Frolic of His Own (6 page)

In reaching these conclusions, the court acts from the conviction that risk of ridicule, of attracting defamatory attentions from his colleagues and even raucous demonstrations by an outraged public have ever been and remain the foreseeable lot of the serious artist, recalling among the most egregious examples Ruskin accusing Whistler of throwing a paint pot in the public's face, the initial scorn showered upon the impressionists and, once they were digested, upon the Cubists, the derision greeting Bizet's musical innovations credited with bringing about his death of a broken heart, the public riots occasioned by the first performance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and from the day Aristophanes labeled Euripides ‘a maker of ragamuffin mannequins' the avalanche of disdain heaped upon writers: the press sending the author of Ode on a Grecian Urn ‘back to plasters, pills, and ointment boxes,' finding Ibsen's Ghosts ‘a loathsome sore unbandaged, a dirty act done publicly' and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina ‘sentimental rubbish,' and in our own land the contempt accorded each succeeding work of Herman Melville, culminating in Moby Dick as ‘a huge dose of hyperbolical slang, maudlin sentimentalism and tragic-comic bubble and squeak,' and
since Melville's time upon writers too numerous to mention. All this must most arguably in deed and intent affect the sales of their books and the reputations whereon rest their hopes of advances and future royalties, yet to the court's knowledge none of this opprobrium however enviously and maliciously conceived and however stupid, careless, and ill informed in its publication has ever yet proved grounds for a successful action resulting in recovery from the marplot. In short, the artist is fair game and his cause is turmoil. To echo the words of Horace, Pictoribus atque poetis quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas, in this daring invention the artist comes among us not as the bearer of idées reçues embracing art as decoration or of the comfort of churchly beliefs enshrined in greeting card sentiments but rather in the aesthetic equivalent of one who comes on earth ‘not to send peace, but a sword.'

The foregoing notwithstanding, before finding for plaintiff on the main action before the court set forth in his motion for a preliminary injunction barring interference of any sort by any means by any party or parties with the sculptural creation Cyclone Seven the court is compelled to address whether, following such a deliberate invasion for whatever purpose however merciful in intent, the work can be restored to its original look in keeping with the artist's unique talents and accomplishment or will suffer irreparable harm therefrom. Bowing to the familiar adage Cuilibet in arte sua perito est credendum, we hold the latter result to be an inevitable consequence of such invasion and such subsequent attempt at reconstitution at the hands of those assembled for such purposes in the form of members of the local Fire Department, whose training and talents such as they may be must be found to lie elsewhere, much in the manner of that obituary upon our finest poet of the century wherein one of his purest lines was reconstituted as ‘I do not think they will sing to me' by a journalist trained to eliminate on sight the superfluous ‘that.'

For the reasons set out above, summary judgment is granted to plaintiff as to preliminary injunction.

They heard the racket before she got out of the car, through the rain running up the wet steps of that veranda to tug at the door, down the hall past the library and into the sunroom with —Oscar! What's going on!

—Damn.

—Well stop thrashing around, you could tip that thing over and hurt yourself. I mean what are you trying to do.

—Hurt myself! What do you think I, where is she what does it look like. She sat me here in a draft and just left me here and the rain starts I've been trying to close this damned, damned . . .

—Yes all right just, if you'll just relax and let me wait, will you just let go of it! She twisted the cane's handle free of the blind's louvers where he'd thrust it through trying to snag the catch on the casement window, —there. And she got it closed. —Did it occur to you to simply move your chair out of the . . .

—Did it occur to you that the damned thing won't move? The wheels locked or something, maybe it's the battery. Can you make me some tea?

—My God, you do have trouble with vehicles don't you, where is she, what's her name.

—If I knew where she was do you think I'd been sitting here in the rain? She hates that little room you've put her in I'll tell you that Christina.

—I'll put her in your old room on the top floor when you were a little boy, she can go up there and play with your rock collection, just turn your head a little. No, this way.

—What's the . . .

—It's not bad at all is it, your scar. You'd hardly notice it.

—You'll notice it, I just have to ask Harry, I thought he was coming out with you.

—He's getting some things from the car Oscar listen, before he comes in, he doesn't want to make a Federal case of it but these phone calls you've been making to his office, he's been terribly busy and he just can't put up with them. He even said that you'd . . .

—Well if that's what he, if he hasn't even got time to . . .

—No but that's what he said Oscar, it isn't his time, it's their time, the law firm's time, they charge their clients for fifteen minutes if they talk for three he'll explain it to you, it's . . .

—Their clients? I thought he was my brother in law, I thought you wanted me to make him feel like a member of the family, isn't that what you do if you're a member of the family? help out when somebody in the family needs your advice?

—But that's the point Oscar, you're not a client, you're not paying them for his advice, that's why he's come out here today, a Sunday, he brings work home, he eats late, this case he's been working on it's in the millions of dollars it's been going on for years, he hasn't a minute to himself he said you'd even asked him to go to this movie for you we just haven't had the time. That's why we're late getting out here now, he had to make some calls before we left and I told the garage to bring the car around while I got your groceries together and I'd meet him in front of the building, and of course it was raining . . .

And of course they'd both been out there, waiting in the rain by the time the car appeared, the grocery bag already split down the side. He'd drive, he told her, get it over with and make an early start back, —and you? You've decided to stay out there?

—My God Harry I don't know, my coat's caught in the door here can you wait? She got it open, slammed it and —I won't know till we've seen him. He's been out of the hospital for three days and he's already got everything in a turmoil, that nine hundred dollar chair I got for him he'll probably break his neck in it and this woman I brought in, white columnar thighs to break a bull's back isn't that what you said once? Whether she can cook but she may get his mind off of Lily long enough to be careful! She'd seized the dashboard, clinging there with a tremor —my God . . .

