DIRT CHEAP, CHAPTER ONE
Splash panel: Mid-upper is Wildwood, numerous tentacle-like arms reaching for everything. Foreground: Far left, Hash and Fill running with enigmatic smiles. Mid left, Andrea and Frogman, Andrea looking up disgusted vexed and pissed, Frogman hiding in Andrea's shadow. Mid right, front, Baxter and Sandy trying to look unsuspicious, Freedman following on pogo-stick. Far right, Leoda angrily flashing a one-finger salute.
First scene: Hashford and Fillmore: Fill enters john. Hash is sleeping in right urinal. Overcoated figure is using right urinal. Fill wakes Hash, they turn, see figure is Dick Tracy, pulling machine-gun out of his fly. Hash and Fill jump through mirror, more mirrors slid down, locking DT. He plugs his shaver into his fly, and shaves (seen through two-way mirror). Andrea and Frogman are viewing a painting with a mirror. Andrea recites importance of work, Frogman looks, says, "Hey! I can see myself!", seen from other side by another DT. They walk off, watched by Laocoon with 3 DT heads. Sandy and Baxter are seen in mirror preparing for party, Freedman sitting between with distant smile. Freedman runs to closet, pulls out a skeleton (DT resemblance) and prepares for use at party. Baxter and Sandy pullout coffin in addition put Freedman in. Leoda is resting from party preparation (Banner above reads "Congrats Prez Dewey!") with legs propped on table and bottle in hand. Hash and Fill enter. by rope from ceiling, Andrea and Frogman by trap-door, Baxter and Sandy crash through mirror riding coffin. Everyone else comes through front-door at once. During party, Baxter and Sandy meet Hashford and Fillmore ("This is our coffin you're leaning on", "Oh excuse me") and Andrea and Frogman meet Leoda. When one group is in foreground, the other in in background. Party goes on (National Dwarf Repatory Society production of "Table Salt in Science and Industry"--"Keep smiling comrade at 11 sharp bite off all their kneecaps") until Bust. Police helicopters lift off roof and dozens of DTs enter. Everyone else escapes by riverboat, with yelling between Leoda and Wildwood. Fillmore is waiting for Hashford to get out of the toilet, and Baxter and Sandy have problemsn with coffin. Baxter and Sandy are caught, Freedman pops out with hydra-headed jack-in-the-box ("Raindrops keep "fallin on my head") and they get away. They run into john with Hash and Fill. They shoot them from a slingshot made from two rubbers to safety.
FILLMORE At the End--Waiting around New City till he's gotta go take a piss, pulls out a WALLACE RAT pendant and twirls it while singing 'Doing Dat Magic Dang', walks along until image pulls back to view of New City. Beginning--Simply seen walking along twirling something in his hand till he gets to a john (and meets Hashford) Hashford lying in the New City john shot up
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
FREEDMAN A strange young man who, with his goggles, can see nothing but his own wit. The tiny motor which powers the tiny hatch-plot is not his own; it is the link that all of the other characters feel to their world and to each other when they least expect it, when they least want it, when they are most terrified and alone: it is RATLAND. RATLAND follows its own course, and a few can guess, and a few ca~ understand, but RATLAND never does.
DAVE: OSCAR: CHUCK: DAVE: OSCAR: CHUCK: DAVE: CHUCK:
Tell us about Ratland Ratland? What about it? What happened there? When the three of you were together I really don't know what you're talking I thought that was Freedman's line. What? Nothing. about.
OSCAR: Norman, they're working on Freedman now. What do they want? NORMAN: A reason to live, I suppose. OSCAR: You're starting to sound like them now. What I mean is, what do they want to know about Ratland? I mean, things happen. They just do. Don't those guys know that! NORMAN: Probably, but they still want something they brown paper bag, take home and stick in the freezer. sometimes feel like somebody's wrapped you in a brown stuck you in a freezer? OSCAR: I don't like that kind of talk.
can wrap up in c Don't you paper bag and
DAVE: About the last time you visited Ratland.... FREEDMAN: Funny you should mention that. Just a few weeks before, I ran into a cat torturing cult. DAVE: A what? FREEDMAN: A cat-torturing cult. They'd go around torturing any cat they could find. They said that they were just trying to re-establist a universal psychic balance that'd been upset when God created cats. DAVE: But, about Ratland....
FREEDMAN: They had these long hooks with striped paint allover and they I d. . . . OSCAR: Try and get to the point, Freedman, so we can go home. NORMAN: No, Freedman, go on. Talk about the universal psychic balance. Did they believe that God had made a mistake in creating cats? OSCAR: C'mon Norman, not you too! The sooner we get to the point, the sooner these bozos can figure out what's going on and the sooner we can go home! NORMAN: Nonsense. Do you think Freedman or I would know more than you? Do you think you could know less? Do you think any of us could 'explain anything to these gentlemen, and do you think that if we could, we'd tell them anything they don't know? They're in a far worse position than ignorance. That's why they ask questions about things they've seen closer to than we, and are even more dumbfounded than we.
