"Not when we are dealing with psychological matters, your Honor," Brackman insisted.
"Your Honor, we have allowed Mr. Constantine to testify that his colonel was a homosexual. I do not see the difference…"
"He created the character," Brackman said. "He ought to know whether or not he intended a homosexual."
"We have already agreed, Mr. Brackman, that intent is not on trial here," Willow said.
"I will allow the testimony," McIntyre said. "Mr. Driscoll is not offering a psychological analysis, nor does the Court consider it such. He is discussing a literary matter in literary terms. I believe even a layman can discern the difference between a homosexual and a heterosexual in a work of fiction, and I must certainly accept Mr. Driscoll as being someone considerably more advised than a layman. I will admit the testimony. Please go on."
"In other words, Mr. Driscoll, your character Colman could not have been based in part upon a homosexual colonel in Catchpole because no such homosexual colonel exists."
"That is correct."
"And the charge that Mr. Knowles later reverted to the original…"
"There was no original to which he could have reverted."
"While we are on Private Colman, we have had a great deal of testimony here about his wearing eyeglasses in the motion picture whereas he does not wear eyeglasses in your book. Colonel Janus in the play does wear glasses, of course, as I'm sure you noticed in your reading of Catchpole."
"Yes."
"How do you explain this appearance and disappearance of eyeglasses?"
"There's nothing to explain. Private Colman does wear glasses in my book."
"He does?" Willow asked, and turned to look at Brackman in mock surprise. "Where do you find any evidence of this, Mr. Driscoll?"
"There's a scene in which Lieutenant Cooper pulls up in a jeep, and just before he steps out, Colman takes a pair of glasses from the pocket of his blouse and puts them on to get a better look at him."
"What page does this occur on, Mr. Driscoll?"
"Page 37."
"May I add, your Honor, that there are eleven people in this courtroom at the moment, and five of us are wearing eyeglasses — almost half of the people present. In fact, Mr. Brackman's partner is one of those people."
"I wear glasses myself when I'm reading," McIntyre said, "so we can raise the number to six."
"Out of eleven, your Honor."
"I assume this is privileged, is it, Mr. Willow?" Brackman asked, and smiled.
"Merely an observation, Mr. Brackman, merely an observation."
"I do not see its relevancy."
"All right, all right, let's continue," McIntyre said.
"We have heard testimony here, Mr. Driscoll, to the effect that you named your private Peter Colman after Colonel Peterson in Catchpole. Is this in fact so?"
"It is not."
"How did you in fact come upon the name Peter Colman?"
"Peter is a phallic reference."
"Why would you use a phallic reference for a character who is clearly homosexual?"
"As a personal joke."
"And Colman? What is the significance of this surname?"
"It's a literary pun."
"In what way?"
"It refers to The Iceman Cometh."
"How?"
"The iceman in Mr. O'Neill's play means death. The character Colman in my book also means death — for the lieutenant."
"I still do not see either the connection or the pun."
"When I was a child, my mother used to tell me stories about buying ice for the icebox. She would take a wagon each morning and walk over to 96th Street, where there was a coal station. She used to buy the cake of ice there and then wheel it home. In my mind, 'iceman' and 'coal man' are identical and interchangeable. The name Colman is simply an elision of 'coal man,' which is in turn a pun on 'iceman.' "
"That's a rather complicated reference, isn't it?"
"All fictional references are complicated."
"Did you intend to—"
"Objection," Brackman said immediately.
"Sustained."
"Was this written for the reader to grasp?"
"No, sir. It was entirely personal. I did it for my own amusement."
"It was not, then, a reversal of Colonel Petersons' name."
"I had never heard of Colonel Peterson until last month when I read the play."
"You were present in this courtroom yesterday, were you not, when Chester Danton testified concerning several editorial reports made at Mitchell-Campbell?"
"I was."
"Do you recall the report made by Miss Anita Lang, the one containing suggestions about Private Colman's civilian life?"
"I do."
"And the flashbacks about his civilian life?"
"I do."
"She suggested, did she not, that there was too much emphasis on his civilian background?"
"Yes, she did."
"Did you change Colman's character in accordance with Miss Lang's suggestions?"
"I only met Miss Lang once before the book was published. I didn't know at the time that the suggestions were hers. I thought they came from Chester Danton, who was my editor at Mitchell-Campbell."
"But you did make the changes?"
"Yes, I deleted the flashbacks. There were two scenes showing his civilian life. I can recall them both very clearly, if you want me to take the Court's time to describe them."
"Very briefly, if you will."
"One of the scenes finally discarded from the novel described Colman's experience in a television studio during a rehearsal — all the hectic background, the setting of lights and cameras, the cueing-in of music, makeup men, costume people — Colman had been an actor in civilian life, you see, and this was supposed to be a rehearsal for a live drama series."
"Was this scene based on an actual experience of your own?"
"A friend of mine from Music and Art later became a set designer for television, and I once attended such a rehearsal with him, yes."
"And the other scene?"
"The second scene was between Colman and his mother, and tried to show the beginnings of his homosexuality. He's appearing in a high school play, and his mother is attending the performance, and after the play there is a short and very bitter… well… anti-mother scene, I guess you'd call it, while Colman is taking off his makeup in the dressing room. It was a good scene, and I'm sorry they asked me to cut it."
"But you did cut it."
"Yes, for the sake of the narrative flow."
"Were there any changes made in Colman's character aside from the deletion of these scenes?"
"No. Once I hit upon the concept of him as a homosexual, the character remained more or less constant. And even after I cut those two flashbacks, his motivation was clearly understood by me, because the scenes were still there at the back of my mind."
"In other words, the flashbacks that were cut remained as a sort of underpainting?"
"Exactly."
"Referring again to Plaintiff's Exhibit 6, there is said to be a similarity between Sergeant Morley in your novel and Sergeant D'Agostino in Catchpole. Is Morley, in fact, based upon D'Agostino?"
"No, sir. Morley is an original creation."
"Is he based upon any real person?"
"Yes, he is based on a boy I knew at school."
"What was his name?"
"Andrew Christopher."
"Does this real name in any way account for the fictitious name you used?"
"Yes. Christopher Morley was a favorite author of mine.
The name Christopher automatically suggested Morley, and so I named the sergeant in my book Morley."