TRTR Chapter VI - fire marshall bill...

[Michael Bailey]

fire marshall bill asked me to remind you that cigarette burns on
windowledges, tabletops, mantelpieces, floorboards and other household
appurtenances are only romantic if they do not lead to conflagrations
in which things valuable (property) or precious (lives) are at risk...

please watch that smoldering butt out of the corner of your eye and
don't put it down where it'll roll or if there's any doubt that it'll
extinguish itself harmlessly!

page 205:
he's not just unwilling to be seen without his sling, he's "fearful"
-- I do know that fear, that some social pretense will be shattered,
it's a physical fear...

the symphony of morning in New York continues with a jackhammer

he almost knocks on the unseen but audibly fretful neighbor's door but
sees his manuscript and goes back to get it, picking up as well the
smaller one containing the writings that he's going to pass to a
friendly publisher (unread)

this is sort of capsulizing the way he lets his involvement in the
arts supersede his involvement with life

also I remember reading that Gaddis had a certain amount of hostility
toward his own unfinished work (it's like having a sick friend around
the house, or something like that)