William Gaddis - A Folic Of His Own

— That's Will yes, but it's in the first act, he…

— Noble savage and all the rest of it yes, rather heavy going with all the Rousseau you laid on there, and then you get the Major quoting Aristotle on natural slaves, bit of a stick isn't he.

— Well he's supposed to be, he…

— No no, high marks old boy, high marks, smug, dense, the inert status of property got him down to a T, his whole world flying to pieces around him in that passage you lifted from the Republic where the ones who haven't earned their money don't care much about it, but the ones who have take it seriously?

— It's what I've said before isn't it Teen, you don't leave the money to the children you leave the children to the money, I mean my God look at my Deedee.

— You'd just think they could see a breakdown like that coming and do something about it before it happened.

— It was really her own fault Teen, she's never had to learn to take care of things. I mean Jerry says money means entirely different things to different people but it doesn't mean anything to her at all. Isn't that what Jerry told us, Pookie? Run over there and tell him I need a little more wine. Of course if you look around you today it's all in the hands of exactly the wrong people. What is that awful smell.

— I think Harry would tell you it's the smell of money, Trish. Harry's read Freud. You've got the paper towels, Lily? Over there, under the sideboard, can you help her Oscar?

— Listen Christina, we're not…

— Here, give me the towels old fellow, no reason you should both dirty your hands is there? he came on, arm's length under the sideboard — for some people it's credit, for some people it's a way to make more, buy stock in pharmaceuticals, the big drug companies have got a license to steal, say they need the profits for their R and D, government puts a ceiling on one product so they reconstitute it and bring out a new one that's what their R and D is for. Some of them just use it to create envy, some of them pile it up as a bastion against death itself, read Tolstoy's Master and Man but she's right, listen to Freud these days and it's like diarrhea. Rock stars, ball players, developers, stock traders and arbitragers and your celebrity general who gets five million to write a book written by somebody else yes and who else? He straightened up holding away the wadded toweling, — the lawyers they bring in to clean up the mess. Money's become the barometer of disorder. Wealth and privilege, that's what it was with your Major there at Quantness wasn't it, money was the barometer of order, better go wash my hands. Down this way isn't it? second on the right?

— It's just the greed everywhere, that bandit in the shoe repair shop taking me to small claims until Jerry got a couple of postponements and he was losing business closing up shop to come into court till we finally won by default the day he didn't show up. I thought that was frightfully clever, don't you?

— It might turn out to be frightfully expensive, had you thought of that?

— It just costs a lot more to be rich today than it used to, I mean my God Teen I'm the living proof aren't I? Just getting Deedee out of this latest mess, can you imagine what that's cost already?

— Well a breakdown's a breakdown, they always cost money who knows better than you but after all it's the girl Trish, isn't it? the poor girl after all, whatever it costs?

— It's the car Teen, the car. It was one of those Lamborghettis or whatever they are she paid two whole months' allowance for, one of these high performance things you're supposed to change the oil every ten miles they told me and I said she'd never learned to take care of things didn't I? So the bearings or something burned out and it broke down on her way back from Diddy's wedding in Newport at four in the morning and she left it standing on the Merritt Parkway for a carload of I won't say what to run into on their way to work so they told the police but I'm sure you could smell whisky a mile away and the whole thing was simply demolished, the poor dear thought she was saving money not buying collision insurance so that's eighty thousand dollars right there Jerry thinks she hasn't a hope of recovering from the dip who hit her and even if she could on his salary it would take five generations, and then of course you've got the whole carload of them claiming broken legs and concussions and God only knows what, they'll say anything. I mean the rich are always lied to, it's one of our perks.

— Well at least be glad it's not your money, is it? I mean isn't that what her trust is for?

— It's the wear and tear Teen, the wear and tear. Jerry's tried to talk to this trust officer her fool of a father named in his will because they played baseball together at Princeton who wants her to invade the trust and set up a scholarship there in her father's name to get black people on the baseball team and he's frightfully sticky about anything like this that faintly resembles real life, I mean that's what I mean about leaving the children to the money, will you pour me a little more wine while you're standing there Oscar? You can open the other bottle can't you, I just thank God for Jerry, he's so quick isn't he, I mean life is so filled with coincidences. It's such fun that you two boys had already met over this marvelous lawsuit of yours and you have so much to talk about don't you.

— I'm not sure Oscar would call it fun Trish, he'd probably rather talk about something else because…

— No but listen Christina, he just told me the appeal's been filed, Harry's come through after all putting pressure on Sam or somebody, there are oral arguments the next day or two and they've put on a new man to handle it I've got to thank him, to thank Harry for…

— Poor Harry. It's the wear and tear isn't it, the terrible pressure he's been under it's really no wonder, have you talked to him Teen?

— No he's, whenever I've called they say he's in court but this case of Oscar's, I don't think you quite understand the…

— For God's sake don't burden me with the grim details, I know Jerry will win and then we can all have a marvelous party, where is he, he's not out in the kitchen with her is he? I asked her to whip up some heavy cream earlier for these delicious chestnut tart meringues, I mean for forty dollars you'd think they could add a dab of whipped cream but oh Jerry, here you are what on earth are you carrying?

— Oysters.

— I'm sure she could have brought them in herself. Is that what you've been up to all this time?

— Been thinking. I've been thinking about our Major there old boy, bit of a stick as you said and that's as he should be, all the pompous platitudes of wealth and privilege based on land and chattels where the body of English law came from in the first place, same things that are tearing your main character to pieces out there howling for justice but now what about Kane, this character Mister Kane. A little bit stuffy himself isn't he?

— Well he's, no he's not supposed to be, he's…

— Not talking about his ideas or his dialogue, hardly need to change a word of it no, no I mean his persona, this fellow in philosophy and all the rest of it? Just thinking maybe you want a little more contrast there, make him something else, something entirely contradictory, how about one of those itinerant peddlers who covered the countryside in those days. Pots and pans, scissors, handsaws, nostrums, a roll of calico for the ladies, plantations like your Quantness there were miles from anything, little worlds to themselves and he was the outside world, he was a real institution because his real stock in trade was news and gossip, welcomed with opened arms wherever he showed up with what they really hungered for.

— But that's not what I…