Original subtitles

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

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