PART TWO ：Perestroika
l feel like somethings going to give. It's 1985, fifteen years in the third miiiennium..
Nothing to get anxious about. How would you like to move to Washington?
So say it, Henry
You have AIDS, Roy
You are not about to die
I'm not going to leave you, Harper
Maybe not. But I'm going to leave you
Life is full of horror. Nobody escapes, nobody
I'm dying, where's Louis?
Greetings, Prophet
The Great Work begins. The Messenger has arrived
ACT ONE : Spooj
In the Hall of Deputies, the Kremlin, December 1985
Aleksii Antediliuvianovich Preiapsarianov, the world's oldest living Bolshevik
The great question before us is: are we doomed?
The great question before us is: will the past release us?
The great question before us is：can we change? In time?
And we all desire that change will come
And theory?How are we to proceed without theory?
What system of Thought have these reformers to present...
...to this mad swirling planetary disorganization?
To the inevident welter of fact, event, phenomenon, calamity?
Do they have, as we did, a beautiful theory, as bold, as grand, as comprehensive a construct?
You can't imagine, when we first read the Classic Texts...
When in the dark vexed night of our ignorance and terror...
...the seed-words sprouted and shoved incomprehension aside...
...when the incredible bloody vegetable struggle up and through into red blooming gave us Praxis
True Praxis, True Theory married to Actual Life
You who live in this sour Little Age cannot imagine the grandeur of the prospect we gazed upon
Like standing atop the highest peak in the mighty Caucasus...
...and viewing in one all-knowing glance the mountainous, granite order of creation
We were one with the sidereal pulse then
In the blood in our heads we heard the tick of the infinite
You cannot imagine it. I weep for you
And what have you to offer now, children of this Theory?
What have you to offer in its place?
Market incentives? American cheeseburgers?
Watered-down Bukharinite stopgap makeshift capitalism！NEPmen！Pygmy children of a gigantic race！
Change? Yes, we must must change, only show me the Theory, and I will be at the barricades
Show me the book of the next Beautiful Theory...
...and I promise you these blind eyes will see again, just to read it, to devour that text
Show me the words that will reorder the world, or else keep silent
If the snake sheds his skin before a new skin is ready...
...naked he wiII be in the world, prey to the forces of chaos
Without his skin he wiII be dismantled, Iose coherence and die
Have you, my little serpents, a new skin?
Then we dare not, we cannot, we must not move ahead
Alphabetland
This is where the Jews Iived when they first arrived
And now, a hundred years Iater, the place to which their more seriousIy fucked-up grandchildren repair
This is progress?
It's a terrible mess. It's a little dirty.
Messy, not dirty. That's an important distinction
It's dust, not dirt, chemical-slash-mineral, not organic, not Iike microbes, more Iike...
Can I take your tie off? - No, wait, I'm uncomfortable, actually
Me, too, actually. Being uncomfortable turns me on
Your boyfriend. He's sick. And I...- Very. He's not my boyfriend, we...
We can cap everything that Ieaks in Iatex, we can smear our bodies with nonoxynoI-9
Safe, chemical sex. Messy, but not dirty
Look, I want to but I don't want to beg
No, I... Oh come on. Please
-I should go - Fine. Ohblahdee, ohblahdah, life goes on. Rah
- What?- Hurry home to the missus
Married gentlemen before cruising the Ramble should first remove their bands of gold
Go if you're going. Go
I'm not staying
-What kind of cologne is that? - Faberge
Oh, very butch, very heterosexual high school. Faberge
You smeII nice. So do you.
Smell is an incredibly complex and underappreciated physical phenomenon inextricably bound up with sex
I didn't know that - It is
The nose is really a sexual organ. Smelling is desiring
We have five senses, but only two that go beyond the boundaries of ourselves
When you Iook at someone, it's just bouncing Iight. When you hear them, it's just sound waves
Vibrating air. Touch, is just nerve endings tingIing. Know what a smeII is?
It's some sort of... No
It's made up of the molecules of what you're smeIIing. Some part of you, where you meet the air, is airborne
LittIe molecules of Joe... Up my nose
Nice. Try it
Try? -Inhale
-Nice? -Yes
-I should... -Smelling and tasting. First the nose, then the tongue
- I just don't... - They work as a team, see
The nose tells the body, the heart, the mind, the fingers the cock... what it wants
And then the tongue explores, finding out what's edible, what isn't
What's most mineral, food for the blood, food for the bones, and therefore most delectable
Salt
Iron. Clay
Chlorine. Copper. Earth
- What does that taste Iike? Um...
- What?-Well... Nighttime
Stay? - Yes
Louis? What did that mean, ohbiahdee ohbIah...?
Sssh. Words are the worst things. Breathe. Smell
Or if you have to talk, talk dirty
The oboe. Official instrument of the International Order of Travel Agents
If the duck were a songbird it would sing Iike this. Nasal, desolate, the call of migratory things
I'm freezing -Where did you get that?
From the great Antarctic pine forests Right over that hiII
There are no pine forests in Antarctica
I chewed this pine tree down with my teeth. Like a beaver
I'm hungry, I haven't eaten in three days. I'm going to use it to build something, maybe a fire
I don't understand why I'm not dead. When your heart breaks, you should die
But there's still the rest of you. There's your breasts, and your genitals
And they're amazingiy stupid, Iike babies or faithful dogs
They don't get it, they just want him. Want him
The Eskimo is back. I know
I wanted a real Eskimo, someone chilly and reIiabIe, not this, this is just some Iawyer
Hey, buddy- Hey
-I Iooked for you. I've been everywhere -WeII, you found me
No, I'm not Iooking now. I guess I'm having an adventure
Can I come with you? This isn't working anymore. I'm cold
- I wouIdn't want you to see. Think it's worse than what I imagine? It isn't
- I shouid go. Bastard. You fell out of Iove with me
That isn't true, Harper
Why did you come here? Leave me alone if you're so goddamned happy.
