The Mad Man

VOYANT EDITION (May 11, 2002, Updated August 5, 2002; three more corrections added August 31;

Updated again September 26, 2002. Updated once more, November 22, 2002. Most recent update, May 2, 2008; and again on September 6, 2008.)


Page / Paragraph / Line:

The Line Should Read

[The corrections to be made.]

Page x / Footnote / line 2

say that, since 1981, 774,467 AIDS cases have been reported in the United

[Remove “s” from the end of “say”. Justify the line toward the right-hand margin.]

5 / 1 / 5:

ty started in the early-middle ’seventies, in the men’s room of the terminal

[Insert a left-curving apostrophe before “seventies”.]

5 / 1 / 13:

very tired man. “Okay, kid. You get out of here, too.”

[Insert “Okay, kid.”]

5 / 2 / 7:

cation. But I hope you understand the miseries and maladjustments

[Drop “just” between “I” and ‘hope”.]

5 / 2 / 10 [last]:

or even Brooklyn—probably wouldn’t have allowed it: not in the ’sixties.

[Insert a left-curving apostrophe before “sixties”.]

7 / 1 / 4:

up hawkishly. Lifting it, he swiveled in his office chair. The silvery plastic

[Before “office” change “the” to “his”.]

7 / 1 / 5:

overlay was rumpled, as usual, across the Olympic Selectric. Scissors lay

[Before “Olympic” change “his” to “the”.]

8 / 1 / 4:

my senior year, two fluke seminars on Hegel—one on The Philosophy of

[Italicize “The” before “Philosophy”.]

8 / 1 / 5:

History and one on The Phenomenology of Spirit—had pushed me on into

[Italicize “The” before “Phenomenology”.]

14 / 1 / 9:

must look quite different to him, now that they were pictures of two

[Omit “a” and put “s” at the end of “picture”.]

17 / 4 / 8:

had was the imponderable wreckage of a project, over which

[Omit “, at any rate,”.]

18 / 5 / 4:

down the block to the east, that is the address Timothy Hasler at in

[Replace “street” with “block”.]

35 / 7 / 3:

sucker—!” and, as my fingers slid into my mouth, began to laugh. “And

[Remove hyphen from “sucker”.]

38 / 13 / 3&4:

all over them. The other was a carton, which he lugged up with fingers black
as gunmetal and shiny with his labor, hooked under the binding twine.

[In line three, replace “that” with “which” and drop “by the twine” and in line four drop “it was tied with.” Substitute for both “with fingers black as gunmetal and shiny with his labor, hooked under the binding twine.”]

46 / 5 / 3:

shoes off. Running shoes, old loafers, sneakers sat on the ground beside

[Insert comma after “loafers”. Make “sneakers” lower case and move it to fall after “loafers”. Make “Running” upper case.]

47 / 7 / 4:

is pretty much bad  news too—they just take a little longer to drop it in your

[Insert “in” after “it”.]

51 / 5 / 2:

bench. “That slanty-eyed cocksucker was between my knees—got a

[Omit “little” from between “That” and “slanty-eyed”.]

53 / 10 / 2:

alone. Let him sleep, not knowing how close he came to getting hurt.

[Insert period at line’s end.]

54 / 1 / 2:

shooting off his sixty-six year old juice.

[Change “sixty-nine” to “sixty-six”.]

59 / 7 / 2:

ten—if not on the page, then in the mind, or in the after-image on the

[Insert “the” at the line’s end.]

60 / 2 / 1:

            So that’s where that came from, I thought. Its familiarity made me

[Omit apostrophe from “its”.]

60 / 4 / 3:

        entirely distorted view of both “everything / eternity” and “nothing / in-

[Replace “infinity” with “eternity” and replace “no-” with “in-”.]

60 / 4 / 4:

     stant” . . .

63 / 4 / 3:

in gays. (Three months later people would start calling it Acquired

[Replace question mark with period after “gays”.]

66 / 3 / 5 & 6:

leafy stones steps between narrow rock walls, unsure whether I
ascended or descended.

[At the end of line five, drop “was”. Replace line six with “ascended and descended.”]

