The Summer Solstice will be June 20, 2008 at 7:59 PM EDT. Don't climb into the Wicker Man!
Summer at North Farm
Stephen Kuusisto
Finnish rural life, ca. 1910
Fires, always fires after midnight,
the sun depending in the purple birches
and gleaming like a copper kettle.
By the solstice they’d burned everything,
the bad-luck sleigh, a twisted rocker,
things “possessed” and not-quite-right.
The bonfire coils and lurches,
big as a house, and then it settles.
The dancers come, dressed like rainbows
(if rainbows could be spun),
and linking hands they turn
to the melancholy fiddles.
A red bird spreads its wings now
and in the darker days to come
The crowd at the ball game
William Carlos Williams
The crowd at the ball game
is moved uniformly
by a spirit of uselessness
which delights them—
all the exciting detail
of the chase
and the escape, the error
the flash of genius—
all to no end save beauty
the eternal—
So in detail they, the crowd,
are beautiful
for this
to be warned against
saluted and defied—
It is alive, venomous
it smiles grimly
its words cut—
The flashy female with her
mother, gets it—
The Jew gets it straight— it
is deadly, terrifying—
It is the Inquisition, the
Revolution
It is beauty itself
that lives
day by day in them
idly—
This is
the power of their faces
It is summer, it is the solstice
the crowd is
cheering, the crowd is laughing
in detail
permanently, seriously
without thought
***
"Violence never solved anything. It's just pure fun."
***
Animal-Rights Activists
a Coyle and Sharpe transcript
Sharpe: Could we have your name, please?
Dairy: Julia Dairy.
Sharpe: Julia?
Dairy: Yes.
Sharpe: And you work down here in the financial district?
Dairy: Yes I do.
Coyle: A group of people in the musical world here in our city are exploiting animals for the purpose of making music. Would you say that you are essentially opposed to the idea of taking an animal and trying to evoke music from an animal?
Dairy: Yes, I'm very much against the idea, yes.
Coyle: Why do you say that, Julia?
Dairy: Well, because it's cruel. It's not right to do this sort of thing to animals.
Sharpe: Even if it allows an animal to create beautiful music?
Dairy: I don't think an animal can create beautiful music.
Coyle: Do you mean to say that if you could actually take a wolf, or let's say a jackal, in your arms and actually press over the body of this jackal, the bow of a violin or a cello, and beautiful music would come from this contact that the bow has with the animal, you don't think that you yourself would be entranced, and overcome any misgivings you have about it?
Dairy: I don't think so, because I'm sure it would hurt whatever animal it was, and I mean, if it didn't hurt it at all I think that would be fine, but --
Coyle: If the animals were doped?
Dairy: Well, if they were completely out, and it didn't injure them in any way, yes I suppose that would be okay, but it's a bit of a strange idea, anyway, I think.
Coyle: Would you yourself, if you knew that you could get a really enjoyable and uplifting musical experience by attending a concert in which animals were used as stringed musical instruments -- live animals -- would you hesitate to attend this concert?
Dairy: No, I'd love to go and see it, just to see what it was like, but I mean, I'm against it. But I'd like to see what sort of thing they could produce...
Sharpe: If you knew, for instance, that the violin -- what would normally be considered the violin section -- was going to be composed of weasels. You came to the concert hall, you sat down, the concert began, you looked over, and what would you see in the arms of the violinists?
Dairy: What would I -- well, I'd see weasels, of course. I mean, what do you mean?
Coyle: If you yourself found that taking a small, let's say coyote in your arms, and running over the back of the coyote -- actually over the backbone of the coyote as the means -- the bow of a violin, and you found that you could make a beautiful sound, and you could become a virtuoso of this sort of music, and actually benefit both professionally and materially, would you tour the world?
Dairy: I suppose if I got any money out of it, I would, yes.
Coyle: What is it you would do?
Dairy: I'd tour the world, playing on a coyote...
***
Transporting Captured People
a Coyle and Sharpe transcript
Coyle: Excuse me, do you do deliveries?
Mover: What is it? Liquor, food...
Coyle: No, it's not anything like that. We are transporting people, and we would like a vehicle such as this, a small van. We'd like to just put the people inside.
Mover: People?
Sharpe: People.
Mover: How many people?
Coyle: We'd have about fourteen.
Sharpe: In one load. We'd have about five loads.
