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By Jack Joseph Smith

im some lifes you will have to regain whatever part of yourzsoul’ you gave: aways) It's like degiding on the-depths and plunging into the earth, Every time you come yp for air alittle bit of the dirt already dug, falls: back into the holes! Look Midheal' What everis necessary to get’ dondy whatever I want dondy is what I dds ALY this other: bull shit dosen't mean a tings: Ivtake a look at the moment. and arrange-it to fit my-own needss Is that all you see? What else is there-to see? That's what [want to find outs How in the fuck do you know anything is there, if you can't see if. I see some of i% but I can't communicate it to myself in a clear enough ways. so that I might:be able to apply it, or explain it, Te it isn't strong enough to come out Michael, then it must not mean anything: Your telling me to ignore-its! . | It, stiitg I am telling you to forget about what’ dosen!t exist, and to live wliat does: ; Give me a hity I saids He hendéd me the-bottie laughing, and I lifted it to wy lips and drank hard on the raw ‘bitting burton! My face was on fire and my belly was weal, The hamner- in: my head was pounding and thought was. bliniling, We were- headed’ downtwom and throught of going all’ the way with the drinking sounded goods Certainly this was not a moment that I- could look at as being the laste! So I rode with them toward the Hill, The breeze had cooled’ a pity: but the sun would be coming soons

Original Scan

Page 174

AI Interpretation

GPT

Chapter X opens inside a bright theatrical party full of long-haired artists, vodka, cheese, brandy, props, painted comedy and tragedy, and the lady director-writer moving through it all while Michael appears as the actor setting off for adventures on the road.

The social world has shifted from drunks and cops to artists and cultivated mischief, but it is still a world of costumes, roles, and self-display. Michael loves watching it because it gives him another surface on which to perform himself.

Claude

Compromise as partial burial — every time you come up for air a little of the already-dug dirt falls back into the hole — followed by raw burbon, a weak belly, and the ride all the way downtown toward the Hill with the sun coming soon.