William Gaddis - A Folic Of His Own

BAGBY

But what can you expect…

THOMAS

(WITH SUDDENLY vicious DEFIANCE)

Are you any better?

BAGBY

(AFTER PAUSE OF SIZING THOMAS UP)

Let me tell you, sir… I and this boy here, and you? It's been you, you the master? And you say war is history, but no. No, the difference between us, you see, is that I, I and that boy there, we can improve ourselves… we can while you cannot and that… that, I call history.

Scene fades slowly as BAGBY faces THOMAS, upstaging him, to darkness and silence which, after a moment, is broken by the distant sound of cannon.

— It's charming Oscar, what it's got to do with the movie I can't imagine but…

— Charming! Is that all you, charming? I'm not asking you to shout bravo Christina but the least you can…

— Well of course you are, I mean isn't that all any writer really wants? everyone jumping up shouting bravo? I thought we'd have chops for dinner, I want to get down before the stores close. Will that suit you Mister Basic? lamb chops?

— Can't stay, sounds real great but I'm on my way, get on the highway before the rush.

— No but wait! Listen there's another scene, there's the whole last act you can't all go. There's the whole last act, we haven't even talked about the…

— I heard a phone ring.

— Got enough going to run up your complaint Oscar, any problems I'll call you.

— Shall I answer it Mister Crease?

— Oh and before you go Mister Basic, one more thing? if we can come back to the real world for a moment? A friend of mine who's going in for an abortion, the father's got a court order to stop her and…

— That's not his field Christina! We're not talking about some indecent…

— Oscar don't be ridiculous, I'm just asking the…

— Well he's, he hasn't got time to get into all that, you seem to forget who's paying his bill, he's…

— Mister Crease? You got a collect call from Disney World.

— My God.

— Plenty of copies here now Oscar I'll just take one along, get things off the ground. Better get that phone.

— That reminds me yes, that two hundred dollars Oscar?

— No but wait, hello? Yes I will. Hello?

— Two twenty one sixty to be exact.

— But what about the funeral, why are you still down there…

— Mister Basic? We can go out this way.

— No wait! Wait what do you mean, Disney World was right on the way…

— You can get a court order for most anything Mrs Lutz, she goes ahead with this abortion she'll get a citation for contempt but it's a real grey area, get these foetal rights going it could turn into anything, turn into a landmark like Roe v. Wade.

— How much? What do you mean you drove all the way down there!

— Thanks Mister Crease we better go, that was fun.

Fun? And they were gone. Clattering up the hall, the glass doors banging, car engines, the blurt of a horn, fun? He got the phone back in its cradle, paused laid back there as though listening to the silence, as though observing that word, literally observing its semblance dissipate and vanish, and then abruptly he got both feet off to the floor and stood, his teeth gritted, holding to the back of the chair before he took a step, and another, and enough of them to get him across the room to the table there and back clutching a sheaf of pages rolled like a stave, like a staff, like a weapon, falling open in his hand as he let himself down, squaring his glasses, muttering it again as though spitting it out, — fun!

Pyrotechnic lights rise over stage with reeling effect and fade gradually as smoke clears to reveal the body of one SOLDIER draped over an inclined cannon barrel and three or four figures flung still at downstage left. Battle sounds drop, lights die, pause of stillness as stars appear and the stage is suffused in violet darkness.

BAGBY appears from stage right, looking vaguely about, shaking his head and pausing, popping a jawbreaker into his mouth philosophically.

BAGBY

There now… you wouldn't think…

(AMBLING TOWARD STAGE CENTER, LOOKING ABOUT)

Them that would make such fine sense of things…

(KICKING A STONE OVER)

To find meanings in stones…

(DIGGING AT THE DIRT WITH HIS TOE)

And this earth here soaked with the blood of twenty thousand men that will fight no more? In a battle that was no more than that, a battle, where one side lost because it did not win, and the other won only because it did not lose…

As he speaks BAGBY is drawn with a sort of dread curiosity toward figures lying still at stage left.

There, it's ended and left you behind here? with the kisses of death upon you all, why, the way you cling… one to another…

(GINGERLY ADVANCING A FOOT TO PRY TWO FIGURES APART)

you might have been comrades in arms here, fighting together against… haaah!

(DRAWING BACK WITH SHOCK AS THE FIGURE TURNS OVER FACE UP)

Smashed, like a bird with a broken wing, running…

(VISIBLY SHAKEN, STARTS TO KNEEL)

Yes… your dancing days are done…

(PUTS A HAND TO THE BODY BEFORE HIM)

You wasn't taken a prisoner, there's that… And you've still your fine teeth but set in a look… of such outrage! what is it! Would you try to hold all this suffering world in the beauty of your own agony? Let me tell you then! It don't end!

(WITH A BRIEF SHUDDER HE STRAIGHTENS AWAY, HOLDING A CASE LIFTED FROM THE FIGURE)

Yess… So he freed you then, did he? Once he'd gave you his blessing? and brought you right up to himself? You was made for something better, was that it? And he freed you to be what you are now? Ahhh! must a man be scourged then, and racked, have his eyes burnt out and then be set up on a pole, to know that he should wish, not to be just… but to seem it? Yes, and the unjust man, an't he above that? Above living for opinion? Him, he don't wish to seem unjust, no… but to be it! Yes, and then he may hold public office because he is thought to be just, he may marry wherever he likes, and be partners with whoever he chooses, and still make a profit…! now and again, for he don't mind being unjust, only seeming it! There, and won't he grow rich, then? and be able to help a friend and hurt enemies, and serve gods and men better than any…!

(STANDING OFF, EMBRACING IT ALL)

Yes now, this much… and no more! Up to this point yes but… beyond it…? No! By… by heaven…! there are limits!

(WITHDRAWING TOWARD RIGHT, LOOKING OFFSTAGE LEFT)

Because… this is how it must be!

A shot is fired, with shout of warning, from offstage left.

A burial detail, is it? And they'd take me for… a looter?

(POCKETING THE CASE, PAUSES AT STAGE RIGHT)

Let them look up in the sky then…! if they must be so blind, that cannot see the truth in broad daylight, but must have the whole world in darkness to see the conceit of the stars…

Stillness as BAGBY exits hastily, right, a star glitters beyond silhouetted scene, then another, as the curtain falls.

COMPLAINT Filed with US District Court, 5.D. New York, September 30, 1990, naming the Parties,

1) Oscar L CREASE, Plaintiff, v.

2) EREBUS ENTERTAINMENT, Inc., Ben B F Leva, Constantine Kiester a/k/a Jonathan Livingston (Siegal) and others, Defendants

Allegations Applicable to All Causes of Action:

3) That on or about July 1, 1977, plaintiff submitted a copy of a script of an original play dealing with certain fictitious characters and events in the American Civil War titled 'Once at Antietam' suited to stage production or television adaptation to the defendant Constantine Kiester, who was at that time employed as a television producer in New York under the name Jonathan Livingston, and

4) that shortly thereafter plaintiff's play was returned to him with a note from the said defendant citing reasons said defendant found the play unsuitable for television production wherewith plaintiff withdrew it from further circulation, and