Mover: And where would I get the seats?
Coyle: Well, we don't need seats. I'll explain the situation to you. We have people in our employ. You might say they're in our employ, we don't pay them. But we procured these people, we got these people on an expedition.
Mover: Where are they from?
Coyle: They're from a northern area.
Sharpe: But they aren't Eskimos.
Coyle: We have complete control of them.
Mover: What kind of arrangement is it? You have them working on your ranch or something?
Coyle: Let's face it, we're exploiting them. That's what it boils down to, and we just keep them -- we tyrannize them.
Sharpe: They're extremely thin, each one of them. They're grown men, but they weigh about 62 or 63 pounds.
Mover: [He whistles]
Coyle: Very thin.
Sharpe: We keep their weight down. It keeps them weak.
Mover: Are they midgets?
Coyle: They're midget-like, yes they are, as a matter of fact.
Mover: They're people, though?
Coyle: Yes, they're human beings.
Sharpe: Yeah, definitely.
Mover: This is unusual! I love it! It's intriguing, it really is, but now, what is the nature of your business?
Coyle: Well, we're in developmental work, and we use the labor of these people, frankly speaking.
Sharpe: We're making radio tubes.
Mover: Oh, yeah?
Coyle: And they're very handy, and as long as we keep punishing them they keep producing.
Sharpe: Their hands are very thin. Get inside the radio.
Coyle: Now we want to transfer them to another area.
Mover: And what would this area be?
Sharpe: It's a camp. A post.
Mover: A post.
Sharpe: Yeah.
Coyle: Well, it's something you're probably not familiar with.
Mover: Naw, just explain it to me, just vaguely, I mean, then I could tell you whether I could do it or not.
Coyle: Well, you see, they're in bondage. Do you care about that aspect of it?
Mover: No.
Coyle: In other words, we have them in servitude.
Mover: That's alright.
Sharpe: We captured them.
Coyle: And that's the thing. We'd restrain them during the trip.
Sharpe: We have some large birds that are vicious, and they'll keep them in--
Mover: Birds!??
Sharpe: Yeah.
Mover: Condors?
Coyle: Ravens.
Mover: Ravens. Would they bother a person?
Sharpe: Yeah, well, that's there for the people. The ravens will keep the people under control.
Mover: Okay. We could take them in a Volkswagen, or this, if you want.
Coyle: Would you have any objection to strapping them down? You would have to do the strapping, that's the--
Mover: We would have to? Why couldn't you do the--?
Sharpe: They don't care for us, particularly. We have to make the arrangements. They hate us. If we get near them, they get violent.
Coyle: They're hostile to us, because we have to--
Mover: What about us?
Sharpe: No, they don't know you. Chances are, you'd get along with them.
Coyle: We have one person who would ride with them. His name is Hugo.
Sharpe: He's a hypnotist.
Mover: He is?
Sharpe: Yeah.
Mover: We could do it. When would it have to be?
Sharpe: At night.
Mover: And how much a head?
Coyle: Wouldn't you do it by the weight factor?
Mover: By the weight, right.
Coyle: Yeah.
Mover: Human flesh, though. I don't know...
***
The Pharmacist
a Coyle and Sharpe transcript
Coyle: Say, what do you have here in your drugstore that we can use to sterilize with?
Pharmacist: Sterilize what?
Coyle: Well, it's a long story. Uh...
Pharmacist: What do you want to sterilize? Before I became a Pharmacist I was a chemist for quite a few years, so maybe I can help you.
Sharpe: Operating equipment-
Coyle: Let me say this right away: I'm not a doctor, but I'm going to perform an operation or what you'd call an operation on this man [points to Mal]. I think I've read enough about it so I can do it-
Sharpe: -And I've agreed.
Coyle: The only problem now is getting the stuff sterilized.
Pharmacist: I'll tell you this much: LEGALLY, whether you agree or not, you could be in trouble.
Coyle: Why?
Sharpe: If anything should happen, I'm not going to press charges.
Pharmacist: But if anything should happen to him, it'll happen to YOU, too...I won't ask any further. I wouldn't depend upon chemical sterilization. The only thing to use are autoclaves, otherwise you could get serious infections.
MS: I've had amazing resistance in my life to all sorts of germs. I'm not too worried about *complete sterility* of equipment.
