Talk by Linda Rosenkrantz

Author:Linda Rosenkrantz [Rosenkrantz, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New York Review Books
Published: 2015-07-06T18:30:00+00:00

It’s really about us, it says to the guy when you’re broken in two, when you’re weak and abused and you can’t pick your fucking feet off the floor, you’re a total washout flunky failure, what then? Just come to old Emily Benson, she’ll nurse you, she’ll pick up all the pieces. Right? Take Michael Christy, perfect example. I’m telling him to reach out for me, I’ll see him through, if he wants a little bit of a drink, I’ll perpetuate his drunkenness and give him one because he can’t accept the abuse he is taking. Doesn’t it make sense?

MARSHA: It makes sense.

EMILY: I’m getting hot, I think I’ll put on my favorite outfit of today, the Emmett Kelly.

MARSHA: Oh God in heaven, please don’t put that on.

EMILY: I’m sorry, I’m putting on my Amagansett outfit.

MARSHA: Your Elmer Gantry?

EMILY: Let me ask you about something. I want to know exactly what you think of the new dancing. I’ve been sitting here trying to analyze it. Do you realize that it makes the woman equal to the man for the very first time? She doesn’t have to follow him anymore, he doesn’t control the rhythms, the music is something they share.

MARSHA: So she can express herself.

EMILY: Right, they’re now separate but equal, the dancing is all about individual style. Also, popular opinion to the contrary, I think it has more to do with relating than the old kind of dancing did.

MARSHA: You know those imitations you do of people dancing, you couldn’t have done them with the old dancing.

EMILY: No. Now there’s a rhythm and a generalized style to follow, but still the way Timothy Cullen does something and the way Nathan Fass does it are completely unique. Whereas if they were fox-trotting or whatever the fuck it was we used to do, even the twist, it wouldn’t have been that different. Okay, what else is involved? The woman is dancing; is she dancing for the man?

MARSHA: No, I think she’s dancing for the public. And they’re dancing out their relationship, if they have one.

EMILY: This is very interesting. For instance you know Andy Warhol won’t dance.

MARSHA: Yah, and some people, all they do is dance, like Tim. It’s the only way he relates, he doesn’t talk.

EMILY: Would you please give me a cigarette? I feel very lonely in my Elmer Gantry outfit.

MARSHA: Emmett Kelly.

EMILY: I feel lonely too in my Emmett Kelly outfit, even lonelier. And loneliest of all in my Amagansett outfit. Does anyone have a light for a lonely clown? I’m suddenly getting tears in my eyes.

MARSHA: Stop it, Emily, you’re making me nervous. Light your own cigarette.

EMILY: By the way, when I was in the Amagansett supermarket today, I saw one of my earliest childhood loves, a guy named Wallace Balfour. Do you remember the first person you were ever in love with? My first was a boy named Stevie.

MARSHA: Were you, as a child from about the age of six, constantly thinking about marriage?

EMILY: Never.

MARSHA: That’s all I thought about as I grew up, I was completely marriage-oriented.

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