Goldberg Street (10 page)

Four A
.
M
.

An announcer seated at a radio studio console desk
.
He wears earphones and speaks into a microphone
.
We hear the voice of the caller over a loudspeaker
.

Interviewer:
Hello, you're on the air.

Caller:
Hello, Greg, how are you?

Int:
I'm fine.

Caller:
Good. Greg, it's a pleasure to talk with you. I had the pleasure of talking to you three-and-one-half
years
ago, and I've been a continual listener of yours since you started out with the twenty-two stations, and I admire you very much.

Int:
Thank you.

Caller:
Thank
you
, Greg.

Int:
What's your problem?

Caller:
Greg, we need your help to publicize our plan. We've been trying to get our organization together to raise money to be able to hire a public relations firm like Wells and Jacoby to publicize our organization. (
Pause
.) Where are we going to
get
the money . . . ?
I
don't know . . .

Int:
To publicize your .. .

Caller:
In the movie
2001
, based on the writings of Arnold Toynbee, they speak of the plan . . .

Int:
Excuse me, excuse me, but the movie
2001
was based on the writings . . .

Caller:
. . . all human life is made of molecules . . .

Int:
. . . based on the writings of Arthur C. Clarke . . .

Caller:
All human . . . no, Greg, if you examine . . .

Int:
. . . it was based on the writings of Arthur C. Clarke . . .

Caller:
Oh, Greg,
No
. We have the . . .

Int:
Well, go on.

Caller:
. . . we have the writings.

Int:
Okay, go on.

Caller:
Greg:
In the writings of Arnold Toynbee he discuss
cusses a plan whereby all human life could be easily reconstituted on the planet Jupiter.

Int:
Uh-huh . . . (
Pause
.)

Caller:
Greg?

Int:
Yes? (
Pause
.) I'm listening.

Caller:
Greg . . .

Int:
Yes?

Caller:
In the wr . . .

Int:
Yeah. I got it. Go on.

Caller:
In the . . .

Int:
No, no. No. Go
on
. I
got
it. Arnold Toynbee, human life on . . .

Caller:
As we're made of molecules, Greg, and the
atoms
of all human life that ever lived are still in all of us . . .

Int:
Okay, I got it. They exist, they've just been rearranged. (
Pause
.)

Caller:
Yes. (
Pause
.)

Int:
So
?

Caller:
We'd like to publicize our organization, Greg. We're very young. We've just been in existence over a year and we want to
publicize
our theory. And, Greg, we don't know
how
.

Int:
You . . . how do you publicize your plan to bring dead people back to life on
Jupiter
.

Caller:
Yes.

Int:
Why
? (
Pause
.) Why would you want to do this? (
Pause
.) Hello?

Caller:
Yes?

Int:
Why would you want to
do
this? (
Pause
.) You see what I'm saying to you? (
Pause
.) What is the aim of your group?

Caller:
Greg
. . .

Int:
What are your
plans
? (
Pause
.)

Caller:
I . . . (
Pause
.)

Int:
What
?

Caller:
I . . . Greg, I
told
you.

Int:
You said that you want to bring dead people back to life.

Caller:
Yes.

Int:
On the planet Jupiter.

Caller:
Just as they showed us in the mo . . .

Int:
Well, I'm not sure that's what the movie was about, but be that as it may, why would you want to do that?

Caller:
Oh, Greg, you can't
mean
it . . .

Int:
Well,
yes
, I mean it. Why would you . . . what's the idea . . . ? You're walking down the street, there's Abraham
Lincoln
. . . is that the idea?

Caller:
Yes.

Int:
. . . so anybody that you want to
talk
to, so forth, there they are. Is that the idea? (
Pause
.)

Caller:
Yes.

Int:
Who do you
pick
? Who
picks
’em?

You? Your organization? . . . or do you just bring ‘em
all
back? (
Pause
.) What is your . . . I mean, do you have a
program
for this? Or . . . what are your
goals
. . . ? (
Pause
.)

Caller:
To bring . . .

Int:
Naah . . . it's too
broad
. It's too
broad
. Don't you
see
what I'm talking about? You can't bring’ em
all
back. (
Pause
.)
Can
you?

Caller:
I don't know.

Int:
Well,
think
about it. (
Pause
.)
Think
about it.

You're talking about billions of people. Eh?

They've
lived
at different times. They speak different
languages—the
ones that speak our language, it's
changed
over the years. The
dialects
are different.
Customs
change. Their
lives
are different. Some of them died violent
deaths
. . . some are
disfigured
. . . they've been
decomposing
. . . . Now: listen to
this:
At what point do you bring them
back
? (
Pause
.) Right before they
died
? What if they were
ill
? What if they were
infirm
? And so you don't do it then, when
do
you do it? At what point? You see what I'm telling you? Someone wants to come back at age
twenty
, so you bring him back at fifty- five . . . is he allowed to
change
? And who's to say if he can or he can't? What if he never wanted to come back?

Caller:
. . . Greg . . . ?