PRESIDENT: Mr. Blackfist, I'm so pleased to see you again. Why don't you sit down and make yourself uncomfortable. I really like the job you're doing out there in the field. You've given us a lot to tell the troops, and put in the propaganda films. It's a fine, fine conspiracy you've got going against me now. BLACKFIST: Well, Mr. President, most of the stories about me are apocryphal. PRESIDENT: Apocryphal? Ho-ho-ho! The only thing I like more than a man with a good sense of humor is a man with good PR! BLACKFIST: Thank you Mr. President. PRESIDENT: Now, what can I do for you? BLACKFIST: Well, some of my intelligence gathering methods may seem a little esoteric, but--we're both aficionados of The Game, aren't we--but certain information from reliable if unlikely sources leads me to believe that a new element--an unpredictable and frightening element--is about to be introduced into the status quo, as it were. Those most sensitive factors that we've hitherto been able to keep under control are likely to be affected...for the worse. PRESIDENT: Well, what do you want me to do? Assign a Blue Ribbon Committee to assess the damage? Appoint an independent special prosecutor to get to the bottom of this mess? Send in the....
(Wildwood UBERDONG: WILDWOOD: UBERDONG: WILDWOOD: Uberdong: WILDWOOD: Unberdong: WILDWOOD: intend to UBERDONG: WILDWOOD: 20 years.
and Uberdong, watching by closed-circuit television-) I don't believe it! It's impossible! Quiet! I'm trying to hear what Blackfist is getting at! Blackfist and the President? Of course! You mean you didn't know? The state of corruption is much worse than I'd thought. What are you talking about? Drastic measures may be necessary. Things are in a very delicate balance. I hope you don't upset things. Huh? Just what do you mean by "a delicate balance"? I mean the only thing that's kept me from killing you for (Sandy and Baxter are looking for Freedman who's been lost all day. Sandy calls Andrea and Frogman. They're both in bed...with Freedman.) ANDREA: Hello? SANDY: Andrea? This is Sandy. ANDREA: Uh, yeah. SANDY: Where? ANDREA: In bed. You want to talk with him? SANDY: In bed? With you? ANDREA: Yeah. You want to.... SANDY: What about Frogman? ANDREA: He's in bed too. You want to talk with him? SANDY: I mean, how did he react? ANDREA: To what? Have you seen Freedman lately?
SANDY: To you and Freedman? ANDREA: Huh? SANDY: When you and Freedman were together? ANDREA: When? SANDY: What? ANDREA: I mean when do you want to know how he reacted? When he wae on the bottom, middle or the top? SANDY: Forget it. Can you put Freedman on? ANDREA: No, he's pretty well out of it for the night. I can't put Frogman on now either, he's the same. But I'm still here. SANDY: Oh. ANDREA: Yeah. Well, after Freedman hopped complicated...uh, Baroque, as Frogman might SANDY: I don't think Frogman would've said ANDREA: It was a joke. SANDY: Oh. ANDREA: Anyway, they got kind of tuckered out pretty quick, and I'm all that's left for now. SANDY: Really? Is it some kind of vitamin you take? ANDREA: What? SANDY: It was a joke. ANDREA: Oh. SANDY: Just bring Freedman over when you're through with him. in, things got a little say. that. SALOME: bed. I don't, know about you, but I'm going to bed. The li ttle AIR KING: I still dont know what we're after. SEA KING: Spirit, gang, there are bridges to burn, mountains to be made mole-hills of. EARTH QUEEN: food. All is ignorance and vanity--ignorance, vanity and bad FIRE KING: race. Don't worry about the whirlpool, I went here for the dog AIR KING: Dog Races? Whirlpool? This is code, right? You're planning something behind my back. EARTH QUEEN: Yes and no. AIR KING: What? EARTH QUEEN: When it comes to communication, Fire King is a cipher without a key, and you are a man who's front and back are indistinguishable. We never know whether or not we're planning something behind your back. FIRE KING: Everybody takes a joke so well around here. SALOME: I don't know. I'm doing pretty well with four big jokes around here. FIRE KING: Salome, where've you been? SALOME: I've been busy prying Sea King out of the toilet. EARTH QUEEN: Oh my God! What a mess! AIR KING: Is anyone hurt? Are we convered by insurance? FIRE KING: I wish you'd told us before; we could have watched. * * * "I need toilets to flush, Baxter," Freedman said. "Sometimes I feel like a toilet," Baxter answered. Freedman felt trapped in his own metaphors now. * * *' In the great city of Lovemean Leavemeon Hold, once called the City of Pleasure, later called the City of Righteousness, now only called in cases of emergency, there stands Another Tower of Statesmanship. Here is the office of the President. It is from this office that the President's Daughter runs everything.