You want me here
To see you again. Any way I can. Oh God I wish you were... No I don't
- Please don't - Dead
Come back. Oh, buddy, I wish so much that I could
But how can I? I can't
- BIues for the death of Heaven. No!
I tried to tell you. There are no Eskimo in Antarctica
- No. No trees either -So where did you get that?
From the Botanical Gardens Arboretum. It's right over there. Prospect Park
We're still in Brooklyn I guess
The Law for real. Damn. Busted.What a Iousy vacation
Pitt residence
No, he's out. This is his mother. No I have no idea where he is. I have no idea
He was supposed to meet me at the airport, but I don't wait more than three and three quarters...
Yes of course I know her, yes she Iives here, what's...
Oh my Lord! Is she...Wait, Officer, I don't...
She did what, exactly?
Why on earth would she chew down a pine tree?
You have no business Iaughing about it, you can stop that right now. That's ugly
Apology accepted
I don't know where that is, I just arrived from Sait Lake and I barely found Brookiyn
I had to give the superintendent money to Iet me into the...
I'II take a taxicab
No! No hospital. She's not insane, she's just bewildered, she..
I don't see how it's any business of yours what she is
TeII her Mother Pitt is coming
WiII you Iook at this!
First goddamn orgasm in months and I slept through it
Ten East - I am drenched in spooj
Spooj? -Cum. Jiz. Ejaculate. I've had a wet dream
huh, bound to happen, you've been abstemious to excess. Beaucoup de spooj
- It was a woman - A woman?
Not a conventionai woman Grace Jones... HeIIo?
-It was an angel. Oh fabulous
I feel Iascivious. Come over
I spent the whoie day with you, I do have a Iife of my own, you know
- I'm sad. I thought you were Iascivious
Lascivious sad. Wonderful and horrible all at once
Like there's a war inside. My eyes are funny, I..
Oh, I'm crying. Prior?
I'm scared. And also full of, I don't know, joy or something
Hope
- Are you the duty nurse? -Yo. Look, baby, I gotta go
Oh no, not yet, I... Sing something first. Sing with me -Wash up and sleep
- Are you the duty nurse?-Yo, I said
- Then why are you dressed Iike that? You don't Iike it?
I'II call you in the morning when I... Just one little song. Some hymn?
Nurse, Hang up the fucking…… One moment, please. This is an emergency
Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newbom king
Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled
What's your name?
Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies
With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem
Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the newbom king
Call you back. There's a man bothering me Je t'aime
- May I heIp you? Nurses are supposed to wear white
Doctors are supposed to be home, in Westchester, asleep
Emergency admit, Room 1013. Here are the charts
Start the drip, Gamma G and he'll need a CTM, radiation in the morning so clear diet and...
- What? Liver cancer
Just ignore that. Oncology's on six, doII
This is the right fIoor. It says Iiver cancer.I dont give a fuck what it says.
I said this is the right fIoor. Got it?
Ooooh, testy. He's a very important man
- Then I shouldn't fuck up his medication? -Think you can manage that?
And, maybe, you know, confidentiality. Don't share this with your sewing circle
Safe home... Asshole
I have some piping hot dish
- How hot can it be at three in the... Get out your oven mitts
Don't tell anyone, but guess who just checked in with the troubles?
The KiIIer Queen herself. New York's number one closeted queer
- Koch? No, not Koch. Better
- The Lord moves in mysterious ways -Oh indeed. Indeed She do
Get outta here you, I got nothing to say to you
Just doing my job. I want a white nurse. My constitutional right
You're in a hospital, you don't have any constitutionai rights
Find the vein, you moron, don't start jabbing that goddamned spigot in my arm...
...tiII you find the fucking vein or I'll sue you so bad they'll repossess your teeth, you dim black...
Watch. yourself. You don't talk to me that way when I'm hoIding something this sharp
Or I might sIip and stick it in your heart. If you have a heart
Oh I do. Tough little muscle -I bet
Now I've been doing drips a Iong time. I can sIip this in so easy you'll think you were born with it
Or I can make it feet Iike just hooked you up to a bag of Liquid Drano
So you be nice to me or you're going to be one sorry asshole come morning
-Nice - Nice and quiet
There
-I hurt - I'II get you a painkiIIer
- WiII it knock me out?- I sure hope so
Then shove it. Pain's nothing, pain's life Sing it, baby
When they did my facelift, I made the anesthesiologist use a Iocal
They Iifted up my whole face Iike a dinner napkin and I was wide awake to see it
- BuIIshit. No doctor would agree to do that - I can get anyone to do anything I want
For instance. Let's be friends. Jews and coloreds, historical Iiberal coalition, right?
My people being the first to sell retail to your people, your people being the first people...
...my people couid afford to hire to sweep out the store Saturday mornings
And then we aII heId hands and rode the bus to Selma
Not me of course, I don't ride buses, I take cabs
But the thing about the American Negro is, he never went Communist
Loser Jews did. But you people had Jesus, so the Reds never got to you. I admire that
Your chart didn't mention that you're delusional.
Barking mad. Sit. Talk
Mr Cohn. I'd rather suck the pus out of an abscess. I'd rather drink a subway toilet
I'd rather chew off my tongue and spit it in your Ieathery face
So thanks for the offer of conversation, but I'd rather not
Oh for christ sake. Whatta I gotta do? Beg? I don't want to be alone.
Oh how I fucking hate hospitals, nurses, this waste of time and wasting and weakness
I want to kiII the... Course they can't kiII this, can they?
