William Gaddis - J R

— muckl suck, oh charmante, muck, suckl That’s what I likel Muck, chuck and suckl Chuck muck and…

An expletive broke from under the window planter as the sound cut off, leaving the screen filled with a face perspiring with silent imperative until the reassuring countenance of Smokey Bear restored one faltering note and then another of song.

— a laughing place, to go, hol hol

— Sen, Congressman? It’s for you, it’s Parentucelli…

— Who… Gibbs muttered immobile, eyes returning the fixity of the ursine stare from the screen — just who, exactly, was that.

— to go hol hol

— That, yes, well, the young com, ahmposer in, yes in residence, composer in residence from the Foundation. Placed with us by the Foundation that is, in the, an in-depth pilot program in the arts, that is to say a grant. Maybe Mister Ford can explain it more, more in depth?

— hol hol

— No, no, quite a different administrative area, Mister Ford sprawled easily. — Only about three percent of the Foundation’s budget goes on the arts, after all.

— A quarter, they want a quarter a yard maybe we get them down to twenty-two, twenty-three cents, Mister Pecci’s voice reached in. — No, it’s Flo-Jan. The Flo-Jan Corporation, that’s f, l, o…

— Did I miss something? Mister Gall appeared with his pencil.

— Technical difficulties creep in, trouble with their framing there a few times and they need some practice with their lenses but once you’ve got good hardware that’s all it takes. Practice.

Behind him Gibbs came slowly erect against the wall. — You can’t fault us on hardware, he said turning, as they all did, to Mister diCephalis’ entrance. — What goes into it, of course…

Gall wrote software? and waited, as Mister diCephalis with some effort pushed the frail door closed behind him to have it bob open again for Mister Leroy in his boxing shoes carrying a pail which he set down. — The control knobs here, Whiteback started as Leroy closed in silently, indicating the pail with a theatrical glance. — Well don’t, don’t bring it in here, don’t… just get rid of it! it’s not why I called for you, I just want you to fix the knobs on this set…! And they parted for Mister Leroy moving between them with his smile, fitting the knobs back on, pocketing his screwdriver and leaving the screen awash with a rain of dollar bills. — Yes now here we, wait you’re not leaving? Because we ahm, this lesson in sixth grade social studies yes we wanted you to see this lesson in terms of structuring the ahm… and his pastel flurry indicated a map of the United States mounting in distended animation toward the templed splendor of the Stock Exchange to disappear in a whirr of lines, — opening with this resource film…

— Lost their loop, Mister Ford obliged rising in his maze of cameras.

— But you both ahm, Mister Gall yes you might want to see this next lesson in terms of a good deal less ahm, less unplanlessness than the one we’ve just…

— No I meant to ask though, that line over the main entrance here? in Greek? I thought, is it Plato? or…

— someone to tell us what we mean by our share in America…?

— Yes well Mister Gibbs here might ahm, here she is now… he waved at Mrs Joubert’s image as though she might wave back.

— You might try Empedocles.

— Oh…? he juggled papers, book, pencil. — that’s e? m…?

— And if you could stay for the next studio lesson? came between them, — a re, resource program on, silkworms…

— I think it’s a fragment from the second generation of his cosmogony, maybe even the first…

— We’re yes we’re trying something new here the, combining the studio lesson with the classroom portion…

— When limbs and parts of bodies were wandering around everywhere separately heads without necks, arms without shoulders, unattached eyes looking for foreheads…

— and that’s the difference between our country and Russia isn’t it class…

— The youngsters themselves become part of the teaching process for a truly meaningful learning experience utilizing the ahm, the youngsters themselves…

— Never read it? In the second generation these parts are joining up by chance, form creatures with countless hands, faces looking in different directions…

— and that’s what owning a share in a corporation means too doesn’t it, the right to vote, just like being an Am…

— In the third generation of course you begin to get…

— Yes well that doorway is ahm, I don’t think you need to bother with the inscription there Mister Gall it’s ahm, we’re having the whole thing replaced that is to say… and he seized a hand extended from the maze of camera straps for any who cared to take it.

— That literature on closed-circuit systems I gave you there Mister Gall my card’s right in it there, Hyde, if you want any more inforlook! Wait look there’s my boy! the one, no that arm’s in the way. There, that’s his hand. See this boy in front in the diamond check sweater he’s right behind him, see the arm sticking up?

— while our volunteers count up our investment capital because our money isn’t doing anybody any good here, is it Money that isn’t out working and earning something is just like a lazy partner who…

The door banged hollow. The telephone rang. — Better just take that phone off the hook and leave it Whiteback, you’re going to be flooded with calls from every jobless welfare retired freeloading jackass in the district who sits home and…

— But my office, my office is calling me back, said Mister Pecci through gum, — on this proposition thirteen…

— in the bowel, where this raw material is converted for use as… all kinds of raw silk…

— Wait Dan you, you’re not changing that are you?

— this raw silk that can’t be wound and is called silk waste…

— It’s this, just this resource program my wife…

— Yes well I think we ought to get back to that social service lesson there Dan looks like she’s giving these youngsters a sense of real values, my boy there…

— when the silkworm starts to spin it discharges a colorless… that happens in the large bowel before… billions of dollars, and the market value of shares in public corporations today has grown to…

— Getting some feedback on that enrichment program you just broadcast to half the world, Whiteback?

— That? on the phone? No, no it’s that textbook salesman he claims he had an accident on the school property out there, he says Leroy signaled him right out that blind corner in front of a truck, one of those big asphalt trucks…

— He wasn’t out there just now when they took her away, he…

— Who Dan took who away, where…

— To the hospital Miss Flesch they, didn’t you know what happened? He was riding her over…

— Sorry to miss that, was she…

— Will you just let him tell it Gibbs? And this foulmouthed whoever this was that just took over her lesson how’d he get in there.

— Well I thought he, he tied right in didn’t he? Yes I gave him the script and…

— Why didn’t you just take the ahm, take on the lesson yourself Dan you had the script didn’t you?

— Or Vogel, you could have grabbed Vogel couldn’t you? Real masculine man’s way of putting something over we just had him on here, his voice…

— Yes but you can’t use Vogel live no those ahm, those scars yes that’s why his lessons are all taped that is to say, voice over with models and visuals but his face, we got him from the New York City schools and ahm, and doing a very fine job of course but you can’t use him live…

— to buy stock from a broker as we’ll see on our field trip, now. Our volunteers have counted up twenty-four dollars and sixty-three cents so let’s look at the closing prices on the…