The President, in black leotards, leapt around the office, over and under the furniture in accordance with illustrations fromt "Postures and Movements of The Game" pasted allover the walls. His daughter, a grotesque woman, hummed a currently popular love-song, "Vacuum Tubes", to herself as she worked diligently at a paper shredder.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
TEST lCENE
WILDWOOD AND THE DONGS are chasing robbers down long street/corridor (the two change from one to another which leads/changes into a theater lobby). They go into the theater, Wildwood loses the dongs and wanders around until cries of "Down in front!" from the robbers force him to sit down and watch the show. A foreign movie is on, subtitled and very bad. A convicted murderer has escaped from prison just after receiving death sentence. He has stolen his daughter from her foster-parents and they are driving down narrow streets in a cheesy little car chased by cheesy little police-cars (so explained to Wildwood by Sandy sitting next to him). Wildwood finds himself sitting in the back of the police-cars and he's being called "Captain". He receives instructions in (I could pull off German but I'd prefer French for this scene) language and he answers in baby-talk, to fire at the car without regard for the girl. His car rams into something and he has time to see his body torn to shreds before he's back in the theater screaming. Sandy tries to calm him and the other robbers yell "Shut up in front!" By now the killer's car, to ovoid running over an old lady is totaled by a fruit wagon (I said it was a cheesy car). The killer, now injuries complicating previous gunshot wounds, carries his unconscious daughter to an arty Catholic Church for sanctuary (We now see how much these two characters resemble Norman and Salome). He lays his daughter down on one of the benches and now crawling goes to a confession box. Wildwood finds himself in vestments, occupying the box. While the killer is confesIsg, Wildwood finds the police radio from the car he was in in the previous scene. It is saying that if we will hand the prisoner over the police will clean all of the stained glass windows every Friday and Saturday for 5 weeks. Meanwhile, the killer has started spitting blood and is asking for last rites. Confused, Wildwood gets out and makes crosses with his fingers allover the killer's body, talking baby-talk, which seems to satisfy the killer as he dies. Wildwood then looks up to see Salome who's now recovered and looks at him with grief and terror and exhaustion. Seeing her with such an expression, in her white sunday dress, now torn and blood-stained, Wildwood breaths a deep sigh of resignation and rapes her.
Aug 4, 11: 30 Beginning, a van speeds clumsily across the desert to the tune of a chorus of voices screaming at each other over the reception. Exactly what is going we'll worry about when we get exact (which ought to be soon), but it should be reasonably interesting (a great adj.) active and comical. The key changes are these: The robbery has already taken place The robbers (van) and the EK's (voices) are introduced Hashford & Fillmore are Written out completely. Andrea adequate as Mutt & Jeff types and even better at revealing in. Does seem drastic but very justifiable.
simultanesiouysly & Frogman are the world they live Another beginning--start at the robbery. Principals are all gathered in New City, all ignorant of each other's existence, on separate missions. All make life difficult for each other without meeting.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
FILLMORE At the End--Waiting around New City till he's gotta go take a piss, pulls out a WALLACE RAT pendant and twirls it while singing 'Doing Dat Magic Dang', walks along until image pulls back to view of New City. Beginning--Simply seen walking along twirling something in his hand till he gets to a john (and meets Hashford) Hashford lying in the New City john shot up
The main cinematic output of the RATWORKS embodied the WALLACE RAT cycle, a series of cartoons. They took place in the Kingdom of Animals, after the king had died (the king's death was never fully described but unkind allusions were often made). Quick changes in power were taking place, accompanied by cruel purges. Religious conflicts also took place, ultimately narrowing down to the battle between Rheinhold Duck and Milfrid Mole. Apart from the fact that both suffered from disoriented sexual identities, and that both left a lot of corpses behind them they were quite different in their approaches. Milfrid sought a return to traditional values; frequent and bloody tortures and human sacrifice. Rheinhold Duck was more of a modernist, blathering on about the search for redemption had committing indescribable debaucheries. Wallace Rat is far more provincial in his views--he is a mercenary, working at different times for both parties. The cartoon enjoyed less success than had been hoped for and more success than we from our safe position might expect. Actually, much of their popularity rested on the whole-hearted and (we can be sure) sincere endorsement of Hawley's patron Sluggo the Third. Sluggo the Third may have thought twice when the Wallace Rat exhibit was officially opened at Ratland. The Robot Rat began uttering prophesies in a mock-religious tone. Not only were then prophesies far more dismal than Sluggo's own recently announced ten-year plan. but they included references to the Ruler's recent past, which contained a lot of delicate information, at say the least. We can be sure that the ruler's anger turned to terror as soon as the Rat began performing "Signs and wonders" for the gathered crowd. In fact, rather few of the gathered crowd actually survived the rat's signs and wonders. One of the few survivors was a boy named FREEDMAN who believed that the rat was speaking of him when he prophesied that he would soon return (always a good thing to prophesy), using one present as his physical vessel.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
