Slacker Page #7

was the only anarchist in the bunch.

There was such a thing as belief put into action in those days.

What are you doing this afternoon?

Uh, nothing.

Let's go for a walk.

- Back in a minute, Delia. - Have fun, Dad.

I was there in Catalonia.

Fought with Orwell. Didn't know it then, of course.

Still have my C.N.T. Card. I'll show it to you later.

Those days in Barcelona. My God.

The workers were really in the saddle then...

during the revolution.

Communists killed it long before Franco got there.

Just look at that sh*t.

I've always dreamed of pulling a Guy Fawkes on the Texas Legislature.

Just blow the damn thing sky high.

I've got maps in my room and I'll do it some day.

Texas is so full of these so-called modern-day libertarians...

with all their goddamn selfish individualism.

Just the opposite of real anarchism.

They don't give a damn about improving the world.

But now, Charles Whitman...

there was a man.

Twenty-three years this summer.

This town has always had it's share of crazies.

I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

I would have been there too.

I had lunch right out front there every day that summer.

But my f***ing wife, God rest her soul...

she had some stupid appointment that day.

So during this town's finest hour, where was I?

Way the hell out on South Congress.

By the time I got there, everything was blocked off.

Sh*t.

It's taken my entire life...

but I can now say that I've practically given up on not only my own

people...

but for mankind in its entirety.

I can only address myself to singular human beings now.

Hold on a sec. Dad?

- Telephone. It's Lourdes. - Oh, great.

My half-sister.

She might be coming for a visit.

- Where does she live? - Oh, all over.

She travels a lot.

So, he tell you any war stories?

Yeah, I never met anyone that fought in the Spanish civil war before.

Well, you still haven't.

What do you mean?

He tells everybody he fought in the Lincoln Brigade...

in Barcelona, in Spain.

Him and my mom went to Spain in, I guess, '55.

A little late.

The Lincoln Brigade.

More like the Hemingway Brigade.

- I love him though. - Great.

Lourdes will be here end of next week.

We eat an early dinner if you'd like to stay.

I gotta go.

Well, come over some other time.

Yeah, I might. I just might.

Oh, one more thing.

The first hurdle for the true warrior.

"To those humans in whom I have faith.

"I wish suffering, being forsaken, sickness, maltreatment, humiliation.

"I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt...

"the torture of self-mistrust, and the misery of the vanquished.

"I have no pity for them...

"because I wish them the only thing that can prove today...

"whether one is worth anything or not:

That one endures. "

Hey, you forgot something.

And remember, the passion for destruction is also a creative passion.

Where the f*** you been, man?

Doesn't work.

- What did you get, man? - Man, check it out.

Rare Marquis de Sade, dude. Juliette. Rare Marquis de Sade.

It's a f***in' book. Somebody else drive.

Not me, I'm not drivin'.

You. You're elected.

Man, I don't even have my licence. I got warrants out.

This whole neighborhood and you couldn't get a f***in' TV?

Just drop me off at this guy's house.

The address, man. Take me there. Drop me off.

- Hey. How's it going? - Hey.

Oh, better than a sharp stick in the eye, I always say.

Come on in.

Did you find me any TVs?

Oh, well. I looked and stuff.

But wejust- We don't have that kind of stuff usually.

I could sure use some.

Where would you put it?

Oh, no problem. We rotate the stock.

Out with the old. In with the new.

Look, this one here. It's my pride.

It's been on four years, two months.

The rest of them, I just kind of keep them going.

I'm kind of working up a harmonious relationship with them, an equilibrium.

- Have a seat? - Sure.

Uh, Pop-Tart? There's red ones. Blue ones over there.

Oh, no. No, thanks.

So, uh, what is this...

some kind of psychic TV-type parallelism?

Well, we all know the psychic powers of the televised image...

But we need to capitalize on it...

and make it work for us instead of us working for it.

- Like how? - Well, like, to me, my thing is...

a video image is much more powerful and useful...

than an actual event.

Like back when I used to go out, when I was last out...

I was walking down the street and...

this guy came barrelling out of a bar...

fell right in front of me and he had a knife right in his back...

landed right on the ground.

And -

I have no reference to it now. I can't refer back to it.

I can't press rewind. I can't put it on pause.

I can't put it on slo-mo and see all the little details.

And the blood, it was all wrong. It didn't look like blood.

The hue was off and I couldn't adjust the hue.

I was seeing it for real, but it just wasn't right.

And I didn't even see the knife impact on the body. I missed that part.

- Too bad. - Yeah.

Well, I got something to show you. I just got this new tape...

through some contacts of mine.

It's by this grad student over in the history department.

Did you hear about him? He took his whole thesis committee hostage.

- No. - Yes, it's true. It's unbelievable.

He took them hostage. The SWAT team came in and offed him.

- No. - And it's just no one's heard about it.

It's not getting out.

Uh, anyway, he made this tape.

Like, just 15, 20 minutes before he went before the grad committee.

Because he knew they weren't gonna okay his research.

It was just way too radical, and way beyond anything they were doing.

- What was his thesis on? - You know, I don't know.

I'm really not sure. Something about a bronze age coming in the '90s or

something.

I'm just not sure what he was up to.

Each individual has this absurd notion of this predisposition -

Hey, looks likeJohn Hinckley.

He has this-this unending potential, this dormant potential...

this stupid idea that 95% of the brain is unused...

and that if we could tap into that we would just have...

we would have Superman or something absurd like that.

All it does is frustrate man.

All it does is remind him of his limitations and frustrate him.

It's just a concoction of lies...

a dynamic that drives man to do things.

Let me fast-forward to the part where he blows away his camera.

It's pretty good.

Every action is a positive action.

Even if it has a negative result.

What could be better than a short, uncomplicated life?

That goes out in a blaze of glory?

Rock 'n' roll.

He must've been onto something, man.

Yeah, he was.

So this is a dub of my copy. You think you'd want a tape of this?

Yeah, I have some friends in Kansas City. Pirate TV, man.

If you think you could get this out, I think it really should be shown.

Oh, yeah, definitely. But, look, I gotta go.

- Thanks a lot. - All right.

- Keep looking for those TVs. - Yeah, TVs.

I'll let you know when we get some.

Sure. I'll be here.

Hey, you got "Honor thy error as a hidden intention. "

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