—Did you see that?

—No but please just, be careful . . .

—Did you see that? his knuckles gone white on the wheel, —steps right in front of the car and holds up his hand, did you see that?

—God Harry just be careful. They're crazy. I mean you're the one who told me that aren't you? take for granted everybody in this city's crazy till they show you otherwise? You could have killed him.

—Better than just knocking him down, see a car like this one they know how much liability you're carrying and you're in court for the rest of your life.

—Just the rage. If you saw his eyes, that's what this city runs on, where it gets its energy. Rage.

—It's the money, Christina. The rest of it's . . .

—It's not The Marriage of Figaro I'll tell you that. She's got a new lawyer for her mess of a divorce who wants to handle Oscar's accident, shock, injury, loss of income, disfigurement, a million, five, God knows what nonsense, you said he's called you?

—Called me? sweeping up the avenue through the burst of a cab's horn so close she started, freed into traffic lifting both hands from the wheel for a gesture —called me! I told you, look Christina. I told you to speak to him, he gets me at the office and I can't get him off the phone. I don't want to hurt his feelings but you know the pressure we're under down there. A client calls and knows it's costing him seventy five dollars just to pick up the phone but Oscar, it never occurs to him that . . .

—Well it doesn't Harry, that's just the point, it just doesn't occur to him. Flat on his back, I mean what's more natural than to reach for the telephone and he's been simply frantic since this movie opened, he's just getting used to the idea that he has a brother in law he thinks he can turn to and when he can't reach you, when they tell him you're in court . . .

—Because I've finally told Doris that whenever he calls I'm in court, that I'm in conference, that I'm out of the office, I'm not trying to make a Federal case out of this Christina but you've got to do something. I thought he resented me intruding on the family by marrying you, try to show him some family concern, fine. That's what I'm doing today, now,
Sunday, but even that woman we met at the hospital? the one with the blood bath, you actually gave her my number too?

—Trish?

—Well who else. Maybe you should just tell your friends I'm a public relations man, that I'm in ladies' underwear, an ad account executive, something completely useless that . . .

—Trish would love you in ladies' underwear Harry.

—Look I'm serious! She got on the phone with her whole life history, the time they took her to Payne Whitney when she cut her wrists? Patched her up, gave her some pills, when they sent her a bill for eleven thousand dollars she tried it again, now she wants to sue this hospital for something she calls foetal endangerment?

—Because that's what she was doing there. I mean she came in for that amniosomething, centesis, that test they give pregnant women our age to make sure the baby won't be born with one leg or eight thumbs and she'd have it aborted, she's already got a sweet little boy about ten named T J and when that blood got spilled on her obviously that's the first thing she thought of. She just wants to be sure before she marries Bunker.

—I see.

—I don't think you do, Harry. I mean if she married him first and then got these tests and had to have the abortion, she'd be stuck with Bunker on her hands for no earthly purpose until God knows when, he'd be awfully expensive to unload and of course he doesn't know a thing about the boy.

—If she's thinking of making him a stepfather, I don't . . .

—Of making who, Bunker? You see you don't listen, I mean this boy she's been seeing, where do you think the pregnancy came from. Of course she hasn't mentioned it to him, he's trying to be a writer and obviously hasn't got a penny you can't seriously picture her married to him, she's twice his age and I mean Bunker's twice hers but he's so pickled he'll last out the century and if Bunker got in there and anything happened to her T J would never see a penny.

—The rate she's going looks like old Bunker's onto a sure thing.

—Well you can't laugh at them Harry, making fun of people's troubles I mean that's the way it sounds sometimes, if you could just stop and try to see their good side?

—Married the wrong man, Christina. We don't get to see much of the good side, greed, stupidity, double dealing, a system like ours you expect it to bring out the best in people? One lawyer to every four or five hundred and most of them can't afford one anyway, the ones who can like your friend here are even worse, make a mess of things and expect to be rescued, they . . .

—You didn't need to be rude to her.

—I was not rude to her! When I finally got a word in . . .

—That all you could talk about was money.

—Exactly. Look. I told her I don't do matrimonials. I told her I don't do negligence. I told her I could set up a conference for her and there'd be a charge, if the firm took her case there'd be a retainer, it happens every time. The minute you mention money they think you're being rude when that's all they've got on their minds in the first place, look at Oscar. Perfectly happy if the insurance company would just pay his hospital bills till Lily drags in this ambulance chaser whetting his appetite for damages? Why I went into corporate law in the first place where it's greed plain and simple. It's money from start to finish, it's I want what you've got, nobody out there with these grievances they expect you to share, have you got a dollar? Another dollar, for the toll.

—I don't, wait . . . she dug deeper, —here. It's just what I . . .

—Look at Oscar with this damn movie, you've got to explain to him Christina, these phone calls and the rest of the . . .

—I don't see why you can't explain it to him yourself, I mean it's just what I said earlier isn't it? about being taken seriously? Simply explain to him that you look out! My God Harry, you shouldn't drive when you're upset, that little green car anybody who drives a car like that don't you know he's going to try to prove something?

—Cuts me off because he wants me to take him seriously, exactly. Look, I can't explain things to Oscar because I can't get a word in. Because you want this great show of brotherly concern I'm supposed to get as upset as he is over this monstrous injustice, the minute I mention money we'll end up just like your friend with her foetal endangerment. He probably doesn't have a case. If he does the chances are it can't be won. They get these nuisance suits all the time, people with grandiose ideas about suing Hollywood for millions even if he's got one, even if Oscar's really got a case with this play of his he's got to know it will cost him money. He's got to know you can always lose a lawsuit and your money with it, that's the point, has he got it? the money? Because you don't start something like this on what they pay a college history teacher.