REVOLUTIONARY LEADER over radio transmitter: Element Kings-Over-Is anyone there-Over-Urgent EARTH QUEEN (looking up from papers): Element Kings this, Element Kings that! Where'd that stupid name come from anyway? REVOLUTIONARY LEADER: Element Kings-this is urgent-Over SALOME (angry, hurt voice coming from next room): Awright, there was a Raspberry Jello mold in the refrigerator and now it's not there. Is somebody hassling me? SEA KING (to himself, sitting in a corner): Jello. --No, I would've remembered. Hector's sandwich--was that a ride or a movie?--It was the blue lead wire that always-EARTH QUEEN (slowly with resignation): Every day. (Even slower.) Every day. REVOLUTIONARY LEADER: This is really important; somebody should answer-SEA KING: I would've remembered roses. SALOME: You know, I can put up with anything, (AIR KING wanders in, rubbing his face and mumbling "shit") but there are getting to be limits. Say, is anybody going to answer that thing? AIR KING: Yes sweetheart (no emotion), hello (picking up mike). REVOLUTIONARY LEADER: There's been a robbery! AIR KING: That's nice. Were you the culprit or the victim? REVOLUTIONARY LEADER: No! It's the Whole New city Treasury! SEA KING: Old enameled bottlecaps--empty holograms--drug research grants--but where was I when-SALOME: This used to be fun. So? What's the problem? I'm tired. SEA KING: --when the system went down? AIR KING (finger in ear, still talking to REVOLUTIONARY LEADER) Oh, that! OK, what'd you get? REVOLUTIONARY LEADER: Nothing! Some small timers did it! AIR KING: Oh, sh-- (FIRE KING jUmps in, finishing conversation that no one knows where he started, what he's talking about, or who he's talking to) FIRE KING: Then, after everyone in the closet's drowned, we make a sort of interface with the vacuum cleaner motor and the variable speed mixers. Then we-AIR KING (to FIRE KING): Not now! (FIRE KING retreats into silence, AIR KING back to REVoLUTIONARY LEADER): Excuse me, it's a zoo here. It's always a zoo here! EARTH QUEEN (to herself): It's the healthy influence of the zoo-keeper. AIR KING: What, then, is the point? REVOLUTIONARY LEADER: They're heading towards Ratland! SEA KING (slowly becoming alert, whispers): Godspeed, Pilgrims. AIR KING: Are they off to see Black Fist, or just passing through on their way to Buchart Gardens? REVOLUTIONARY LEADER: In spite of their apparent professionalism, their goals seem pretty confused. SEA KING: In spite of their apoplectic protestations, their bowels reek, even when unused. (beginning to leer, alert but no help) REVOLUTIONARY LEADER (apparently hearing): What were the instructions? AIR KING: Oh, that's static. REVOLUTIONARY LEADER: Well, I still need instructions. I mean, are we to intercept, ignore, escort, or play tennis with them? Well, I don't really can-Let them intercept and escort them at the same time! Wha? (leaves) AIR KING: FIRE KING: AIR KING:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hashford me'3ts Fillmore They go to Party-~eet Freedman, Kleins Head for Old City, chased by Police Tornado Girl escapes from sanitarium heads for desert resting on cliff, she sees Blackfist's sanctuary Element Kings are seen helping Revolutionaries in California During rest they 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kidnapping of President by Oscar Duck Pond Robbery by Gang of Wildwood Meeting of Space Ships Rape of Norman by Leoda Party Bust Train to Toy Ratland Psycho Nuclear Reaction Meeting between Freedman and Blackfist HF --demonstrate to the reader other character's predicaments by throwing jokes back forth. (I hope they aren't Estragon and Vladimir) FREEDMAN -- responds to everything like reconcile his negative side. This interesting to note. I once spoke notes correctly, Freedman seems to same time. a new-born baby. Is he working to gives Freedman potentially tragic of historical ambiguity. If I recall my be battling with and for his past at the BAXTER is just trying to be one of the boys, in fact, more naive than Freedman. Not naive, but it's obvious he entered this crime field late in his development, but has tried to makeup for this lost time with enthusiasm. (Baxter Klien (Freedman's assistant) cool, quiet genius, smokes, short, glasses, little beard, reasonably strong.) SANDY is at times a wet blanket. Very straight background. Badly adjusted to head/thief life (Dead Babies?) When circumstances require, however, she is the most cold, ruthless member of the gang. (Friendly, makes cookies, not too bright but knows what Baxter's doing. Beautiful, short, but taller than Baxter) . ANDREA is remarkable because she's not dead, crazy, or in a convent. She has survived one of the lousiest marriages possible (parents I mean) with something of a life, brain and sense of humor. TOGETHER: Sandy huddles in a corner, a lot, generally communicates through Baxter, but makes a special effort to avoid Andrea. Andrea frightens Sandy, and Sandy bores Andrea. SOMETHING OF A PLOT CLUE: Notice that all of the characters are important figures in their community, except the ones we know best, who are all small-time crooks. Freedman connects all of this by going (and carrying the gang with them) off on his personal quest to reconcile his past with the past of the world and demolishes and transforms (AUM SHIVAI) the world conflict that the others are involved in. GAME: try to use each character to flesh out the setting, field, ground. up them to the degree that they have a whole set of characters behind character influencing him/her. When we have a big mess of off-stage characters relationships them we have a prefect exercise in editing. a case of getting the ice-berg back under its tip, where it belongs. B~k each It's WILDWOOD: If Ratland has an eternal guardian, then Ratland has to