"My Pastimes" by Henri Michaux [trans. David Lehman]

             It’s the rare person I meet whom I don’t want to beat up. Others favor the interior monologue, stream-of-consciousness, art and dreams. Not me. I like to beat people up.

            Now some people, unaware of my purposes, play right into my hands, sit opposite me in a grease joint, stay a while, pick their teeth, they want to eat.

            Here’s one now.

            Notice how swiftly I grab him by the collar. Pow! Then I do it again. Bam! Pow!

            Then I hang him on the coat rack. Unhang him. Hang him. Unhang him.

            Then I toss him on the table, hit him, kick him, choke him. I mean, I beat the shit out of him.

            Then I spit on him. I flood him with my spit.

            He revives.

            I rinse him off, I stretch him out (by now I’m losing interest, this is going on too long), I crumple him up, squeeze him dry, roll him into a ball which I drop into my glass. Then I lift it in the air and spill it on the floor. “Waiter, get me a clean glass, will you?”

            But I’m too fagged out, I pay the bill in a hurry and leave without another word.

 – Henri Michaux (“Mes Occupations”) translated by David Lehman. Published in Conduit.

Comments

[bill]

Well, at least he paid the bill...wouldn't want to find that he stuck the waiter with the check....

Maybe it all has something to do with Lana Turner collapsing...and her falling for Johnny Stompanato (who liked to beat people up too), without
whom there would have been no LA Confidential....it is all so very literary don't 'ja see........