No. It's too simple. It knows itself. It's harder to kiII something if it knows what it is
- Like pubic Iice. You ever have pubic Iice? -That is none of your...
I got some kind of super crabs from some kid once
It took twenty drenchings of KweII and finaIIy shaving to get rid of the little bastards
Nothing could kiII them. And every time I had to itch I'd smile...
...because I Iearned to respect them, these unkiIIabIe crabs, because I Iearned to identify. You know?
Determined IowIife. Like me
You've seen Iots of guys with this?- Lots
- How do I Iook, comparativeiy? I'd say you're in trouble
I'm going to die. Soon. That was a question
Probably. Probably so
Hah. I appreciate the honesty, or whatever
If I Iive I could sue you for emotional distress, the whole hospital, but...
I'm not preiudiced, I'm not a prejudiced man
These racist guys, simpletons, I never had any use for them. Too rigid
You want to keep your eye on where the most powerful enemy reaIIy is. I save my hate for what counts
WeII. And I think that's a good idea, a good thing to do, probably
This didn't come from me and I don't Iike you, but Iet me tell you a thing or two
They have you down for radiation tomorrow for the sarcoma Iesions
And you don't want to Iet them do that, because radiation wiII kiII the T-cells...
...and you don't have any you can afford to Iose
So tell the doctor no thanks for the radiation. He won't want to Iisten
Persuade him or he'II kiII you
You're just a fucking nurse. Why should I Iisten to you over my very quaIified, very expensive WASP doctor?
- He's not queer. I am. Don't wink at me
You said a thing or two? So that's one
I don't know what strings you pulled to get in on the azidothymidine trials
- I have my Iittle ways. Uh-huh
Watch out for the double blind. They want you to sign something...
...that says they can give you M&M instead of the real drug. You'll die
But they'll get the kind of statistics they can publish in the New England Joumal of Medicine
And you can't sue cause you signed. And if you don't sign, no piIIs
So if you have any strings left, puII them, because everyone's put through the double blind
And with this, time's against you, you can't fuck around with placebos
-You hate me - Yes
- Why are you tellng me this? I wish I knew
You're a butterfingers spook faggot nurse. I think you have little reason to want to help me
Consider it solidarity. One faggot to another
Any more of your Iip, boy, and you'II be fIipping Big Macs in East Hell before tomorrow night
And get me a real phone, with a hold button
I mean Iook at this, it's just one little Iine
Now how am I supposed to perform basic bodily functions on this?
Yeah who is this, the operator，Give me an outside Iine
WeII then diaI for me. It's a medical emergency, darling
DiaI the fucking number or I'II strangle myself with the phone cord
202 733 8525
Martin HeIIer. Oh hi, Martin. Yeah I know what time it is, I couIdn't sleep, I'm busy dying
Listen, Martin, this drug they got me on,azido-methataIo-moIamocawhatchamacallit
Yeah. AZT
I want my own private stash, Martin
Of Serious Honest-Abe medicine that I control, here in the room with me
No placebos, I'm no good at tests, Martin, I'd rather cheat
So send me my piIIs with a get-well bouquet, pronto, or I'II ring up CBS and sing Mike Wallace a song
The Ballad of Adorable Ollie North and His Secret Contra Slush Fund
Oh, you only think you know aII I know. I don't even know what aII I know
Half the time I just make it up, and it still turns out to be true
We Iearned that trick in the fifties
Tomorrow, you two-bit scumsucking shitheel fIypaper insignificant dried-out little turd
A nice big box of drugs for Uncle Roy. Or there'll be seven different kinds of hell to pay
ACT TWO ：The Epistle
- It was tacky?It was divine
He was one of the Great Glitter Queens. He couIdn't be buried Iike a civllian
Trailing sequins and incense he came into the world
Trailing sequins and incense he departed it. And good for him
I thought the twenty professional Siciiian mourners were a bit much
A great queen, big fucking deaI. That Iudicrous spectacle in there
Just a parody of a funeral of someone who really counted
We don't, faggots. We're just a bad dream the real world is having
And the real worId's waking up. And he's dead
Lately, sugar, you have gotten very strange.Lighten up already
Oh I apoiogize, it was only a for-God's-sake funeral, a cause for fucking celebration
I'm sorry if I can't join in with the rest of you death-junkies...
...gIoating about your survival in the face of that...of his ugly demise
Because unlike you I have nothing to gloat about. Never mind.
-And you Iook Iike Morticia Addams - Like the Wrath of God
- Yes-That is the intended effect
- My eyes are fucked-up - Fucked-up how?
Everything's closing in. Weirdness on the periphery
Since when?For three weeks. Since the night when...
- WeII what does the eye doctor say? -I haven't been
- Oh for God's sake. Why? I was improving. Before
- Remember my wet dream? - The angel?
- It wasn't a dream Course it was
No. I don't think so. I think it really happened
- I'm a prophet Say what?
I've been given a prophecy. A book
Not a physical book, or there was one but they took it back
But somehow there's still this book. In me
A prophecy. It really happened, I'm almost completely sure of it
Oh stop Iooking so...You're scaring me
It was after Louis Ieft me. Every night I'd been having these horrible vivid dreams
-And then...Then?
And then She arrived
Greetings, Prophet!
The Great Work begins. The Messenger has arrived
Go away - Attend
Oh God there's a thing in the air, a thing, a thing
I I I I am the Bird of America, the bald eagle
Continental principality, Iumen phosphor fluor candle
I unfoId my Ieaves, bright steel, in salutation open sharp before you
Prior Waiter,Iong-descended, weII-prepared
No, I'm not prepared for anything, I have Iots to do
American Prophet tonight you become, American eye that pierceth dark
American heart all hot for truth
The true great vocalist, the knowing mind, tongue-of-the-Land, seer-head
Oh, shoo! You're scaring the shit out me,get the fuck out of my room. Please, oh please
Now. Remove from their hiding place the sacred prophetic implements
The what?