be eternal too. Ratland goes through various phases in its travels through the universe, much like the Ages of the Universe is said to pass through Zodiacly or whatever. Ratland is a trouble-shooting device which maintains healthy internal functions in the great Universal Organism, responding to disasters LEODA DUNWOODIE--Hostess of party, one-time plant biologist, affair with Air King (Eric Sinclair) which produced Tornado Girl (abandoned) career is ruined--drinks--becomes procurist of Old city Oddities for New City Bureaucrats--bitter--bizarre sacarsm~-archetypical Mother-figure MELVIN WILDWOOD--greedy--petty--typical small-time bad-guy--picks his nose andwipes it on his secretary's lap--Graduate of Iowa State School of Business -- Major in Marketing and Forensic Medicine--Minor in Pharmacology. Naturally went into Government. Married an Eye-doctor's daughter--unhappy marriage -- separate beds and bedrooms, garages, bathrooms . --Flashback I Blackfist II after BF I dies BF II has completely squandered organization funds and lost whole org. in two weeks.--Went out on street and asked, "Wanna join a subversive organization?" to everyone he met. Seven (7) people said "YES" including Wildwood who was waiting for his wife to pick him up while acting as treasurer for President's Committee on Subversive Groups. FREEDMAN'S main goal is to keep his cousin, who knows what Bloodlust in Ratland is, from being released from Top-Secret Concentration Camp (at one point Freedman must steal candy from a baby (this is doubtful». Freedman inadvertently suggested revival of Ratland to E. Kings. ELEMENT KINGS (recall personal problems on chart) involved in alchemy and model railroading (ala RKD)--- Goal is recreation (pun?) of Ratland. Somehow Freedman gets to an Element Kings Party--Oscar (Freedman's old friend, EK nephew) PR man for High School Athletics (who shares old legends of Ratland) is hired to write tracts for Resurrection of Ratland and Kidnap President (nogood nothin). Freedman needs President to bribe into keeping cousing. (Pres. jolly idiot--Frogman, man of moment. Surface characters both. Hashford and Fillmore presented assurafce characters but with unknown purpose.) TORNADO GIRL (to sustain party motif) thousands of little beds and all of our characters waking up (doubtful) ELEMENT KINGS MOTIF--boredom, go to extremes of everything. Sea King is father of Tornado Girl. Married to Leoda's second daughter, craves novelty, best at finding it. .
SALOME is novelty. 12 years old, black leather lash fiend degenerate, always waisted. Programmed by Leoda (mother). Causes inner conflicts. Her very presence in the groups destroys Sea King. BLACKFIST--when one of his plans fails he inadvertently helps someone elSE by removing difficulties for others. When he does something right, he destroy the world. A Realist--not taken in by other's or his own illusions or facade and flabbergasted by reality-immobilized acts only on allies and enemies expectations, yet foes, in attempting to outthink him, outwit themselves. Confides in Tornado Girl (Realist confides in Dreamer) ~
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
ELEMENT KINGS First Incarnation Children of throwaway remark by Jim Allen Aristocratic Revolutionaries Idle rich (old money) Perverts and Dingbats (see original covers) Banded together to fight President so they can have the country Your obligatory "Marvel" team Earth King is your obligator "Marvel" team "Big Guy" Looked like Dum-Dum Dugan Other three just looked like aging Hippies Comment: Returning to the original conception has two attractive features: First, the notion of American Royalty could be turned into a "Universe-Next-Door" game with lots of possible avenues for satire. Second, there is an interesting conflict inherent between these EKs and the robbers (besides the robbers friendship with Leoda). These EKs are Rich, Aging Bohemians who fancy themselves to be the height of Hipness, whereas the robbers are Street People, who have earned the hipness through hard labour, but don't have near as much fun as the EKs. However, these two groups are often viewed by common society as being closely allied.
Second Incarnation See my "mature" drawings You found the Earth King a cliche so you turned her into the Earth Queen Her character: I saw her as obsessive about her beauty and an affected snob You saw her as eventually recognizing her role as "Earth Mother" and uniting with and personifying the archetype Fire King: The one in the fur-tunic He was called that because he looked and acted as though he'd spent too much time on Fire Island (a resort in NY known for strange parties in the early 60') The only character still expressing the carefree, bohemian spirit of the original EKs Sea King: Wild hair and glasses Driven insane by some experience during the fall of Ratland "The only time he speaks is in incomprehensible proverbs" Air King: Bald-headed Fancied himself the leader of the group--their babysitter Fancied himself a serious revolutionary Compulsive worrier Salome (how could I forget): Real leader of the group Related to Hawley: Only surviving Ratketeers (You know, appeared on the Wallace Rat Club Show and did conventions) Using the train to recreate Ratland, but never quite able to get there Comment: The chief advantages to this incarnation are: (1) they were related to Hawley, and are still under his influence; (2) we do know, if nothing else, what they look like.
Third Incarnation UFO (in progress) The Air King or Sky King (the name of a Saturday morning TV show 20 years ago), Dominic Jops, made Leoda pregnant The Sea Queen'rises out of the ocean and is related to Leoda's vision of something 'The Earth King is named Grogan Knobald. No comment.' .. Ideas and Questions
(1) I'd like to keep the advantages of the first two incarnations. As far as characterization a-nd plotting go, the EKs need all the help 'they can get.