76 / 1 / 2:

He let go my arm—and sighed. “Hey, nigger, don’t lose me, now.”

[Insert period after “now” and before the closing quotation mark.]

83 / 1 / 11:

“toxoplasmosis” (so often misprinted “toxic plasmosis,” you had to know someone with it in order to know how to spell it); and, as statistics mounted from three thousand to six

[Correct spelling of “toxoplasmosis” and add parenthetical phrase after it.]

84 / 3 / 1:

            And working on Pascal, Nietzsche, Peirce (O, blissfully remem-

[Correct spelling of Nietzsche.]

90 / 2 / 2:

was the central tragedy of Pete’s life. It’s what had originally sent him,

[Change “Flame’s” to “Pete’s”.]

90 / 3 / 1:

            Diamonda was sharp, witty, and gave Flame some pretty good advice

[Change “Pete” to “Flame”.]

105 / 12 / 1:

            I was startled. But I didn’t even pull away. “Hey, I’m sorry.” I smiled.

[Insert period after “sorry” and before close quote.]

109 / 6 / 2:

the awning to the left, in just his jeans and boots Tex was waiting on the

[Omit comma after “boots”]

109 / 7 / 4:

trucker’s truck? It’s all mine, too—all paid up over three years, now.

[Insert “up”. Omit “ago”.]

158 / 9 / 2:

particularly missed him—though, I suppose, I did, some. If I had gotten

[Omit “a little” and replace with “some”.]

158 / 9 / 4:

guy to be scared of.

[Omit “little” at the start of the line.]

158 / 10 / 2:

AIDS. It occurs to me, reading it over, that it may seem only a

[Transpose “only” and “seem”. Omit second “that”.]

174 / 11 / 1:

            I’d sent Sam that letter in the last week in December. I didn’t expect

[Before “week”, change “first” to “last”.]

182 / 6 / 2:

you and your friends moved him from East Howard to South Rushdale?

[Change “Last” to “East”.]

195 / 1 / 1:

      “Some guys see ’em, and they just take off—think they’re gonna catch

[Insert 1/m dash between “off” and “think”.]

212 / 4 / 6:

his way the becoming the quintessential gay philosopher after Wittgen-

[Italicize “the”.]

219 / 1 / 6 & 7:

ty-two: three years older than Hasler had ever been.

[In line six, drop “Surely I was beyond”. Drop all of line seven; and close up.]

221 / 1 / 1:

myself. Do you do anything interesting?”

[Insert “Do you do anything interesting?” before close quote.]

221 / 5 / 2:

hand clawed at his crotch.

[Omit “down”.]

221 / 7 / 1:

    “I wasn’t doin’ nothin’, man.” He kept clawing. “I was scratchin’

[Replacing “scratching” with “clawing”.]

223 / 7 / 1:

            “Yeah,” he said. “But I wasn’t sure you were gonna do it.”

[Omit “really”.]

223 / 8 / 2:

lucked out!” The sack went to his far arm, and, for the third time,

[Omit “today”.]

223 / 8 / 4:

don’t usually go with most cocksuckers. Not that I got any-

[Omit “,” he explained. “” after “cocksuckers” and replace with a period.]

223 / 8 / 6:

about anything! But most cocksuckers, they suck you once, maybe

[Omit “man,”.]

227 / 7 / 3:

ured today I lucked out. You know—” as we reached the corner, he lowered his

[Insert “today” before “I”.]

230 / 2 / 10:

next time—” the kid had his hand in his lap, working it again—“when he

[Between “working” and “again” insert “it”.]

230 / 2 / 12 & 13:

face for that one—that’s cool, too.” I glanced down: once more his dick was
out of his pants! He sat there, lifting his fist up his towering meat—drop-

[In line twelve, insert “once more” before “his.” In line thirteen, omit “again” after “pants”.]

273 / 5 / 5:

Almira Adler or anyone else? Surely I was beyond whatever
had been so dangerous as to bring about Hasler’s destruction.

[Insert “Surely I was beyond whatever had been so dangerous as to bring about Hasler’s destruction.”]

