Krupp Somebody ought to do something about it.

McCarthy (mischievously, with laughter in his voice) The thing to do is to have more magazines. Hundreds of them. Thousands. Print everything they write, so they’ll believe they’re immortal. That may keep them from going haywire.

Krupp Mac, you ought to be a writer yourself.

McCarthy I hate the tribe. They’re mischief-makers. Right?

Joe (swiftly) Everything’s right. Right and wrong.

Krupp Then why do you read?

McCarthy (laughing) It’s relaxing. It’s soothing. (Pause.) The lousiest people born into the world are writers. Language is all right. It’s the people who use language that are lousy.

The Arab has moved a little closer, and is listening carefully.

McCarthy (to the Arab) What do you think, Brother?

Arab (after making many faces, thinking very deeply) No foundation. All the way down the line. What. What-not. Nothing. I go walk and look at sky. (He goes.)

Krupp What? What-not? (To Joe.) What’s that mean?

Joe (slowly, thinking, remembering) What? What-not? That means this side, that side. Inhale, exhale. What: birth. What-not: death. The inevitable, the astounding, the magnificent seed of growth and decay in all things. Beginning, and end. That man, in his own way, is a prophet. He is one who, with the help of beer, is able to reach that state of deep understanding in which what and what-not, the reasonable and the unreasonable, are one.

McCarthy Right.

Krupp If you can understand that kind of talk, how can you be a longshoreman?

McCarthy I come from a long line of McCarthys who never married or slept with anything but the most powerful and quarrelsome flesh. (He drinks beer.)

Krupp I could listen to you two guys for hours, but I’ll be damned if I know what the hell you’re talking about.

McCarthy The consequence is that all the McCarthys are too great and too strong to be heroes. Only the weak and unsure perform the heroic. They’ve got to. The more heroes you have, the worse the history of the world becomes. Right?

Joe Go outside and look at it.

Krupp You can sure philos – philosoph – Boy, you can talk.

McCarthy I wouldn’t talk this way to anyone but a man in uniform, and a man who couldn’t understand a word of what I was saying. The party I’m speaking of, my friend, is you.

The phone rings. Harry gets up from his table suddenly and begins a new dance.

Krupp (noticing him, with great authority) Here. Here. What do you think you’re doing?

Harry (stopping) I just got an idea for a new dance. I’m trying it out. Nick. Nick, the phone’s ringing.

Krupp (to McCarthy) Has he got a right to do that?

McCarthy The living have danced from the beginning of time. I might even say, the dance and the life have moved along together, until now we have – (To Harry.) Go into your dance, son, and show us what we have.

Harry I haven’t got it worked out completely yet, but it starts out like this. (He dances.)