(4) Which one is which sex? I have a suggestion: either give them the power to change sex at will or make them change' sex without their knowing it (like multiple personalities). Maybe they don't know their real natures. Maybe even Hawley doesn't know their true natures.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
1) Blackfist is head of concentration camp where Norman (Freedman's cousin) is held
2) Government sustains Blackfist as a perennial common enemy (Corporate Fu Manchu)
3) Blackfist fears becoming a Federal Agency and decides to pose a real threat to real forces of good-will rise and demolish both government and himself, and salvage whats left of his dignity by fulfilling his preordained role to its fullest degree.
4) Government wishes to engineer an alliance between Elements and Blackfist to immobilize Elements
5) Freedman engineered certain events to make Norman look crazy and be put away. Norman accidently becomes national hero. Government fears looking bad no matter what it does about Norman, and hires Blackfist to kidnap him.
6) Freedman doesn't know about Blackfist's position in government. He makes rendezvous with BF. Freedman meets Tornado Girl--"Tender and Touching Scene"--i.e. Bonzo!
7) Elements reaction to Blackfist: they know that BF is working for government but not about his private plans. They want him to join to get back at government. Individual reactions vary.
8) BF resents joining with EKs and wants to destroy them.
9) Leoda, ruined by EK (Tornado Girl) married a breakfast cereal executive (Wildwood?) had a daughter, and sets it up so that she marries EK.
10) Ratland has developed into a legend. Ratland is believed to resenbel an amusement park but with some secret. The secret is that it was a Pantheon w/out Gods, and resembles an amusement park.
11) Freedman, who is afraid of finding out he's destroyed Ratland, also doesn't know he created it. When he goes to Ratland to meet Blackfist he comments how it resembles his old High School and Blackfist Freaks OUT!
12) Correlation between Book 1 and Book 2: Duck Pond Robbery characters ride average hippie bus to Bizarre Ratland. Flashback characters ride normal looking Bizarre Bus to Normal Ratland.
13) Ratland is Atlantis, a Pantheon without Gods.
HAWLEY set up the circumstances of this story as an experiment Hawley was the renaissance man who wanted to play God Hawley destroyed the old society and set up the new society Hawley established Wildwood as the caretaker of the new society Hawley established Ratland as a myth Wildwood doesn't know any more than his limited role He doesn't understand the role that the other characters play in Hawley's experiment
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
This would recall the work we did imagining the environment of Dirt Cheap to in the distant future, on a planet which was part of the EArth EMpire. But these ideas, although I'm not very satisfied with them yet, are based upon tes made last summer, and illustrate a point applicable to this story:
WHEN RUNNING UP AGAINST AN OBSTACLE, MAKE THE OBSTACLE PART OF THE STORY, D LET THE CHARACTERS HELP YOU GET AROUND IT.
First we had straight Dirt Cheap with no major modifications. Then we adde tland. Then I started trying to explain things: I put the story on another anet, made an origin of Ratland, developed the Game, and threw in such aracters as Mr. Hawley and Luther Hopjohn. Then I decided to let the main aracters.find out that they were in a comic book all along. After that, I je the whole thing into a big circle (cycle?) Then, inspired by the prolifer plots rising these days, I decided that we could just as well have many stories behind us, and being every so clever I adapted it to Dirt Cheap under e name of historical ambiguity. Up until a few days ago I thought that the jor problem all of this would cause woould be one very long Dirt Cheap. wever, the more I think about this the more I wonder if all of these ideas ca reconciled. At present I hope that in working with specific characters in ecific situations will help all of these ideas either come together to compet r a place in the story and profit from a sort of natural selection. What do u think?
As odd as this may seem I havne't done much thnking about Dirt Cheap, but ts see if I can improvise some. stimulation. I'm first struck by a single int: the problem lies not in the story, in any of its incarnations, but in e forces driving the story. Worded in the authors point of view, the aracters we develop are clever, the societies we develop are clever, and the ot devices we play with are clever. But nothing is essential to the story.' a needs good characters in a story that is not psychological? Who needs aginatve societes in a story that has no polictical concerns? Who needs at devices when youve got so little of everything else? The above is a good ample of what I'M talking about. It is simply that there is nothing in Dirt eap that makes its existence seem neccesary to us except a limp, shapeless, lorless washcloth of an emotion. It doesn't even have to be expressable. It uld be an undefinable gut-wrenching cry which lies behind the story. It esn't even have to be that. It could be as silent at the passing of time. fact if you encounter, enter, envelop, or whatever a great work of art, to e point that it really affects and moves you, I predict that you'll never nd a critical paper on that work that does it the crudest justice, so long that critic can clearly definitely and confidently express when he sees as e vtal force of that. In other words if you can make nice clear vital atemnts about the vital force of a great work of art, you've probably been le to fit the work comfortably into your 'scheme of things'. However, if you things properly (my preference, I admit) you'll have tried to fit yourself to the work's scheme of things, an expereince for which words are generally adequate (This argement taken from the "I-Hate-To-Think Book: a reappraisal the 20th century, Chapter 78: Aesthic Philosophy, not for Boy Scouts, only 9.95, Harper and Row).