Remove from their hiding piace the sacred prophetic implements
Your dreams have revealed them to you - What dreams?
You have had dreams revealing to you... -I haven't had a dream I can remember in months
- No dreams, you... Are you sure? -Yes. Well, the two dead Priors
No, not the heralds, not them. Other dreams. Impiements, you must have...
One moment - This is a dream, obviously
I'm sick and so I... well OK, it's a pretty spectacular dream but still it's just some...
Quiet, Prophet. A moment, please, I...
The disorganization is... Yes
In the kitchen. Under the tiles under the sink
You want me to tear up the kitchen floor?
Get a shovel or an axe or some tool for dislodging tile and grout and unearth the sacred impiements
No fucking way! The ceiling's bad enough, I'II Iose the Iease, I'll Iose my security deposit
I'II wake up the downstairs neighbors, their hysterical dog. Do it yourself
Submit, submit to the wiII of heaven
What did you... What...?
And Io, the Prophet was Ied by his nightly dreams to the hiding place of the sacred implements, and...
Revision in the text. The AngeI heIped him to unearth them, for he was weak of body, though not of wiII
You cracked the refrigerator, you probably released a whole cloud of fluorocarbons
That's bad for the environment
My wrath is as fearsome as my countenance is spiendid. Open the suitcase
Oh, Iook at this! Like, wow, man, totally Paleozoic
This is...
Oh! Oh God no!
That was terrible. I don't want to see that
Remove the Book
From the Council of ContinentaI Principalities met in this time of crisis and confusion
Heaven here reaches down to disaster and in touching you touches all of earth
Peepstones
Open me Prophet.IIIIam the Book. Read
Wait. Wait. How come I have this, um, erection?
It's very hard to concentrate -The stiffening of your penis is of no consequence
-WeII maybe not to you but... -Read!
You are mere flesh. I I I I am utter flesh, density of desire, the gravity of skin
What makes the engine of creation run? Not physics but ecstatics makes the engine run
Pulse, the pull, the throb, the ooze
Wait, please, excuse me for a minute, just a minute - Priapsis, dilation, engorgement, fIow
The universe aflame with angelic ejaculate
The heavens A-thrum to the seraphic rut, the fiery grapplings
The feathery Joinings of the Higher Orders, infinite, unceasing, the bIood-pump of creation
Holy Estrus! Holy Orifice! Ecstasis in Excelsis！Amen!
Oh God! -The body is the garden of the sou!
What was that?
- Plasma orgasmata -Yeah weII, no doubt
Whoa whoa whoa wait a minute, excuse me please. You fucked this angeI?
She fucked me. She has... WeII, She has eight vaginas
Regina vagina. Hermaphroditically equipped as well with a bouquet of phalli
I I I I am your Released Female Essence Ascendant
- The sexual politics of this are... Very confusing. I know
What gender is God? According to this angel - According to Her, male. God is a...
No shit? Seriously? You don't think that's sorta sexist or misogynistic...
He's not an oId man or anything, He's a... From what I gather, He's a Hebrew Ietter
The Aleph giyph. A male Hebrew Ietter
Deus erectus. Pater omnipotens
Each angeI is an infinite aggregate myriad entity, they're basicaIIy incredibly powerful bureaucrats
They have no imagination, they can do anything but they can't invent, create
They're sort of fabulous and dull all at once
And they copulate, ceaselessly, apparently, the angels. They... I mean...
- They get fucked by a Hebrew Ietter- Read on
- When angels cum they make something caIIed... - Piasma orgasmata
-Which makes some other thing caIIed... - Proto matter
- Right. Which is what makes everything else Creation
Heaven's, Iike, a Iot Iivelier than we were Ied to...
Heaven is a city much Iike San Francisco
House upon house depended from hiIIside, from crest down to dockside
The green mirroring bay oh joyful in the buckled garden
Undulant Iandscape over which the threat of seismic catastrophe hangs
More beautiful because imperilled. Potent, yet dormant. The fault Iines of creation
When He, AIeph gIyph, from whom aII words descend, tearing gIyph...
...from auto-generative aII-adoring gaze, He would come down to us ablaze
Then heaven's waIIs would ring with the glad mad moaning of the winged throng
Hot wet fire would flood the cosmos, and igneous gases enflame the voids
And Iights revolve, and spheres resolve, as Aleph burns. He burns forever, He...
- He what? Let's go over to your place - No I don't Iike it there, it's...
And then He changed
- He changed? God?
Changed how, honey? If He's God, how can He...I don't know. But He did
He grew weary of us, our songs and fornications
His angels, who cannot imagine, who Iack that faculty. Made for His pleasure, we can only adore
Seeking something new, He split the world starkly in two
- And made you -When God made people He created division
- Human beings. Uni-genitaiied, female. male. He awakened a potential in the design for change...
-In creating you... -...for random event
...our father-Iover unleashed eternal creation's potential for change
- For movement forward - In you the virus of time began
You think. And you imagine! Migrate! ExpIore...
huh, but... -And when you do...
But so Iike you know none of this is real, right? Paradise itself shivers and splits
I didn't say it was real, I said it was what She told me, and She's, weII...
Each day when you awake... Real enough, I guess, I don't know
As though we are only the dream of you
Everything's come unglued, right? So is this any Iess plausible than...
- Progress! We're not supposed to migrate? To progress?
- Movement! No, but there are consequences
Shaking Him! - When we just move around, heedless of...
When the human race began to traveI, intermingle...
There began to be tremors in Heaven. Earthquakes, or rather...
Intermingle? - Heavenquakes
Are you hearing yourself?
