f genre itself: as has been many times noted, science fiction establishes a critical historiography, in which are implicit certain critical questions (that the knowledgeable reader will hear echoing throughout our text), with the first use of the term¹ (1929) in our century by Hugo Gernsback.

Here we must mention that the French have a problem with this sort of detailed analysis that in general the American avoids: that problem is the existence, in the French lycée and gymnasium, of the pedagogical technique explication de texte, a traditional student exercise in which a paragraph or so of prose (or a short passage of poetry) is analyzed exhaustively in terms of the way the sounds of the words, their rhythms and specific ordering, choice of tense and diction, as well as other stylistic elements, modulate the sense, lend emphasis here, irony there, or create a particular emotional tone. Such an exercise produces readers very sensitive to the nuances of French style. But such an exercise also constitutes a tradition where the extended analysis of prose is equated with a particularly undergraduate sort of tediousness. French critics who attempt such a detail-oriented analysis must reassure the reader that they are not simply hawking a high school paper gone to seed. And they usually avoid all mention of those elements—euphony, rhythm, word order—that might so earmark the essay.

American high schools and colleges have no such tradition. And though we wish to avoid any easy or rigidly mechanical approach that, with extended application, might render our study tediously puerile, we do not feel the same constraint as the French to avoid, in the course of our discussion, all mention of the (traditionally so-called) poetic elements a writer such as Disch uses to contour his text.² But we shall remain aware that we are analyzing prose, prose fiction, and prose science fiction at that—not a poem.

After having encountered the “Diffused Text,” we shall presume (after the pentilogue of pauses and distractions supplied by the “Exotexts”) a readerly return to the text above, to re-read and to re-fuse the diffused elements. Hopefully this coming reading will serve as well to defuse any claim to an explosive authority the diffused text may have inadvertently appropriated. If our undertaking is successful, that success can be measured precisely from the degree of necessary (and sufficient) superfluity our own co-text bears to the text of “Angouleme.”

1. Gernsback’s initial term, scientifiction, became, by a more or less natural process, today’s “science fiction” or “SF.” The first known use, however, of “Science-Fiction” follows a discussion of R. N. Horne’s novel The Poor Artist in William Wilson’s A Little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject, London: Darton and Co., 1851: “We hope it will not be long before we have other works of Science-Fiction, as we believe such works likely to fulfil a good purpose, and create an interest, where, unhappily, science alone might fail.” There follows a long account of “the poetry of science.” Though the use of the two terms forms an illuminating, diachronic coincidence, there is no evidence for direct influence from Wilson to Gernsback.

2. Disch is the author of an extremely impressive volume of poems, The Right Way to Figure Plumbing (Fredonia, NY: Basilisk Press, 1971). His poems have appeared widely, in Poetry (Chicago), The Little Magazine, The Paris Review, The American Review, and The Transatlantic Review, among many others.