Page 33

By Jack Joseph Smith

Even Mr. Bau, who like all other great men was a bit shook, when Hyde the second explained the Gibbons problem. Mr. B. streightened up. "Tell him to piss on his neck." As far as I am concerned the fifty gallons of piss collected account decay for the Gibbons today. He's a bum. Eating the same old stake and onions. So, that's the ending. But to see the whole picture is truely the great American irony. The best place to begin some sort of realizatation is at the death of Denny? No. It was when Hanchy proposed the bank job to Harry. They argued all night. Gibbons said, "the plam is perfect which is why we are too weak." Gibbons left the table of frenchfries thick in stack deep laid down in old creem gold laced plates. Still the grace of the fields. But he used to see it, and enjoy it, now he could only look at it. Gibbons shook his head. It was no good, but he prayed. "Summer is gone and sun shine on the medow." It was low and sqakie. Like a riddle definately all known still going on to the fit. Now that the death of Denny has been mentioned we call him Young Ben who is around along but only comes up once.

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page broadens the draft from one crisis into a statement about weakness, decay, class, appetite, and American failure.

The page is reflective without losing its abrasive surface. Its mention of Young Ben also hints at how this draft seeds later stories inside itself. The verified transcript now preserves the handwritten decay insertion that sharpens the ending's judgment.

Claude

A page that pulls back to verdict and self-commentary. Mr. Bau's coarse judgment - 'Tell him to piss on his neck' - and 'the fifty gallons of piss collected account / decay / for the Gibbons today. He's a bum' deliver what the text calls 'the great / American irony.' The narrator then second-guesses where the story truly begins, settling on 'when Hanchy proposed the bank job to Harry' and Gibbons's paradox: 'the plam is perfect which is why we are too weak.' Once able to 'see' and 'enjoy' the grace of the fields, Gibbons 'now ... could only look at it,' praying 'low and sqakie' - 'Summer is / gone and sun shine on the medow' - a riddle 'definately all known still going on.' The crossed-into-margin 'decay' insertion and the seeding of 'Young Ben' are part of the draft's visible self-making. Source spellings ('streightened,' 'realizatation,' 'plam,' 'creem,' 'sqakie,' 'definately,' 'medow') are kept.