DR. JEKYLL by
Susan Sontag
(continued from page 552)
refusing to take him on, telling him he is not fit for the Work. "You'll go only so
far and then you'll quit."
"Don't plead with me," UUerson continues, without giving Newcomen
time to bleat out his protests and promises. "And don't tell me you're unhap–
py."
"But I amI I'm desperate."
"You'll be much more unhappy if you start the Work with me. Right now
you are sitting in a chair, comfortably."
''I'm not comfortable," Newcomen shouts.
Utterson waves his hand impatiently.
"If
you get up from the chair without
being able to do this method's Work, it is better not to get up. You'll never get
back to that first chair once you leave it. You'll be standing all your life."
And on still another day, in the same impressive room, a disciple-a
journalist who lives in Washington, D.C.-is telling Utterson that he needs to
put off his scheduled term of residence at the Institute until he finishes his
book. "Forget about the book," UUerson says, frowning.
"If
you don't come
now, later will be too late. Next spring you won't be able to come any more than
you can kiss your own elbow."
Meanwhile, at the same time, in the midst ofexamining a sobbing child in
the emergency treatment room of his South Bronx clinic, Jekyll feels a sharp
twinge in his elbow.
Pounding the floor with his bare feet, Jekyll stands in a circle with nine
other disciples near a small door at one end of the vast, bare, lofty room known
as the Exercise Hall. Built with trusses, it resembles an old airplane hangar.
Beyond the door is a cubbyhole with a bed, and one small window which allows
a cheerfuf view of the orchard, where, years ago, a much-acclaimed Lithuanian
poet spent the last months of her short life. Already in an advanced stage ofthe
tuberculosis she contracted during her years in Dachau before coming to live at
Oyster Bay, she was first assigned by Utterson to the cowshed; but when she
became too weak to work she was moved here, and the solitary beatitudes she
experienced before her mouth completely filled with blood constitute one of
the most precious legends of the Institute. Uuerson, whom some dissident
disciples held indirectly responsible for her death, still mentions her occasion–
ally in his Wake Up Talks. "Remember our lost sisters and brothers," he says.
But Jekyll has no way of learning if her physical, as distinct from spiritual,
health really was neglected. She died before he met Utterson or ever heard of
the Institute.