He began to... He who never was begun, was always is and unbegun
He began to leave us. Bored with His angels, bewitched by humanity
In mortifying imitation of you, His Ieast creation, He would sail off on voyages, no knowing where
Quake follows quake, absence follows absence
Nasty chastity and disorganization, Ioss of Iibido, protomatter shortfail
Then... ApriI 18,1906
- In that day It's the great San Francisco earthquake
In that day...
Father-Iover of the miIIion unutterable names, Deus erectus, Pater omnipotens, King of the universe
- He Ieft. He abandoned them
And did not return
We do not know where He has gone. He may never...
And bitter, cast-off, we wait, bewildered
Our finest houses, our sweetest vineyards, made drear and barren, missing Him
Abandoned. I smell a motif
WeII, it occurred to me
The man that got away? And I think the time has come to Iet him go
And then? And then what?
Surely you see towards what we are progressing
The fabric of the sky unravels. Angels hover, anxious fingers worry. The tattered edge
Before the boiling of blood and the searing of skin comes the secret catastrophe
Before Iife on earth becomes finaIIy merely impossible...
...it wiII for a Iong time before have become completely unbearable
You have driven Him away. You must stop moving.
Stop moving?
Forsake the open road. Neither mix nor intermarry
Let deep roots grow. If you do not mingle you will cease to progress
Seek not to fathom the world and its delicate particle Iogic
You cannot understand, you can only destroy
You do not advance, you only trample
Poor blind children, abandoned on the earth, groping terrified, misguided...
...over fields of slaughter, over bodies of the slain. Hobble yourselves!
There is no Zion save where you are. If you cannot find your heart's desire in your own backyard...
you never Iost it to begin with
Turn back. Please, please, whatever you are, angel or...
Undo - I'm not a prophet, I'm a sick, Ionely man
- Till He... I don't understand this visitation
TiII He returns again
Stop moving. That's what you want?
Answer me! You want me dead
Uh，huh, weII I... I'm tired. Tired to death of being done to
Infected, fucked-over and tortured by you, by this...
Is this disease, is the virus in me, is that the epistle, is that the prophecy?
Is this just revenge, because we, because you think we ruined...
No. No, I want you to go away, you go away or I wiII, I'II Ieave. I can leave, too
You can't outrun your occupation, Jonah. Hiding from me one place you wiII find me in another
I I I I stop down the road, waiting for you
You know me, Prophet. Your battered heart, bleeding Iife in the universe of wounds
Vessel of the Book now. Oh exempIum paraiyticum
On you in you in your blood we write have written stasis. The end
Uh-huh. I...
-WeII what do you want me to say? - It's nuts
It's worse than nuts, it's.. Don't migrate Don't mingle
That's kind of maIevoIent, isn't it, cause some of us didn't exactly choose to migrate
But it is offensive or at Ieast monumentally confused and it's not visited, Prior. By who?
- It is from you, what else is it? Something else
- That's crazy. Then I'm crazy
-No, you're not -Then it was an angeI
- It was not an angeI. Then I'm crazy. The whole world is, why not me?
It's 1986 and there's a plague, friends younger than me are dead
And I'm only thirty, and every goddamn morning I wake up and I think Louis is next to me in the bed
And it takes me Iong minutes to remember that this is real
It isn't just an impossible, terrible dream, so maybe yes I'm fIipping out
Stop. This is not dementia. And this is not real
This is just you, Prior, afraid of... Afraid of what's coming. Afraid of time
But see that's just not how it goes, the world doesn't spin backwards
Listen to the world, to how fast it goes
That's New York traffic, baby, that's the sound of energy, the sound of time
Even if you're hurting, it can't go back
You better fucking not fIip out. You hear me? There is no angel. For me?
Whisper into the ear of the world, Prophet
Wash up red in the tide of its dreams, and billow bloody words into the sky of sleep
I'm sorry, baby, I've tried, really, but I can't, it follows me, it won't Iet me go
So maybe I'm a prophet
Not me, alone, all of us, the ones who are dying now
Maybe the virus is the prophecy? Be stiII
Maybe the world has driven God from heaven
Because, because I do believe that... that over and over, I've seen the end of things
And having seen, I'm going blind, as prophets do. Right? It makes a certain sense to me
For this Age of a Anomie, a new Iaw
Delivered this night, this slient night, from heaven, oh Prophet, to you
Oh God how I hate heaven. But I've got no resistance Ieft
Except to run.
ACT THREE ：Borborygmi
Good, you're out of that nightdress, it was starting to smell
You're teIIing me - Now Iet's slip this on
Good -I hate it
It's pretty. Shoes?
Now Iet's see about the hair
It can be very hard to accept how disappointing Iife is, Harper
Because that's what it is, and you have to accept it. With faith and time and hard work...
...you reach a point where the disappointment doesn't hurt as much, and then it gets easy to live with
Quite easy. Which is in its own way a disappointment. But there
In my oId Iife, my previous Iife,I never used to get up at five a.m. This is a nightmare
-I said I'd open up -You volunteered
- I can't sit around, idle. You just got here, you could sightsee...
- I didn't come for fun. You came to the right place
I Ieave messages for him at work. They say he's not in but I know he is
But he won't take my calls. He's ashamed
She's right. I'II fix myself
I am -And we can go
You're in Iove with him? - I am?
- Don't ask me. Are you? - How're you doing?
Huh. Maybe you're not in Iove with him. If you were, you wouldn't ask me that
You wouldn't be brave enough. You'd know
Joe, you OK? -Yeah, yeah, screwy stomach, nothing
Talk softer you're waking him up. I have terrible powers. Maybe I'm a witch
-You're not a... I see more than I want to see. You can't do that
I could be a witch. Why not? I married a fairy
Anything is possible, any awful thing
- Leave, Harper -I knew you'd be with someone
You always talk about how you're so Ionely aII the time, but you've never been alone
Oh that isn't... You don't know. I have feIt very alone
TiII now-Who are you taIking...?