273 / 6 / 1 & 2:

       Still, I thought about it on my trip out to the store for a quart of
milk. I thought about it when I came back and decided to take a nap.

[Insert “Still,” at the beginning of first line. Omit “some more” from second line.]

273 / 6 / 7:

ing my decision. I thought about it an hour later when I went out again

[Replace “was thinking” with “thought”.]

273 / 7 / 3:

thing I thought), lightening streaks with gray. Ahead of me, a couple of

[Replace “in it to” with “with”.]

275 / 1 / 3:

how it’s all changed. That kids’ bookstore—it ain’t there no more, either.”

[Insert apostrophe in “it’s”.]

275 / 13 [penultimate] / 2:

fellow, that philosopher you was researching—who used to live downstairs

[Replace first word, “guy”, with “fellow”.]

276 / 1 / 1:

       Tony nodded.

[Replace first word “He” with “Tony”.]

276 / 2 /2:

point, when he had come up and we’d been rolling around on the rug

[Change “Tony” to “he”.]

276 / 3 / 7:

[Stet]

276 / 3 / 9;

below the four wide knuckles of his left hand, S H I T. Across the right

[Replace the first word “across” with “below”.]

276 / 3 / 10:

was P I S S. Holding them up in front of me, he said: “You know how

[Replace “before my face” with “in front of me”.]

276 / 4 / 6 & 7:

Truth in Semantics. But I stopped, thinking: There were some people I
could talk to about this. (That made me feel better.) Just not Pheldon—

[After the colon in line six omit “But.” Capitalize “There.” Replace italic “are” with italic “were”. In line seven replace “can” with “could”. After the parenthesis, omit “But” and capitalize “Just”.]

293 / 2 / 11:

         land where Light is housed in eternal unrest.]

[Insert closing square bracket at the end of the line.]

296 / 4 / 3:

rim, broad nails picked back about as far as I remembered—as he took one

[Omit comma and replace with 1/M dash, tied up before and afterwqrds.]

300 / 13:

[Omit the one line paragraph “Baseball players.” and close up.]

323 / 14 / 2:

of thing, I wondered, that made Hasler happy), and fade, even as I tried

[Insert comma after closing-parenthesis and before “and”.] 

342 / 6 / 3&4:

smelled and felt him fart: the wrinkled bud of flesh centered in the hair suddenly puckered, relaxed—and honked. “There. Now that felt

[Replace 1/m dash in line 3 with colon. Transpose “relaxed” and “puckered” in line 4. Omit “his hairy crevice” and replace with “the hair”.]

359 / 9 / 4:

some of the guys from the park—bringin’ ’em back here, and really let-

[Drop the “m” from “them guys” to make it “the guys”.]

364 / 11 / 5:

not doing so.) “And your friend Tony’s gonna be up soon, too. You just

[Replace “it” with “so”.]

422 / 3 / 7:

him! But big, bearded Leaky pushed up against me on my right and said:

[Insert “n” in “against”.]

427 / 1 /6:

the light coming up from the street through the two living room windows.

[Insert “up” after “coming”.]

431 / 3 / 12:

where he was sleeping. Irving,” I said, “Tim died saving the life of his

[Remove both 1/m dashes and replace with commas.]

438 / 2 / 2:

the twenty-fifth anniversary of Stonewall, and on Gay Pride Day Leaky

[Replace “Priday” with “Pride”.]

443 / 4 / 2:

city pigeon teetered on the black bar, head turned one way on its

[Insert “l” into “back,” making it “black”. Replace “above” with “on”.]

443/ 4 / 4:

coin in Leaky’s big fingers was a tidbit to dive-bomb.

[Drop “be”. Omit the “ed” at the end of “dive-bomb”.]

 443 / 5 / 4:

owner.”

[Drop “God damn’”.]

443 / 8&9:

[Insert one line # after paragraph 8 (“led him. The pigeon flew off.”) and paragraph 9 ( “Twenty yards up, a grill dropped light  in stripes across our shoulders,”) No indentation before paragraph 9, first line.]

