I gave Richard Farnsworth so much shit, we all did, the pure one, we’d say, he lived in LA but you never saw him, not at the parties, not the pure one, I cast him in The Two Jakes, and maybe I thought I could brush up against that purity, that greatness, that’s what I thought at the time, but no, my real motive, only figured it out later, my real motive, bust up that purity, that greatness, bust up Farnsworth …
Cast Farnsworth, made him ridiculous, The Two Jakes, Farnsworth unsuited, utterly, to stand up to John Huston, Farnsworth would have to stand up to John HustTONCSM M<EZ4SW/ 4M/
instead he was crushed by John Huston, by the weight of that performance, I saw him crushed, Farnsworth, saw the juice squeezed out of him …
My best performance, one of the greaAA4A<PEW?PM}/
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couldn’t go on after, Dead Jack took over …
Farnsworth destroyed The Two Jakes …
I needed a man, I cast a ghost, I made a perverse casting decision that made Farnsworth a ghost …
Threw it all out of balance, could have been a brilliant picture, great director, shitcanned all that, to lash out at the pure one, Jack saidOOR35#SIZ? WM<WPST/
on the plane from the Green Zone to Germany.
Condi’s not going to stand for thO56^,IA3EXAICEA} 5OAO}.SM<X46RUST/
I hope you know that, I told Jack as I flew from the Green Zone to Germany.
You think Condi won’t fight your big mystery cat, you’ve got another one coming …
Before I boarded the plane for Germany I called her again, I reminded Jack.
Yes, she’d sent them all away, her nurses and bodyguards, she had put into motion her suicide plan, I understood from her puffing, I told Jack.
A big mystery cat has just now entered the house, I understood from her puffing, I told Jack.
My Condi alone in her sickroom, blankets pulled to neck, boxes of red roses suspended everywhere, roses spilling, petals drifting against her eyelashes, phone in hand, shotgun under the covers, glossy photo tacked on the facing wall, Faye and Diane Ladd, that photo there too, I understood from her puffing, I told Jack.
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Up the stairs a big mystery cat was coming, he’d been coming for a long time, hundreds of stairs, thousands, white stairs, white walls, so whatever was coming she could hear for hours, I understood from her puffing, I told Jack.
Shotgun no defense against a big mystery cat …
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Her sickroom in the sky, one stairway, no windows, banks of TVs now deactivated, white walls, white light …
For years she’d wanted to die …
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She’d kept the still a secret, all those years in my jam jar in her lockbox she had treasured the secret of the still, such beauty …
A big mystery cat was leaping up the stairs …
Open the lockbox, unscrew the jam jar’s lid, experience the still, WW L5>.>^O# >/
world-historical art, then wait to die …
With each of the cat’s moves she was losing her nerve, a muted rush of paws spilling up the stairs, she wanted to live, all of a sudden she wanted it so bad, I understood from her puffing, I told Jack.
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he’d send that big cat to kill me, it’s what I wanted, but I’m telling you I don’t want that anymore, call him, call him right now, tell him to call of his big cat, my sister puffed …
I knew you’d betray me, but also, I didn’t, my sister puffed …
I knew it was hatred unto death, but also I didn’t know that PRQW/ R?#/ X>.EZQP3P^I}O{ CM ZP?
I didn’t know, how could I really, truly know that, my sister puffed …
I thought if you told him, then what I’d do is die, and if5PCCE M/C/ RP,ICAQOCS S>,SOX<?X/#{IU WS /4
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can hear it louder now, please call Jack, any minute now the animal, he’ll shred the phone line, we’ll be cut off, I’ll see a silhouette, top of the stairs, huge, swelling, rolling at terrible angles through the doorway and up onto the ceilings, a feline shadow, flowing up every wall, it will happen so fast, but also, so slow, please call him, call Jack right now, please help me, I’ll fire the shotgun, I’ll strike the big cat with what’s in my shotgun, tear a great hole in him, it won’t be enough, he’ll be wounded, mortally, but not enough, not fast enough, he’ll rip me, his huge teeth, huge claws, he’ll rip me, he’ll rip my seams wide open, then leap away off the bed, to the facing wall, claws out, he’ll tear down and devour the still, white light, white light blasting forth from his mouth and the hole in his side, white light streaming from the big cat as the still is destroyed, shooting outward and starting slowly to turn as it devours, as my body and the body of the big cat are consumed by and transformed into white light …
I told Condi it just slipped out, that sometimes something slips out …
You’re my sister, I said.
I can’t think about all this right now, all that happened was something that slipped out …
I was in the Green Zone, I was brokering a peace …
Sometimes it just slips out …
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Who said hatred …
Who said death …
Who said any of us has to die …
I don’t think we ever have to die, really …
You’re holding something so tight, but somehow it still slips …
I was the only paramount authority figure most Iraqis had ever known, I told Condi, the only one except Saddam, didn’t she understand that …