It's nothing. It's nothing. Just go
Morning. Sleep weII? -No. Did you?
SoundIy - How do you manage that?
These fucking dreams, every night. Don't you have...
- I don't dream- Everybody dreams
- I don't. Ever?
Not that I can remember. Not since I started being here, with you
You're a conundrum
Solve me. I'm sorry, that was really weird
You can't solve conundrums, they're bafflements
You can only... Conjecture
So ask me something -Like?
Something you've never asked me before. It should be easy, you haven't asked much
Who are you?
No records, no records, what are you deaf?
I said I have no records for their shitty little committee, it's not how I work ...
Those notes were Iost. Lost. In a fire, water damage, I can't do this any...
I threw up fifteen times today. I counted
What are you Iooking at? Fifteen times. Yeah?
- Hang up the phone, I have to watch you take... The Iimo thing?
Oh for the Iove of Christ I was acquitted twice for that
They're trying to kiII me dead with this harassment
I have done things in my Iife but I never kiIIed anyone. Present company excepted. And you deserved it
Get the fuck outta here
Stall. It can't start tomorrow if we don't show, so don't show, I pay the oId harridan back
-I have to have a... Put down the phone
Suck my dick, Mother Teresa, this is Iife and death
Put down the phone. You touch this phone and I bite. And I got rabies
And from now on, I supply my own piIIs
I already told`em to push their jujubes to the Iosers down the haII
Your own piIIs
No double blind. A IittIe bird warned me. The vultures are...
Jesus God these cramps, now I know why women go beserk once a... Ah fuck!
Oh good, I made her Iaugh
I don't trust this hospital. For aII I know...
...LiIIian fucking HeIIman is down in the basement switching the piIIs around
No, wait, she's dead, isn't she? Oh boy, memory, it's...
Hey, EtheI, didn't LiIIian die, did you see her up there?
Ugly, ugly broad, nose Iike a... Iike even a Jew should worry mit a punim Iike that
You seen somebody fitting that description up there in Red Heaven? Hah?
She won't talk to me. She thinks she's some sort of a deathwatch or something
Who are you talking to?
I'm seIf-medicating
With what?- Acid something
- Azidothymedine? Gesundheit
AZT? You got……?
One-hundred-proof eIixir vitae. Give me the key
- You scored - Impressively
Lifetime supply. There are maybe thirty people in the whole country getting this drug
- Now there are thirty-one -There are a hundred thousand people who need it
Look at you. The dragon atop the golden horde. It's not fair, is it?
No, but as Jimmy Carter said, neither is Iife. And then we shipped him back to his peanut plantation
Put your brown eyes back in your goddamn head, baby, it's the history of the world
I didn't write it, though I flatter myself I am a footnote
And you are a nurse, so minister and skedaddle
If you Iive fifty more years you won't swaIIow aII these piIIs
- I want some. That's iIIegaI
- Ten bottles- I'm gonna report you
There's a nursing shortage. I'm in a union. I'm real scared
- I have friends who need them. Bad- Loyalty I admire
- But no- Why?
Because you repulse me. Why? You'll be begging for it next. Why?
Because I hate your guts,and your friends' guts, that's why
Gimme!' So goddamned entitled. Such a shock when the biII comes due
From what I read you never paid a fucking biII in your Iife
Nobody has worked harder than me. To end up knocked flat in a...
-Yeah weII things are tough aII over-And you come here Iooking for fairness?
They couIdn't touch me when I was aIive, and now when I'm dying they try this
Now! When I'm a... That`s fair? What am I? A dead man
Fuck! What was I saying?
Oh God I can't remember any... Oh yeah, dead. I'm a goddamn dead man
You expect pity?
I expect you to hand over that key and move your nigger ass out of my room
What did you say?
- Move your nigger cunt spade faggot Iackey ass... - Shit-for-brains fiIthy-mouthed motherfucking...
out of my room. Mongrel. Dinge. Slave. Ape ...cowardly cocksucking cloven-hoofed pig.
Kike - Now you're talking! - You greedy kike
Now you can have a bottle. But only one
God! I thought he'd never go
So what? Are you going to sit there aII night? TiII morning
- Uh-huh. The cock crows, you go back to the swamp - No. I take the 7:05 to Yonkers
- What the fuck's in Yonkers? -The disbarment committee hearings
You been hocking about it all week. I`II have a Iook-see
They won't Iet you in the front door. You're a convicted and executed traitor
I walk through a waII
Fucking succubus! Fucking bIood-sucking old bat!
The worst thing about being sick in America, Ethei, is you are booted out of the parade
Americans have no use for sick. Look at Reagan. He's so healthy he's hardly human
He's a hundred if he's a day. He takes a slug in his chest...
...and two days Iater he's out west riding ponies in his PJs
I mean who does that? That's America. It's just no country for the infirm
This is the Diorama Room
I thought we agreed that you weren't...
I go see if I can get it started
Welcome to the Mormon Visitors-Center Diorama Room
In a moment, our show wiII begin. We hope it wiII have a special message for you
Please refrain from smoking, and food and drink are not allowed
They're having trouble with the machinery
- No, you're not supposed to eat here - I can. I Iive here
- Have we met before? No, I don't think so. You Iive here?
There's a dummy famlly in the diorama, you'll see when the curtain opens
The main dummy, the big daddydummy, Iooks Iike my husband, Joe
When they push the buttons he'll start to talk. You can't believe a word he says...
...but the sound of him is reassuring. It's an incredible resemblance
Are you a Mormon?
Jack Mormon I beg your pardon?
