William Gaddis - A Folic Of His Own

MR.MADHAR PAI: Are you implying that there is something pejorative in the use of the word amateur?

MR.BASIE: In this context that's exactly what I'm saying.

MR.MADHAR PAI: And that forms the basis for your objection?

MR.BASIE: Exactly. May I ask you…

MR.MADHAR PAI: I'm not here to be questioned.

MR.BASIE: I would just like your question cleared up.

MR.MADHAR PAI: It's a new question, Mr. Basie.

MR.BASIE: That was the other question. I said I object to this one too.

MR.MADHAR PAI: You are still having trouble with the word amateur.

MR.BASIE: I want to have it clearly denned. Without all the baggage.

MR.MADHAR PAI: In the sense of a dilettante, is that what you object to? Superficial, elitist…

MR.BASIE: Where it's not done just for payment.

MR.MADHAR PAI: Fine. We can proceed.

Q Since you do not derive your income from playwriting, would it be fair to describe you as an amateur playwright?

A If that is your characterization, I… Q I want to clarify something with respect to…

MR.BASIE: I have to object. To question the witness and not allow him to respond, to finish his answer, that's entirely unprofessional.

MR.MADHAR PAI: I withdraw it.

Since his answer was not responsive I'm just trying to move things along here and…

MR.BASIE: I want the record to show my objection to this flagrant abuse of the witness.

MR.MADHAR PAI: I withdrew it, Mr. Basie. Now in the interests of moving this along without unduly…

MR.BASIE: You withdrew it by calling his answer unresponsive when you hadn't allowed him to finish it, how do you know whether it would have been responsive or not.

MR.MADHAR PAI: Maybe we should adjourn this and do it elsewhere.

MR.BASIE: Why.

MR.MADHAR PAI: Because that way we could proceed without these constant interruptions, or at least under the supervision of a Federal magistrate. There's a contentious element creeping in here that I don't want to interrupt the sworn testimony of the plaintiff.

MR.BASIE: I think the record will be perfectly clear where the plaintiff's sworn testimony is being interrupted in an entirely unprofessional manner that I'm entitled to object to and I do object.

MR.MADHAR PAI: All right.

MR.BASIE: I don't mind if you ask questions on this subject matter. I am merely…

MR.MADHAR PAI: I am gratified.

MR.BASIE: I am merely asking that you make these questions in the proper form.

MR.MADHAR PAI: Fine. We can proceed.

(Document marked Defendants' Exhibit 1 for identification as of this date.)

Q The play on which plaintiff brings this action for infringement is titled Once at Antietam. Is this your own title, or is it meant to somehow conjure up something?

MR.BASIE: The witness does not need to answer that or even comment since the title's not protected by copyright in any case.

MR.MADHAR PAI: Are you objecting?

MR.BASIE: I want the record to show I am objecting on a matter of substantive law here.

MR.MADHAR PAI: I am not questioning the copyright one way or the other. I think the question will stand. Read it back.

(Record read.)

A In a way possibly, yes. It echoes a line in Othello.

Q For the record, you are referring to the play Othello by William Shakespeare?

A The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, by William Shakespeare, yes.

Q Will you identify the line?

A In his death scene at the end, yes. 'And say besides, that in Aleppo once, where a malignant and a turban'd Turk Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state, I took by the throat the circumcised dog, and smote him thus.' And he stabs himself.

Q And the title Once at Antietam is intended to evoke reverberations of that dramatic moment at Aleppo seized upon by Shakespeare in his memorable poetic rendition?

A Well it, yes.

Q To evoke these reverberations in a wide audience, would you say? Or a potentially wide audience?

A To anyone who's read Shakespeare.

Q Would you characterize that as a general audience? Or a rather narrow one? A As the theatre going audience. Q As a relatively narrow audience then, a traditionally elite audience? In other words you wouldn't have expected a mass audience to make this Shakespeare connection? A Well, you made it didn't you?

Q I ask the questions. I am asking the questions and I want to move this along. As an amateur playwright, is that a fair assumption?

MR.BASIE: Excuse me, but I can't let the witness answer that. We're not making assumptions here.

MR. MADHAR PAI: Are you making an objection?

MR.BASIE: I am entitled to object to the form of questions, as you know, and I object as to form, yes. To any question based on an assumption, whatever it is that's being assumed.

MR. MADHAR PAI: I am assuming that one would not expect a mass audience to make an esoteric connection with a phrase from Shakespeare.

MR.BASIE: That's not the question that was asked.

MR. MADHAR PAI: My patience is wearing quite thin, Mr. Basie. I did not state that that was the question, I was repeating the assumption that formed the basis for your objection.

MR.BASIE: My objection is based on your assumption characterizing the witness as an amateur. It's disparaging and I direct him not to answer.

MR. MADHAR PAI: I thought we had cleared that up. Read it back, please. (Record read.)

Q If we've denned services that are done for pay as those of a professional, can we distinguish those done without pay as the efforts of the amateur?

A Broadly speaking, but…

MR.MADHAR PAI: You have an objection, Mr. Basie?

MR.BASIE: The form is improper, the form of the question employing the phrase 'the efforts of the amateur,' the word 'efforts.' It's disparaging.

MR.MADHAR PAI: It's a perfectly good English word.

MR.BASIE: In this context, the way it's used here it implies failure, just reeks of it. You've got your professional there being paid for these services where the amateur's efforts aren't making him a dime. It's pejorative on two counts.

MR.MADHAR PAI: You seem bent on turning this procedure into some sort of Chinese water torture. Can we move on?

MR.BASIE: I thought we'd cleared all this up. This word amateur starts out to mean doing something for the love of it, that's the root, doing it for its own sake without a price on it. Now these days where there's a price on everything, what's not worth getting paid for's not worth doing. You say something's amateurish means it's a real halfassed job. You want the best you hire a professional. A real pro, as they say.

MR.MADHAR PAI: So that accusing someone of unprofessional conduct is pretty damning.

MR.BASIE: Where you have money setting the standard for performance it's the worst.

MR.MADHAR PAI: Thank you. MR.BASIE: See here's where you run into trouble with the arts. You want an example?

MR. MADHAR PAI: No. MR.BASIE: You take van Gogh, the painter Vincent van Gogh? A painting of his brought over fifty million dollars a few years ago but in his whole lifetime he only sold one picture, that make him an amateur? Some hobby he had, turning out these halfassed pictures on Sunday afternoons? You get into this you're getting into apples and oranges.

MR. MADHAR PAI: Mr. Basie please! Are you objecting? Is it as to form? If you are will you state your objection for the record, if you can remember it? I'm sure none of us else can. You expressed the wish when we commenced of conducting this examination as expeditiously as possible and I am doing my best to accommodate you for all our sakes but you are wearing my patience extremely thin confusing the issue with your remarks about apples and oranges which I think you'll find, incidentally, to have been featured in the still lifes painted by Cezanne, not van Gogh, who favored sunflowers. Now if we may be allowed to move along, I wish to direct the witness's attention to plaintiff's Exhibit Number 11.