Consequently the only suggestion I can make at prsent are that we find some ace in the story were the reader can fit in and can transform the story into I'm glad you brought up the problem of the adolescence which runs deeply through Dirt Cheap. Adolescence, however, is a great theme, in itself, and there are alot of good questions that can be drawn into the story (even if some are a bit old). We could make the key characters teenagers (all we would have to do is find out who the key characters are), and make a point of how adults and teenagers make use of each other for their own various nefarious ends. We could make the situations even more immature and show the characters suffering under and rebelling against the ridiculous situations forced upon them by theil teenage authors (if you like Author/Character conflicts). These are just off the top of my head, but they illustrate a principle I've just now discovered:
WHEN YOU HAVE A SERIOUS PROBLEM THAT IS RUINING YOUR STORY, TURN THE PROBLEM AROUND, MAKE IT INTO A THEME OF THE STORY, AND LET THE CHARACTERS YOU'VE WORKED SO HARD TO DEVELOP HELP YOU SOLVE THAT PROBLEM.
These ideas I've just thought up also reveal a _really- serious problem I've even more recently discovered, and I'm not sure my clever little principle can solve: DIRT CHEAP has become so pliable, chameleon-like, so versatile in content and form that the possibilities could be monstrous. We could do this with the dongs, that with Ratland, twist the government into a pretzel, make a pizza out of interpersonal relations, shoot the philosophical fine-points out of a cannon, and make subtle literary allusions to the US Marines Firearms Manual. There is only one, I repeat, ONE way to solve that problem, and it makes me sick to think about it. We're going to have to produce something which is mind-boggling and utterly simple at the same time. We're going to have to be Shakespeare, Da Vinci and any 150 of however many great artist, scientists, writers, revolutionaries, etc, we have running loose right now, if Dirt Cheap is going to get off the ground at all. Do you have a more practical solution? If not, I'll try to get a complete set of character sketches and some more notes as soon as I can.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
HASH FORD & FILLMORE
Hashford is tall & skinny with long stringy hair and a scraggly goatee over pitted flesh, who lives at a wayside mission founded by a priest who had a religious vision of a young girl turning into a tornado. Fillmore is short & chubby, gets a barber-college haircut every 3 months, and lives with his mother, who works at a toy factory making model trains for the Elements Kings. Sometimes the glue gets on her fingers & she sees flashing lights for a few days. When Hashford & Fillmore were in high school they used to sit in the toilet and work on epic tales. They isolated all their stories into two major works--a quest story and a war story. However, characters and plots kept getting confused between the two and they couldn't even work out a time reference between them. This lasted for REALIZATION After Hashford and Fillmore had begun the final draft (3rd day) they were walking down a street from the store and passed a group of people talking. As they passed, they heard two men wearing glasses begin reciting a conversation between the two main characters in the story. Then, someone screamed, "You can't talk like that! You hardly know each other!" After that, they all stood around with blank expressions on their faces. Hashford & Fillmore realized that not only does life imitate art but that the comic book had been given the power of an incantation by their unceasing efforts. They decided to find a more balanced relationship between their power and the world. As children, Freedman and Norman found a workshop used by Hawley as a young man. After they played there a few times, they began having nightmares. Norman pursued the meaning of them while Freedman tried to avoid them, and even tried not to find out if their nightmares were about the same things. Everything he did to Norman was in an effort to avoid confirming his fear that the world was merely a badly written comic book.
Hashford & Fillmore
Before the story they were unsuccessful comic book artist/writers. They gave it up and changed their lives. By working on the story for five years intensively they achieved illumination. They met in High School. Hashford was studying Literature. However, he had the habit of talking about character development, motifs, and themes in terminology that sounded like a mixture of linguistic philosophy, electrical engineering and a badly written contract. Fillmore was in the science department, holding cockroach races in etymology) and changing labels on jars wherever he went. They both met at a time when they were both realizing that something was not working in their education. Since they both read comic books) they decided to write and draw one themselves. They decided not to divide labor in the normal manner. Hashford would make large graphs, schematics, models, etc., laborious and meticulous of the story and its characters. Fillmore would go into long trance-like free-associations at either the drawing board or the typewriter. Then they'd trade results, and rework the others work in their own style. After five years of intensive work they were able to develop some continuity. There were almost ready to work on the final draft when they had a revelation and gave up work to become those happy-go-Iucky but enigmatic bums of New City. What, then is this revelation? First, Its unlikely that a finished product would ever come of the method I've described above. However, the only beginning I have about the revelation might be the realization about who imitates who, art or life? This isn't enough to work with.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
LOLA HELMET is the President's "daughter". She is, on the first meeting, fat, jovial, and efficient and headstrong. She is on second meeting, on who uses other people ruthlessly and rarely leaves a vulnerable spot. She is on third meeting like one possessed in the degree of hostility she bears people. She is, needless to say, on fourth meeting, very insecure. Her parents were executives in the Hawley organization. She was raised by standards of efficient management, and this cool up-bringing coupled with the paradox between growing up near the man who makes so many people happy and living in an atmosphere of corporate and political corruption left her rather jaded. Then, seeing all of this fall in the revolution and having to survive the change in power made her fully embittered. Freedman is the only person that Lola tries to act honest towards. She used to beat him up a lot. This is because she loves him. Several years back they sort of had an affair. Freedman did this only to talk her into locking up Norman. She complied and he disappeared. She felt that the only way to win him was to give him the world. This was easier than it looked since the president was a Robot (occasionally replaced by an actor in disguise) and since she was hired as daughter to take care of human business and program the president and all she has to do is re-program him. This is why the Element Kings became revolutionaries. They (actually the last surviving Hawley executives) are the ones who built the President--not to rule the world but simply to lead unmolested lives. This is why Lola tried to have BF and EKs form an immobilizing alliance. .