445 / 3 / 3:

lined up all the way out to here. We was doin’ that bitch in twos and threes—”

[Put “s” on “two”.]

445 / 4 / 2:

and Buck’s, Leaky’s laughter became part of the tunnel’s

[Omit “momentarily” after “laughter”.]

445/ 5 / 1:

            “Yeah—” Leaky leaned forward above me, two fingers

[Omit “momentarily” from the end of the line.]

449 / 6 / 3:

flicker with leaves, from the surface world. “Years ago, Mike, with your

[Change “to” to “from”.] 

450 / 4 / 1:

       Standing straighter, Mad Man Mike called out: “You know, I can buy

[Replace “Drawing himself up,” with “Standing straighter,”.]

451 / 1 / 3:

it . . .), and what in it that was meaningful had meant.

[Omit first “that”. Change second “what” to “that”. Change “that had been” to “that was”.]

451 / 4 / 1:

            As I climbed the incline after Leaky, for moments I wondered

[Omit “narrow”.]

456 / 3 / 3:

then my degree (eight months into ’91), and finally (in ’92: I didn’t
believe it either) a tenure track job in the SUNY/City Philosophy Department,

[Replace “an adjuct job” with “(in ’92: I didn’t believe it either) a tenure track job in the SUNY/City Philosophy Department,”] 

464 / 6 / 19 [last]:

sitting there, listening to the crickets, drinking beer, and yawing.

[Omit “n” in “yawning.” (“Yawing” is a black country version of “jawing”.)]

465 / 5 / 7:

half ago, they’d shared with Blacky’s brother. But whether what went

[Omit “of” after “But” and before “whether”.]

466 / 7 / 16:

bet your scrawny black ass.” Billy chuckled, turning from me to Blacky. “He

469 / 2 / 2&3:

mustard foliage enough, scorching  the mountainside throughout that
Columbus Day weekend, we piled into the pickup for the ride back to

[Move “enough,” to line 2 after “foliage”. Replace “enough,” with comma in line 3.]

474 / 4 / 2:

black rollaway, naked upper gum and redder tongue showing. Blacky grinned

[Replace “bag” with “rollaway”.]

476 /2 / 1&2:

       “Leaky, you know, a couple of minutes in the truck there I
actually thought you dad might have had it in the back of his

[Omit “there were”. Omit “when”. Omit “just”.]

476 / 9:

            “. . . There will be no smoking on this bus—and that includes the rest room.” His voice came on the crackling PA, as low October branches swatted and swished over the bus roof, and leaf shadow flittered along the windows. “Only soft drinks may be drunk on this trip. There will be no drinking of alcoholic beverages . . .”

[Replace paragraph nine with the above.]

477 / 4 / 6:

a purple plum, and shoved it in my mouth. Leaky stood behind

[Replace “ping-pong ball” with “plum”.]

478 / 12 / 1:

            “It seemed like a good suggestion.”

            [Drop “still” after “It”.]

479 / 13 / 1:

    “Oh . . . !” I took his beer from him. (My own personal Hasler

[Omit “very”.]

481 / 3 / 11:

seat: Violators would inevitably be nosed—and put off the bus [with

[Replace parenthesis with a square bracket.]

481 / 3 / 13:

Walkmen too loud]. Then I turned back to that most informative of private

[Replace parenthesis with a square bracket.]

431/ 3 / 22:

tales of the donkey, the prostitute, and the Tijuana theater he himself had never seen or mentioning to

[Insert “the donkey, the prostitute, and”.]

481 / 3 / 23:

them the size of the breasts of the last actress in the last porn film he has seen.

[Replace “he’s” with “he has”.]

484 / 5 / 3:

tion of our return and the city’s October.

[Change “to” to “and” drop final word “night.”]

484 / 10 / 1:

One evening, after I’d read them out loud some sixty consecutive of the

[Drop “to” and reverse “out loud” and “them”.]

BACK COVER:
[Last line of quotes:]

—John Dagion, Trash

[Correct spelling of “Dagon”.]

 

Last update to this page made on September 9, 2008.