Int:
What about people who
killed
themselves. Because they didn't want to live? Some of them we know. We could leave
out
. What about ones that we
don't
know? Who's going to pass on this? You and your
group
? Well, then you're talking about something very much like fascism. Is that what you want? Because I'll tell you what you get very quickly is a State where only the
Pure
can come back. Or the
good-looking
. . . or whatever the people in charge that day seem to feel is the ultimate good . . . and tickles their fancy. Or do you just press a button and
everyone
comes back? And what do you have then? I'll
tell
you what you have:
wars
. You've got wars. Unless you think that that being dead
improved
them. You see what I'm saying? You've got the same
jealousies
and . . . misunderstandings you had the
first
time. And how do you explain the technology to some guy who's just come back from 1565 and all of a sudden he's in some
space
suit and he's
alive
again . . .

Caller:
He wouldn't be in a space suit.

Int:
. . . whatever. And who
governs
this august group? Or do they just “get along"? Not in
this
lifetime, friend. What do you think? Because they're on a foreign planet that it's going to be cooperation and good
will
? They're going to forget about their human nature and just live in joy? You're talking about
heaven
, my friend. Heaven doesn't exist. You think the fact that they've come back is going to make them all philosophers? I don't think so. For a
day
,
yes
.
Maybe
. A week, a month later, and I'm going to tell you something: It's going to be worse than it was before, and you know what you've got? Chaos. And any time you get a
State
like that
you have a populace that thinks the world owes it a living. And you've got a tragedy. It doesn't hold up. Even as a dream. It's not thought out. And what do they eat?

Caller:
Toynbee says we can bombard the atmosphere with oxygen and reclaim the soil.

Int:
Does
he? And what if he's
wrong
. . . ? (
Pause
.) You see what I'm saying? (
Pause
.)

Caller:
I . . .

Int:
You see what I'm telling you?

Caller:
I . . .

Int:
Listen to me: The world is full of histories of people trying to live in
Utopias
. It doesn't work. We wish it
did
, it
doesn't
. (
Pause
.) Alright? (
Pause
.) Alright?

Caller:
Um . . . yes.

Int:
Alright
. Thank you for calling. (
Loudspeaker goes dead
.) Let's move along:

The Power Outage

The Power Outage
was first published in the
New York Times
on August 6, 1977.

I:
The thing which I'm telling you is no one enjoys being equal.

2:
Yes. Yes. I agree with that. We have our fictions. And what did you do when the lights went out?

1:
Stumbled around in the dark. (
Sotto voce
.) . . . taking goods away . . . they took the goods away. (
Full voice
.) Goods cannot take away heat.

2:
No.

1:
As if, if they were stolen, they could take the dark away.

2:
No. I agree with you.

1:
A flashlight runs on batteries, as does a candle, if you follow me.

2
(
Sotto voce
)
:
No.

1:
But here we find electric light has a
connection
.

2:
Yes. I see your point. Yes.

1:
Like a road, eh?

2:
Yes.

1:
It is the same road. One for all. A dirt path in the Hinterlands, of some worn blacktop in the Ozarks. It is all the same. One road.

2
(
Sotto voce
)
:
One road.

1:
Now we see the same of electricity. Why do we need these things?

2:
The goods?

1:
Yes. (
Pause
.)

2:
They keep us cool.

1:
Oh. (
Sighs
.) I tell you. It's like being at the Y.

2:
The Blackout?

1:
Yes. When you have taken off your clothes and they cannot see where you bought your watch.

2
(
Sotto voce
)
:
Mmm.

1:
When they turned the power off. So when the men were in the streets all bets were off.

2
(
Sotto voce
)
:
When they went after goods. I know. It says they put them forty to a room too small for ten.

1:
They did?

2:
I read they did.

1:
When they had caught them.

2:
Yes.

1:
You know, when you go in a record store you see the men with guns.

2:
I know.

1:
In Medieval England we learn they had seven hundred crimes which they could hang you for. We see that, and we are aghast. But now, today, you see them in the Supermarkets with their guns. They are empowered to kill you for the theft of record albums. (
Pause
.) Of some diversionary device or machine.

2
(
To self
)
:
And they were very hot in there.

1:
So when the men were in the streets, they said all bets are off. “You cannot live in Darkness. You insure your power by the gun.” (
Pause
.) What audacity.

2:
I think so, too.

1:
Today you cannot buy a flashlight.

2:
It is difficult, but you can buy them.

1:
Do you know, the folks directing traffic . . .

2:
Yes.

1:
Controlling traffic in their nightdress, as in Revolutionary Times. This is not altruism.

2:
No. We'd all like to direct it.

1:
It is wish-fulfillment.

2
(
To self
)
:
Until they came to Trial. ..

1:
Or they would go destroy a mercantile concern.

2
(
To self
,
continuing
)
:
which would not be soon . . .

1:
And cause much unhappiness. (
Pause
.)

2:
Someone should write a book.

1:
There. In the dark. Our dreams of courage, or The Indians. Of foraging.

2:
We all revert.

1:
You think so?

2:
Yes.