— Only in my head.
— Do you think an oral tradition is superior to a written civilization?
— I, no. I wouldn’t say that.
— So you believe in acting out?
— Only in my head.
— Did you enjoy the displacement?
— No.
— Did you enjoy Mrs. Ned?
— The sequence was a failure. Her deep love is too white, too dirty grey I mean, like the convolutions of the brain.
— Do you prefer history or progress?
— There is no such thing as history, save in the privacy of concupiscence.
— This … is … the privacy of concupiscence. I am your doctor, father, God. I build you up. I know everything about you. Your profile is coming up very clearly indeed on the oscillograph, and the profile provokes its own continuation, did you know that, the profile moulds you as it oscillates? Diagnosis provokes its own cause, did you know that? To put it more succinctly, diagnosis prognosticates aetiology, and certainly your depth-psychology personae are most revealing, if somewhat banal, no, don’t look up at the monitor, you see, it only makes the eyes of the jellyfish look heavenwards, but we know the jellyfish is only looking at itself, don’t we? And the jellyfish cannot meet its own eyes. That’s right, you look into the camera with the little red light on, the eyes on the monitor are no longer looking heavenwards but straight out. Of course you can’t see them looking straight out unless you look up in which case they look up too. You cannot catch yourself. But the meeting is not compulsory. Now then, tell me, because you can tell me, you know, what is your occupation?
— Odd … job … man.
— Very nice too. And what was your occupation, before?
— I was a self-made man.
— A contradiction in terms.
— I was chosen among five thousand as the most balanced and normal of men, to be one of twelve representing my country on a special mission in space.
— What were you really?
— An analyser.
— Deeper.
— A synthesiser.
— Deeper.
— An alchemist, lick me now, said the salt.
— Deeper.
Yet another profile is added inside the jellyfish, the outer face of which still looks heavenwards. There must be ten profiles in there at least. Or twenty.
— I don’t know. What’s that flickering light? The sun flickers through the quick plane trees.
— Don’t worry about that. It’s just to increase the neural electricity you give out which helps the oscillograph. Go on.
— An electrician. A builder.
— Deeper.
— A welder.
— Come, come, no false shame. Take off those identities.
— I don’t know. I really don’t know. I see a huge triangle, orange, and a yellow shower, and circles, red … oh.
— Do you love anyone at all?
— Second … law of … thermodynamics … subject to, the whole universe …
— Will you lay down the white man’s burden?
— He is dying. Absolve him … That are heavy laden. Take it up, take it up for me … Oh, father, doctor, touch me, cure me, oh Mr. Swaminathan, I love you.
— Mr. Blob. Thank you very much.
— Oh … Is it over?
— Yes. Mr. Umbassa, would you remove those contraptions from the patient please.
— Is that … all?
— What more d’you want? It was a long run. We have our methods, you know. Besides, there’s a long queue, as you’re well aware, you must have been in it at least two hours.
— Doctor. Is there a secret?
— A secret?
— I mean, what is the answer?
— The answer? The answer’s in biochemistry of course. Here’s a prescription. Take two once a day every morning before breakfast. They’ll cheer you up and help you to cope.
— You mean, after all that …?
— I’ve told you, diagnosis only prognosticates aetiology.
— I don’t understand.
— You’re not meant to.
The sigh is almost imperceptible, the boredom perhaps imagined on the bland and glowing asphalt face.
— There we are. Goodbye. Next please.
— Excuse me but, will you want to see me again?
— What? Oh, no. You’re a bit behind the times aren’t you? Psychoscopy’s an extracted absolute of analysis. We don’t need transference any more. We’re not only able to telescope a dependence that used to take years to build up, we telescope the let-down as well. You’ll see, the wrench will be fairly painless. More so, at any rate, than with Mr. Swaminathan, eh? You’ll have to renew your drugs, though, we haven’t quite solved that one yet, but there’s an automatic dispensary outside, you just feed in your prescription each time. Goodbye.
Somewhere in the archives there will be evidence that this has occurred, if it is kept, and only for the minds behind the microscopes. And besides, the installing and rigging up of the microscopes, and of the subjects under the microscope, interferes with the absolute result of being tinted. Other episodes, however, cannot be proved in this way.
MRS. JOAN DKIMBA eats the Beef Strogonoff and rice with appetite and relish.
— Lilly it’s delicious. I’m so glad to see you’re not starving here. What a pity you’re on a diet, that gruel looks most unappetising. I must tell Denton, he’s very interested in the geography of famine. He has a great big map in his office, you know, and sticks coloured pins into it. You can see everything at a glance. It’s particularly bad in the North, especially in and around the capital, where of course the overcrowding is awful. Everyone flocks to the capital hoping for work, it’s amazing how stupid people are, they’re told to keep away but everyone thinks they’re an exception. I spend hours and days slum visiting and trying to persuade them. It’s true there are more jobs in the capital, naturally, but nothing like enough, and the more everyone thinks so the less there are. Then those terrible shanty-towns grow on the outskirts like cancers, huts built of petrol-cans and old tyres and bits of tarpaulin, the bidonvilles, you’ve seen them I expect, and crime of course is rampant. For every ten people we manage to move out to rural areas two hundred move in. You don’t know how comfortable you are here, with your own separate bungalow, two whole rooms and a kitchen. Oh yes of course you do, having come here from the capital. I wish we could rehabilitate more people, but it really is impossible to keep up with it. Denton tours the whole country, the whole continent even, and the other continents too, trying to get co-operation from distributing organisations, did I tell you he’s been made Chief Spokesman, he was chosen among sixty-seven, you know, to represent his country, but the trouble is everyone’s out for themselves, and so suspicious! Of course there’s corruption, no one denies it, but you’d think they’d be able to tell, I mean they ought to have perfected means of detection by now, and international policing of distribution. In the end one has to tackle everything oneself. And I must say we’ve done wonders in this country, out of sheer will-power and determination. The energy of the people, it’s amazing. I mean just look at this reclaimed area, it simply didn’t exist before. Does your husband work on the land or is he retired? I think the Pension-Pill Scheme is marvellous, don’t you, I mean, no one ever thought of that before, to keep the old people not only fit but happy. Denton had quite a hand in that, you know. It’s the same with the dole-pills. Well I mean that side of things is important, isn’t it. The difficulty is in persuading people to come and get what they’re entitled to. They seem to prefer wallowing in their misery, it’s quite extraordinary.