Thursday, February 6, 2014

THE MIDGET STOOD ON TIPTOE, TELEPHONING






Voices battled with other voices, landslides of laughter and the juke-box that never stopped.  People carried glasses above their heads as they made their way through the dancers.  In one corner the midget stood on tiptoe, telephoning.



 


Excerpt from: Gavin Lambert, “Nukuhiva,” first chapter in “The Slide Area,” New York, The Viking Press, 1959.

Note:  I learned about Gavin Lambert’s “The Slide Area” from Tom Clark’s Beyond The Pale blog.  It’s extraordinary and the first book I’ve felt compelled to read compulsively by candlelight (that’s the way it is 2/6/14 A.D. in Chester County, Pennsylvania) for a long, long time.  More soon, in daylight I trust.

Artwork:  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  Upper:  At The Moulin Rouge (1892-95); Lower:  Dancing At The Moulin Rouge (1897). 
 

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