Jack Mormon. It means I'm fIawed. Inferior Mormon product
Probably comes from jack rabbit, you know, I ran
Do you believe in angels? In the AngeI Mormon. Moroni, not Mormon, The AngeI Moroni
Ask my mother-in-Iaw, when you leave, the scary Iady at the reception desk
If its name was Moroni, then why don't they call themselves Morons?
It's from comments Iike that you can teII I'm jack. You're not a Mormon
- No, I...Just distracted with grief
I'm not. I was just walking and...
We get a Iot of distracted, grief-stricken people here. It's our specialty
- I'm not distracted, I'm doing research. On Mormons?
On angels. I'm a... an angelologist
-I never met an angeioiogist before. It's an obscure discipline
I can imagine. AngeIoIogy. The field work must be rigorous
You'd have to drop dead before you saw your first specimen
One... I saw one. An angel. It crashed through my bedroom ceiling
Huh. That sort of thing always happens to me
I have a fever. I should be in bed but I'm too anxious to Iie in bed
You Iook very familiar. So do you. But...
But it's just not possible. I don't get out. I've only ever been here
Or in somewhere a Iot Iike this, alone, in the dark, waiting for the dummy
In 1847, across fifteen hundred miles of frontier wilderness...
Braving mountain blizzards, desert storms, and renegade Indians...
...the first Mormon wagon trains made their difficult way towards the Kingdom of God
Want some Nacho-flavored...
Hello Joe
- Father, I'm a-feared. Hush, Caleb
- The wilderness is so vast. Orrin, Caleb, hush
Be brave for your mother and your little sister
They don't have any lines, the mother and the sister. And only his face moves. That's not really fair
When will we arrive in Zion, Father?
Never. You`ll die of snake bite, and your brother Iooks like scorpion food to me
...Iust Iike the Prophet promised. The Lord leads the way
Will there be lots to eat there, father
No. Just sand. Oh, there's a big lake but it's salt
That's the joke. They drag you on your knees through hell...
...and when you get there the water of course is undrinkable.
It's a Promised Land, but what a disappointing promise
Read to us, father, read us the Story Again?
Yes, yes! The Story. The Stroy. The story about the Prophet
Well, boys, well. 1823, the Prophet, who was a strapping lad, Iike everyone else in his time...
...was seeking God. There were many churches, disputatious enough, but who was right?
Could only be One True Church. All else darkness
OK yeah, but then answer me this. How can a fundamentalist theocratic religion...
...function participatorily in a pluratist secular democracy?
I can't believe you're a Mormon! I can't believe I have spent two whole weeks in bed with a Mormon
Coutd you talk a little softer, I...-Are you busy?
I'm working. and it's closer to three weeks, almost, it's...
But you're a Iawyer. A serious Iawyer
Oh my God! What is going on here? You know him?
I'm delirious. I must be delirious
Jesus, Mormons everywhere, it's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I don't Iike cults
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not a cult
Any religion that is not at Ieast two thousand years old is a cult
And I know people who would call that generous
-Are you upset about anything? Oh, you noticed? Yeah, I am
What is he doing in there?
Who? The little creep? He's in and out every day
I hate him. He's got absotutety nothing to do with the story
You seem so unbothered by what you did, and that's terrible, too
But you're so decent and openly kind and truly sweet in bed
And I don't see how that's possible, but with you it seems to be, so, so...
You're part of that Political Party, -that's one half religious zealot control-freak theocrats...- Can you turn it off? I'm leaving.I can't.
and the other half ego-anarchist
libetarian cowboys, you've had a lot of practice straddling...
Louis!
-Did you... -What?
I thought I heard... Fucking hell. We need to tatk
- I can't leave the office in the middle of the... Fuck work! This is a crisis. Now
Oh! But he... The dummy never left with the little creep, he never left before
When they come in and they see he's gone, they'll blame me
You shouldn't do that in here, this isn't a place for real feelings, this is just story time here. Stop it
I never imagined losing my mind was going to be such hard work
Oh, it is. Find someplace else to be miserable in
This is my place and I don't want you to do that here
I just saw my lover, my ex-lover, with a... with your husband
With that window-display Ken doll, in that thing, I saw him, I...
OK, don't have a hissy fit, I told you it wasn't working right, it's just the magic of the theater or something
Listen, if you see the little creep, tell him to bring Joe... to bring the mannequin back
They'll evict me and this is it, it may look Iike nothing...
...but it's the last place on earth for me. I can't go sit in Brooklyn
What on earth is going... What did you do to him?
Nothing. He just can't adjust, is all, he just... No wait, don't
Oh. Look. We imagined it
This is a favor, they Iet me work here as a favor
But you keep making scenes. And look at this mess, it's a garbage scow
It doesn't look so much like him anymore. He's changed again
You sound just Iike him. You even grind your teeth in your sleep like him
If I could get him to come back, I'll go back to Salt Lake.. You can't go back to Salt Lake, you sold your house
My mother-in-law sold her house. Her son calls and tells her he's a homo and what does she do?
She sells her house. And she calls me crazy
You have Iess of a place in this world than I do if that's possible
Am I dreaming this, I don't understand
He's an angelologist.- That's his business
- He saw an angel Don't go blabbing about it - Either that or he's nuts
If you aren't serious you shouldn't come in here
It's a visitors center, I'm visiting - He has a point
This is a serious religion
- Do they Iike, pay you to do this? She volunteers
Because you're not very hospitable. I did see an angel
And what do you want me to do about it? I have problems of my own
The diorama is closed for repairs. You have to leave. Clean up this mess
Oh God, I'm exhausted
You don't look well. You really should be home in bed
- I'll die there - Better in bed than on the street. Just ask anyone
Maybe you should leave, too
I'm waiting. For what?
