26
PARTISAN REVIEW
Day after day dragged on. Sometimes Takiss, Marie, or
the other contestants would exist in stupors for six hours, twelve
hours, a day, or even longer. As the time passed, the contestants
would switch from affected and over-stimulated good spirits,
to
raw fighting nervousness, and then into that glazed-eyed stupor.
Particularly in those dog hours of the early morning, they would
be raw, if awake, and fight and curse. Sex too became a grow–
ing obsession, and in time, was almost madness. Living so near
to one another, their bodies touching so frequently, they told
smuttier and smuttier pokes. Perversities and desires or pro–
positions for perversities sprang up amongst them. It became
a relentless process of torture physical and mental. Constipa–
t:nn, diarrahea, sudden inabilities to control their kidneys so that
now and then, a contestant would be walking around the ·floor,
and dragged in sleep, with wet lines down their trousers, or the
beach pyjamas which the girls usually wore. Broken blood
vessels, and swollen veins in the legs. Headaches, eye troubles,
sore throats, fevers, colds. Periods of sweatiness, followed by
shivers and chills. And always that returning stupor, caused by
sleeplessness and fatigue, and by the dreams and fantasies
which they entertained as relief from that endless procession
around and around the floor. And at the end of it all, money,
the chance to become a celebrity, sex, and clean white
bed
sheets
and a soft freshly lined bed.
Ways of making money from day to day quickly sprang up
and were used to the utmost, so that all of the contestants had
bank accounts. Every one developed some trick or act, a song,
a dance, a stunt of some kind, and after putting it on, they would
be showered with money from the crowd. One of the contest–
ants, a raw country youth of Lithuanian origins with a nasal
twang to his voice, chewed razor blades as his stunt. Takiss
learned a dance. Stores, theatres, and politicians also paid them
fees to wear signs or sweaters and jerseys with advertising
printed on the front or backs. Money was sent to them, mash
notes, often written in as ignorant and as bad English as that
which Takiss used and wrote in. The various spectators picked
l'lvorites, cheered for them, and shouted encouragement.
And still the days stretched out, past the first month, with
contestant after contestant dropping out, and the field narrowing
down. One day, there would be a birthday party. Another
day, there was a floor wedding between two of the contestants
who had met on the floor, and the wedding provided endless