Coyle: I'll explain it to you: I'm going into his chest; he's got a pain there. And frankly speaking, he isn't of such an economic posture that he can go to a doctor. I'm just going to go in and look. We have equipment to light it up...
Pharmacist: May I ask you a question?
Coyle: Sure.
Pharmacist: Wouldn't you qualify for a county hospital?
Sharpe: I don't want to have anything to do with the city or the state or anything. He's a good friend of mine. We've got quite a few books from a medical library; we've read up on the subject. And I really feel he's competent to handle it.
Pharmacist: How high is your education? May I ask you this question formally?
Coyle: Yes - third year high school. I *have* finished the third year on high school.
Pharmacist:...in this particular case, I would a thousand percent advise you against it. A thousand percent. A thousand percent. Really.
Coyle: Well, we're just going to do it now, we're going to do it in the station wagon and just get the thing over with. He has a pain in his chest that's been bothering him. He's just located the area; I'm going to open the area up and probably, just by looking at it, I'll be be able to see something wrong. I have enough equipment to light it up, and then I'll just press something one way or another. I have pretty good sewing equipment.
Pharmacist: You are looking for trouble. I don't know - you both *seem* intelligent, reasonable and rational, and I don't know where to get the guts to do this!
Sharpe: Well, that's why we feel we're capable of doing it. If we were two *ignorant* guys...
Pharmacist: You ARE NOT capable of doing it! Let me tell you something. Even with medical do-it-yourself: the first time you do it, it's rough, it's tough and there's problems. After the second or third time, you know what you're into. There is nothing like *experience*. Look! I'm going to show you something. Here. I made this today...
Sharpe: That's a clear plastic model of the human body.
Pharmacist: That's right, and it comes apart, too. I'll show you something. One thing that this doesn't show is the blue of the lungs-the heart's back there. You've got veins, you've got arteries-
Coyle: Can't you see them when you go in?
Pharmacist: Yes, but sometimes they're hidden by mesenteries which are - a mesentery is like a connective tissue.
Sharpe: [to Jim] You remember - I quizzed you on the mesenteries.
Pharmacist: I mean...believe me...
Sharpe: I quizzed him on the mesenteries and he had that right.
Pharmacist: [to Jim] If you're a friend of his, do the right thing. People today,
Coyle: I forgot about the mesenteries. That thing, uh, that layer-
Pharmacist: You can't tell, can you? - LOOK, it happens to the best of surgeons. Wait a second - let's not go any further! I lived in Southern California for quite a few years. I knew this Culver City hospital. What did Jeff Chandler go in for? You remember? It was very minor.
Sharpe: A bad back?
Pharmacist: And he died.
Sharpe: Well, this isn't minor, but then again it's something that-
Pharmacist: What have you got against college assistance?
Sharpe: I just don't want to have anything to do with the city or the state. That's all.
Pharmacist: Why?!
Coyle: It's a matter of principle with him; I've tried to convince him. He doesn't want to do it - he doesn't have the money for a doctor. So I'm going to take the thing into my own hands. I think I can do it! I've read enough in the last two days.
Pharmacist: Let me ask you a question. What makes you think that the pain in his chest is of a surgical nature?
Coyle: Let's just go in and see!
Sharpe: It's a stab in the dark, but I'm willing to take the chance. He's done two operations..
Pharmacist: Now let's play games. What do you feel? This pain in the chest - does it travel?
Sharpe: Ahhh...sometimes I feel it beginning in my stomach, then it juts up into my chest. Then I feel it kinda swirling inside.
Coyle: You said it was localized on the left side, though.
Sharpe: Well - last week it was. This week it seems to have moved...
Pharmacist: Now does eating or anything else like that have any effect on it? Does it get better if you eat? Is there pain after meals sometimes, an hour after meals - something like that?
Sharpe: Sometimes, about fifteen or twenty minutes after a meal, I faint.
Pharmacist: You just pass out completely?
Sharpe: Yeah.
Coyle: I just throw water on him. That's no problem.
Pharmacist: You've been there when this has happened?
Coyle: Sure! I was going to operate on him once - I had all the equipment ready - and his mother came in. I forgot about this sterilization business.
Pharmacist: [to Jim] YOU like to play doctor - does his pulse rate change...have you ever taken his pulse when he faints like that?
Coyle: He seems to perspire a little bit. So I assume the pulse rate changes.