His wife. His mute wife. I'm waiting for her to speak. Bet her story's not so jolly
Dreaming used to be so safe
It isn't, though, it's dangerous, imagining to excess. It can blow up in your face
Threshold of revelation. Till we meet again
Bitter Iady of the plains, talk to me. Tell me what to do
Look at us. So perfect in place
The desert, the mountains, the previous century
Maybe I could have believed in you then. Maybe we should never have moved east
- I'm stuck. My heart's an anchor Leave it, then. Can't carry no extra weight
Was it a hard thing, crossing the prairies?
You ain't stupid. So don't ask stupid. Ask something for real
In your experience of the world, how do people change?
Well it has something to do with God so it's not very nice
God splits the skin with a tagged thumbnail from throat to belly...
...and then plunges a huge filthy hand in
He grabs hold of your bloody tubes and they slip to evade his grasp
But he squeezes hard, he insists, he putts and putts till all your innards are yanked out
And the pain! We can't even talk about that
And then he stuffs them back, dirty, tangled and torn. It's up to you to do the stitching
-And then get up. And walk around. Just mangled guts pretending
That's how people change
The winter Attantic. Wow, huh?
There used to be guys in the dunes even when it snowed
- Nothing deterred us from the task at hand - Which was?
Exploration. Across an unmapped terrain. The body of the homosexual human male
Here, or the Ramble, or the scrub pines on Fire Island, or the St Mark's Baths
Hardy pioneers. Like your ancestors - Not exactly
And many have perished on the trait. I fucked around a lot more than he did. No justice
I love it when you can get to places and see what it used to be
- The whole country was Iike this once. A paradise - Ruined now
It's still a great country. Best place on earth. Best place to be
Oy, a Mormon- You never asked
So what else haven't you told me, Joe? So that fruity underwear you wear, that's...?
A tempte garment - Oh my God. What's it for?
Protection. A second skin. I can stop wearing it if you...
How can you stop wearing it if it's a skin? Your past, your beliefs, your...
I know how you feel, I keep expecting divine retribution for this, but I'm actually happy
- Actually You're not happy, that's ridiculous, no one is happy
What am I doing? With you? With anyone！ I should be exterminated but with you...
I mean politically, and you're probably bisexual, and I mean I really like you a lot, but...
So, Iike, this is kind of hot. Shut up, OK?
You know why you find the world so unsatisfying?
Because you believe it's perfectible. No I...
You tell yourself you don't, but you do, you cling on to fantasies of perfection and kindliness...
...and you never face the sorrow of the world, its bitterness
- The parts of it that are bitter Huh
You have to reconcile yourself to the world's unperfectibility
Reconcile. And how do you do that?
By being thoroughly in the world but not of it
You mean Iike an Emersonian kind of thing?
I don't see how that's workable, practical, given, you know, emotions and... Oh my God
You have to accept that we're not put here to make the entire earth into a heaven, you have to accept we can't
And accept as rightfully yours the happiness that comes your way
But... Rightfully? That's so... Republican!
Bite my nipple again
No, wait, fuck, I'm Iike Iost in an ideological leather bar with you
I want my clarity back, what little I ever possessed, it's been stolen by...
- I mean, I mean I wish you weren't so... Conservative?
No. So fucking gorgeous. And conservative
Though if you were gorgeous and your politics didn't horrifically suck I'd really be in trouble here
But yes, I do sort of wish you weren't responsibte for everything bad and evil in the world
-You give me way too much credit - Right, I mean, Reagan deserves his fair share
You're obsessed, you know that?
If people like you didn't have President Reagan to demonize, where would you be?
If he didn't have people Iike me to demonize, where would he be?
Upper-right-hand square on The Hollywood Square
- I am not your enemy. Louis - I never said you were
Fundamentally, we both want the same thing
I don't think that's true - It is
What you did... When you walked out on him, that was, it must've been hard. To do that
The world may not understand or approve. But you did what you needed to do
And since I first met you, I consider you very brave. I don't think I've ever met anyone as...
Nobody does what I did, Joe. Nobody. But maybe many want to
This is so... This isn't... But tough
-I am maybe falling in... No you're not
Don't Iaugh at that. Don't say that. I am
I'm falling in... -You're not! You can't be, it's only been two weeks
No, it's three actually, and what difference does that...
- I've never felt so happy, so hungry... -That's the gay virgin thing
You and I, Louis, we're the same. We are. We both want the same thing. We both...
I want to see Prior again
I miss him, I... -You want to go back to...?
I just have to see him again. It's Iike a bubble rising through rock
It's taken time, these weeks, with you, but... Don't you? You must want to see your wife
I miss her, I feel bad for her, I'm afraid of her - Yes
-And I want more to be with you -I have to see him
Piease don't look so sad. Do you understand what I...
You don't want to see me anymore. Louis, anything
- What? -Anything. Whatever you want. I can give up anything
OK. My skin
What are you doing! Someone will see us. It's not a nude beach, it's freezing
I'm flayed. No past now. I could give up anything
Maybe in what we've been doing, maybe I'm even infected
- No you're... - I'm so afraid of that
Of things I never knew I'd ever be afraid of, things I didn't even know existed until we...
I'm afraid, now, maybe for the first time, really scared
Because I don't want to be sick. I want to live now. Maybe for the first time ever
And I can be anything, anything I need to be. And I want to be with you
You have a good heart and you think the good thing is to be guilty and kind always
But it's not always kind to be gentle and soft
There's a genuine violence softness and weakness visit on people
You ought to think about that -I will
You ought to think about what you're doing to me
What you need. Think about what you need. Be brave
And then you'll come back to me
You'll come back to me
Wait, I have a mouthfut of pills and water
Prior? It's Lou
I want to see you