The Mechanical Bride Thread

[Richard Fiero]

Richard Fiero wrote:
  . . .
>Photo of Eve Babitz and Duchamp, Pasadena 1963:
>http://carmelosaia.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/babitz-duchamp.jpg
>
>Interview with Eve Babitz:
>http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/tranSCRIPTs/babitz00.htm

Oh, man, you have to read this stuff ^^up there^^.  Sounds like a damn P novel:
=====
MS. BABITZ: I wanted my cigarettes. I wanted my glasses. I wanted my 
clothes on; I wanted Julian to take me to a Chinese restaurant.

MR. KARLSTROM: So you-

MS. BABITZ: I knew exactly the one he wanted to go too. Chow Yung 
Fat. It's down on Main Street.

MR. KARLSTROM: So you really weren't all that comfortable?

MS. BABITZ: No. No.

MR. KARLSTROM: But it was worth it.

MS. BABITZ: It was worth it because Walter came in and he dropped his gum.

MR. KARLSTROM: So Walter actually came in to see how it was going.

MS. BABITZ: Yeah.

MR. KARLSTROM: And he didn't even know you were there.

MS. BABITZ: No.

MR. KARLSTROM: Wow. So you won.

MS. BABITZ: Yeah.

MR. KARLSTROM: You didn't win at chess.

MS. BABITZ: No.

MR. KARLSTROM: But you won in terms of taking control of the situation.

MS. BABITZ: That's right.

MR. KARLSTROM: I mean, did you think of it a little bit that way? 
Because I'm thinking of motivation.

MS. BABITZ: I said, "Hello, Walter" and he dropped his gum.

MR. KARLSTROM: Literally?

MS. BABITZ: Yes. He always chewed Double Mint gum.

MR. KARLSTROM: So what, did he hang out and watch?

MS. BABITZ: No. He was even more ashen than he already was. He ran 
into Gretchen's office-

MR. KARLSTROM: "What's going on in there?"

MS. BABITZ: That's right.

MR. KARLSTROM: So he left.

MS. BABITZ: "I don't know, I thought you hired her -well, no I 
thought it was your idea."

MR. KARLSTROM: But Marcel probably thought it was great.

MS. BABITZ: Right.

MR. KARLSTROM: I mean, who wouldn't, you were 20 years old and voluptuous.

MS. BABITZ: You could just like, they were just like, I mean, he 
thought he was running everything and I finally got to run something anyway.

MR. KARLSTROM: Well, you know this interests me because it does seem 
to have something to do with this idea of using a situation for 
control-power is too strong of a word. You know in our relationships 
there is this interaction of position. How you present yourself.

MS. BABITZ: That's right.

MR. KARLSTROM: I think that's power, and did it strike you at all 
that you were using your feminine wiles-

MS. BABITZ: I was trying to get back in his good graces because he 
wouldn't call me up or my mother.

MR. KARLSTROM: How would that get you back in his good graces?

MS. BABITZ: Well, because I had thrown my body in for art, I would say.

MR. KARLSTROM: Ha-ha. I love it.

MS. BABITZ: You know, I had thrown myself into this game for art. You 
know, I was not a very good artist. But this was like one thing I could do.