"And the MPPA comes in and tosses out the film! It's a conspiracy!" he said in a Durantean tone.
"You guys have worked out the vein—that's all. There can't be any more very interesting movies till there's a new public attitude about life. You've got to where there's no permissible area that you haven't canvassed a hundred times. The new pictures are all remakes. People get sick of such things. Jam yesterday, today and tomorrow is as bad as none today. All the movies are self-plagiarisms. I even went to one with Ricky this summer."
"We're grateful."
"Remember the Three Little Pigs—and the song about the 'Big Bad Wolf' that people sang to kid themselves in the Depression?"
"I remember."
"So all right. We went to see this movie—and we also saw a remake of the Little Pigs. Same story. Same art. Same theme song. At the finale, the new inspiration is this: the wolf pops down the chimney of the little pig in the brick house—hind end first. And the pig fills a caldron with turpentine. The wolf lands in same—and the picture irises down on the wolf roaring away, his hind legs held high, his turpentined anus dragging, his forelegs pulling—like any dog. Now—I was brought up to believe that you can't tell the same joke twice. And I was also taught that putting turps on animals' rears was sadistic. I still think it is. And I think it's too vulgar a way to try for a laugh—cruelty to animals aside. That, my boy, is truly obscene—the dying effort of a perishing industry. Fortunately—television is coming in—and it will be far more vulgar. Television will really speed up the fertile necessity of a great change in this disgraceful Western world. Right?"
"Right," said Dave. "I saw that short. I psychologically snapped my petits fours." He looked at me for a while. "Phil—why'd you call me over here, this morning?"
Karl came with the gin and tea. I signed. He went.
Dave's question startled me. I suddenly saw it from his angle. I'd allowed him to skip—or postpone—an important conference because (I'd said) my nephew was on an emotional binge and I needed aid. Dave would know that, all else being equal and normal, I could handle my nephew. He'd know that, barring some editorial crisis, the cutting of a serial wasn't so important I couldn't set it aside for a day or so to row a relative through the waters of a soul-struggle. He'd know, by my cursory attention to Paul—and by the way my talk had slatted around—that I had more on my mind than Paul's problem. So he had realized—and I had not—that I'd decided to call in a friend—for myself.
"I need a good lawyer," I said.