Pharmacist: Now suppose it's some mild heart condition.
Coyle: I don't think it's a heart condition.
Pharmacist: How do you know?!
Coyle: So what if it is! - maybe I'll be able to do something for that. There's no telling-
Sharpe: -I haven't had a heart attack since I was a child.
Coyle: I read about massaging the heart during some sort of operation; it was in the paper. I thought if I just went in and, you know, massaged it, it might help, even if the problem isn't the heart.
Pharmacist: I'm telling you - DON'T!..I'm telling you this on a statistical basis: I KNOW you're doing the wrong thing.
Coyle: You think I'm going to kill him?
Pharmacist: I think you're running FANTASTIC risks for no reason.
Coyle: He's willing to take the chance, and it would be very interesting for me.
Pharmacist: Suppose for the sake of the argument - here's a perfect example: you read about abortions all the time, don't you? And many times the guy who knocks the girl up is the one who does it. She dies on the table, right? And he's NOT operating on the chest or the heart, he's operating around down here...which may be a lot simpler, correct? No major arteries, right? And...he's up for MANSLAUGHTER. I mean, PLEASE! You are going into something so fantastically dangerous - you have no idea!
Coyle: Well, if he goes, (and there's very little possibility, as I see it, that you'd go)-
Pharmacist: How do YOU see it?
Sharpe: Not according to the books.
Pharmacist: Forget the books! You don't know what is wrong!
Coyle: I've read the books for two full days now.
Pharmacist: For two days! Doctors go to medical school for four full years!
Sharpe: Yeah, but they're going to operate on the whole human body.
Pharmacist: What's the difference?
Sharpe: This is just one little part of it.
Pharmacist: Your body is connected!
Sharpe: I have a pain in my chest…he'll look, he'll see, he'll touch.
Pharmacist: You're a very foolish man.
Coyle: Can I just get some cleaning powder?
Pharmacist: I wouldn't sell you a KLEENEX - I'm that much against it. Really.
Coyle: Do you have any scissors or anything like that?
Pharmacist: NO! I wouldn't encourage you in any which way. Matter of fact, I'll tell you this much, if there was an officer of the law nearby, like out there, I would call him...I feel THAT strongly you're doing something wrong.
Coyle: But how do you know I won't help him?
Sharpe: Look he's done two operations: one on a dog, one on a pussy cat last week. Both of them came through pretty well.
Coyle: For a day or two. How about some antiseptic powder?
Pharmacist: I won't advise you. I won't even mislead you or lead you one way or another.
Coyle: Bandages?
Pharmacist: I won't do a thing for you!
Sharpe: Aspirin?
Pharmacist: I'm against this!
Coyle: How about I park the station wagon across the street, and if anything comes up, I'll-
Pharmacist: I'M AGAINST THIS!
Coyle: -I'll just come in and tell you?
Pharmacist: If you're across the street, I'll call the police.
Coyle: Really?
Sharpe: Can we get some colour film to take pictures?
Coyle: No, no. I don't want to do that.
Sharpe: No, I want to have pictures taken of us.
Coyle: But supposing something went wrong - no, nothings going to go wrong. I don't want to take any pictures. That's stupid.
Sharpe: I'd really like some film.
Pharmacist: You're making a big mistake.
Sharpe: Could we get some film?
Coyle: I'll sell you film, this is not medical. But believe me, I am SO much against what you are planning - look, ask yourself one question. Why am *I* against it? *I* have nothing to gain. Look at it in the materialistic sense, right? What have I got to gain by being against it?
Coyle: Do you think I don' have sharp enough equipment?
Pharmacist: I don't think you have the training.
Sharpe: He's done it twice.
Pharmacist: I don't care how many times he's done it; you don't have the training. This requires the highest degree of training.
Sharpe: He took a correspondence course one time through a magazine.
Pharmacist: I don't care what you did.
Coyle: It wasn't a medical course.
Sharpe: Well, it's still training.
Pharmacist: This is dangerous. This is dangerous. LOOK - this is not, what should I say, the Dark Ages. You say you are against the city and state and you don't want anything to do with them. But in a case like this, why should you have such a preconceived notion? Really, in other words, you can be against them, you can be an anarchist-
Sharpe: I AM an anarchist.
Pharmacist: Fine!