For all her cunning and ruthlessness, the President's Daughter is, at heart, quite romantic. She thinks of herself as a beautiful princess, her father as a wise but bewitched king, Hawley as the wicked wizard who cast the spell on her father, Wildwood as the evil prime minister who now rules but holds the key to her father's spell, and Freedman as the vagabond prince who will free her father and the country of the sinister legacy of Hawley, conquer Wildwood and his hoards of demons (dongs), and in the final reel or chapter, marry her and succeed her father.
TOWARDS THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ELEMENT KINGS
AIR KING went through several different philosophies as a youth searching for the meaning of life. The revolution and the change of power left him embittered and cynical unlike the others he had no shield against the loss of faith and the sudden changes. He was an outsider making it harder to rationalize pre-revolution hi-jinks but easier to adjust to life after the revolution. The SEA KING joined the Hawley group to use his various talents. He was always sexually immature and clumsily got co-worker Leoda Dunwoodie pregnant. Since he was a zealous Hawleyite and she got along poorly in the group she was thrown out. Since the revolution, he has remained the strongest follower of Hawley ("Make as many happy as you can at any cost."). The EARTH QUEEN wanted to be beautiful forever. She became a crackerjack executive administrator and in return they gave her a small fortune in cyborg spare parts. The FIRE KING was a government spy-zoologist who was lured by a high salary to work for Hawley. He ducked out of the revolution and re-surfaced later, offering the Element Kings his help and displaying his ability to go to bed with practically anything. They organized under the AIR KING and built and installed the President, and hired Lola Helmet to act as daughter, and Oscar to Impersonate the President whenever a real human being was needed.
XXXXXXXXXX
When MR. HAWLEY arose out of nowhere to become the founder and ruler of the great entertainment empire, he was known only as Mr. Hawley. Soon, however, his underlings began assigning him pet first names. It became a sign of status to use the right name in the right crowd. The most popular sign names were Carroll, Joyce, Kafka and Corso. After the revolution, however, only two names survived: Conrad and Marlowe. The fact was that Mr. Hawley hated his real name, Fletcher.
Differing opinions exist concerning the relationship between Ratland and the Game. In part, this is due to misunderstandings of the relationship between the exoteric and the esoteric. Freedman, of course, doesn't like to talk about Ratland, but he displays a strong layman's interest in in the Game, fostered by his associates, Hashford and Fillmore. While these two display no serious, dedicated interest in anything, evidence in conversation suggests that they have a lot of knowledge about a lot of subjects, including Ratland and the Game, even through they have not been published in any of the respected journals. Regardless of what they suggest themselves, Baxter and Sandy display little knowledge about anything except burglary, and are, in fact, quite uncomfortable in contact with anything but the most shallow expressions of either. Andrea maintains some interest in matters of culture in general, and Frogman maintains an interest in following Andrea around. Of course, Leoda remains obsessed with Ratland, but she sees the Game as an occasional minor distraction. Wildwood would like to think that both of these forms can be used and manipulated with traditional political string pulling. Wildwood, however, sees potential in a merger of the two groups as part of his long-range social reorganization plan. Blackfist thinks of Ratland as a diabolical scourge on the world with the Game as the only Salvation. Norman, one of the "New Scholars" of the Ratworks, thinks of Ratland as a giant, multi-level, sick joke, whose final punch-line he has yet to uncover. He finds the Game to be too much trouble to learn, and says very little about it, but would probably surprise people if he broke his silence. We were unable, not surprisingly, to solicit Tornado Girl's opinion on this matter. The President's Daughter, thinks of obstacles to the welfare of society and lot of fun with both and cannot, try as take the matter so seriously. The Element Kings think of themselves as enlightened beings (in an almost gnostic sense) who are the only remaining mortals who understand the true meaning of the Ratworks as a whole amd they see the re-foundation of Ratland as the first step in saving civilization. They think that the Game will fizzle out if the people have their minds on the right Rat-ideas. Salome agrees with whoever pays the bills. Oscar disagrees, of course, but the Element Kings have exerted such a stong developmental influence that he is unable to arge the matter with them. .
both the Game and Ratland as great her own plans. The President has had a he may, figure out why other people
RATLAND is College and College is Concentration Camp (Giant Metaphor or General Motors End of the World is a sign of hope and redemption Battle between the Gorgeous (Science) and the Grotesque (Art) The murderer of Hawley is one of. the EKs in a chapter called "God is Dead; Long Live God"