Page 80
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The beach becomes a masculine social arena of food, sport, money, and negotiation before Animal chooses an independent run.
The page grounds the social scene in smell, appetite, and volleyball bodies, then turns business into a bodily code. Animal's money makes the human distance game unavoidable, but his decision to run on the beach marks an attempt to recover endurance without manipulation.
He moves 'toward them, abruptness restrained,' amid 'cheap meat and fried potatos smelling garlic,' 'An asphalt middle ages,' fish 'a mixture of rotten and fresh.' Waiting with the 'volly ball players' before 'Blankname arrived,' he thinks 'business can not be a chore; it must be a mandate,' careful not 'to make a mistake' in the unavoidable 'mental human distance game' - 'for Animal had money; and ... Blankname wanted just that.' Disliking 'competive games,' he plans a run 'from the Santa Monica Pier, south to the Pacific Ocean Park Pier' and back, 'somewhere in the area of 4 and 1/2 miles,' leaving his bag 'with the community wife' and walking 'down toward the coastline.'