Saul Bellow
SCENES FROM
HUMANITlS-A FARCE
ACT I
SCENE I
WINKLEMAN
on the anaPyst's couch is a stout worldly lawyer in
his fifties who holds his fedora on his belly.
WINKLEMAN:
Yeah, all right, so I'm still living with myoId mother.
PSYCHIATRIST:
And she is how old?
WINKLEMAN:
Eighty-six.
PSYCHIATRIST:
Ah.
WINKLEMAN:
But
I
didn't come to you for treatment, doc. I'm here to
consult you about somebody else, my client, Bummidge.
PSYCHIATRIST:
As you said, the famous comedian, Bummidge. Odd,
I
never thought about him as a person with problems-just a figure, like
Bert Lahr or the Marx Brothers.
WINKLEMAN:
I'm not only his lawyer, but his cousin.
PSYCHIATRIST:
He's very funny.
WINKLEMAN:
He used to be--he used to be. Now he's very serious.
PSYCHIATRIST:
Let me get it straight.
You
came because he lost his comic
touch? Why doesn't he come?
WINKLEMAN:
He never would. He's getting psychiatric help, all right,
but from himself. He writes his own scripts, makes his own decisions,
does everything for himself.
PSYCHIATRIST:
Everything?
WINKLEMAN:
I
know what you mean ... He also lies
to
his lawyer.
Doctor, some people are self-destructive--okay. But he's also destroy–
ing a fortune of money. Millions. One single gag of his is worth twenty–
five--fifty grand.
If
he makes a face,
I
can sell it for a spot on TV.
He isn't doing any business. And you say psychiatry. Psychiatry is just