Sharpe: And that's why I don't want to have anything to do with the city or the state.
Pharmacist: All right, fine. Then let's use the word - you're an anarchist. But still, you're a HUMAN being and there are people who are trained to do work on you. You'll have the best of medical care. Why should you throw that away?
Coyle: You don't think that my medical care would be good?
Pharmacist: NO! I do not! I do not!
Coyle: Can I show you the equipment I have?
Pharmacist: I wouldn't look. No.
Coyle: Sewing equipment and everything to sew it back?
Sharpe: What if we just wrote up the procedures we going to go through in the operation, and you read it?
Pharmacist: NO! Because first of all, I'm not a physician myself, and second-
Coyle: Let me ask you this: would you just have something I could use to knock him out?
Pharmacist: NO! I won't even touch that. I just want to give you one last piece of opinion. Before I owned this drugstore, for years I was a biochemist. I was on the outside of hospitals and doctors; I was associated with them for fifteen
whole years. But I wouldn't do surgery...
Sharpe: Do you know somebody, then, who could come out to the car and do it? In that field?
Pharmacist: NO!
Coyle: Well, I'll do it, don't worry.
PHARMACIST: You will NOT do it! I'm going to try and talk you out of it if I possibly can. Anyway, I would go into the coffee shop in a hospital and I'd see a surgeon and maybe I'd say, "Hello", and he'd look like the last rose of summer - he just lost a patient. Top surgeon, and he lost a patient. See? A top man can lose a patient!
Coyle: [pointing at Mal] I'm not going to lose you.
Pharmacist: What do you mean: you're not going to lose him? You can't guarantee that!
Sharpe: He guaranteed it. He put it in writing. He said there wouldn't be any chances.
Coyle: I did write something out for his mother.
Pharmacist: You go to a doctor, a surgeon, and ask, "Will you guarantee this?". See what the doctor says. Se if HE'LL guarantee it.
Sharpe: Ah, doctors...
Pharmacist: You're making a fantastic mistake. Fantastic. Are you an anarchist? Well - have surgery anyhow! I believe in free speech and free enterprise and free everything else; I'm not against your political viewpoints. But for a man to actively try to encourage himself and his friend...you're doing two things. You're endangering yourself, and look what you're going to do to this guy if something goes wrong. And I'll tell you something else. Let's say you don't die, but you need help and you have to call a doctor. You'll be in jail, little fellow. You'll be a prisoner for several, several years...
Coyle: That's why we wanted to park the car right across the street from your store. If we needed any help, you could prescribe-
Pharmacist: No, I can't! NO!
Coyle: -to at least stop the flow of blood.
Pharmacist: No! This is illegal for me. I would just call the doctor.
Coyle: How about I bring him around the back?
Pharmacist: No! No! Leave this alone.
Sharpe: Could we do it at your house?
Pharmacist: Are you joking? Go get yourself to - you know in Shakespeare they said, 'Get thee to a nunnery'? Get thee to a surgery. Really! You may not even NEED surgery! I'll give you a 'for instance': you might have an ulcer. You know how they treat
ulcers? Well, they don't treat ulcers surgically...I admire your confidence, but I don't admire what you're going to do. And don't do it!
Coyle: You don't think I have the guts to do it?
Pharmacist: GUTS to do it? It doesn't require guts. Hold-up men have guts, but it doesn't mean they have brains. Sometimes the biggest war heroes have a lot of guts, but they have no intelligence. And the only reason I'm talking to you is that you're literate people - you SEEM to be intelligent, and yet you're willing to run a mutual risk to the both of you that's needless! That's foolish!
Sharpe: There's no risk!
Pharmacist: No risk? Of course there's a risk!
Coyle: We've started, we're read, we'll do the operation.
Pharmacist: The human body is very complicated. I'll give you a 'for instance' that'll give you chills up and down your back. I had a '49 DeSoto. I brought it to the DeSoto distributor in Los Angeles; it had transmission trouble. They tore the damn thing down five separate times, couldn't fix it properly, and they finally said 'We give up!'. That's on a car. They couldn't guarantee it; they're the distributor and they had mechanics and it's only simple replacement parts, right? MECHANICAL. Now, if you damage his heart, do you realize what's going to happen?
Coyle: What?
Pharmacist: There's no replacement part for a heart. You can't go to a hardware store and get one. So forget about it, and go away!
