Page 164

By Jack Joseph Smith

Yes. The only reason you like symphony, is because you can afford to. Know one else you know understands symphony. You see ass hole, you can afford to like what you don't have to explain. You can't like jazz, because you don't know anything about it and other people do. But you can like rock and roll, because the songs have become a part of your memory, and everybody elses. That leaves nothing to explain. Yeah Dandy, but I like the feeling in the rock and roll music. FFeeling is in the memory, and so are the stars. Once we were beyond, before we thought about it. But who gives a shit about that. Sentamentality dosen't exist in touching. When your hart on rises, it rises for now. It becomes the master with no conscience, because reality shatters dreams. If you want to dance on your own star, then get laid and make some money. Right Murf? I'd go for a good piece of ass. He he. Misery is my preference. We went along and I said: This quite a fancy car Dandy. A man tries to take my head away from me by running into a steel pole going ninety miles an hour. So I give myself up to the unconcious for two weeks, and then sue him. Just like you sued me ass hole. I'm spending the money now, and when you get yours, I'll expect the same. His brothers dead, I said. They were both crazy. My man walks with a limp, because of that pole. His brother and how many others died on that road to West Virginia. Two others, I said.

Original Scan

Page 164

AI Interpretation

GPT

Michael keeps riding in the expensive Cadillac while talking with O'Dandy about misery, compensation money, unconsciousness, the limp survivor of the pole crash, and the two other deaths still trailing behind that road to West Virginia.

The contradiction is the point here: luxury, injury money, and roadside death are all sharing the same moving interior. The page closes with the crash no longer as a boast or anecdote but as a stubborn fact that money cannot smooth over.


Claude

O'Dandy turns musical taste into a class diagnosis: the narrator can like symphony 'because you can afford to' and 'don't have to explain,' cannot like jazz because 'other people' know it, and likes rock and roll only because it is already 'a part of your memory, and everybody elses.' His materialism collapses sentiment into appetite - 'Feeling is in the memory... If you want to dance on your own / star, then get laid and make some money' - and Murphy seconds it ('I'd go for a good piece of ass') against the narrator's repeated 'Misery is my preference.' The luxury car prompts O'Dandy's own crash story - a man drove him 'into a steel pole going ninety,' so he sued, just 'like you sued me' - and the page closes on the death toll of that 'road to West Virginia,' the survivors and dead alike still 'jaff offs.'