Asymmetry - Lisa Halliday Page 0,96
We have very little choice other than to spend our waking hours trying to sort out and make sense of the perennial pandemonium. To forge patterns and proportions where they don’t actually exist. And it is this same urge, this mania to tame and possess—this necessary folly—that sparks and sustains love.
INTERVIEWER: But don’t you think it’s important to cultivate freedom in love? Freedom and trust? Appreciation without expectation?
EZRA BLAZER: Next record.
INTERVIEWER: Now that we know you do have children, Ezra Blazer . . . Any regrets?
EZRA BLAZER: That I didn’t meet you sooner. Is this what you do for a living?
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
EZRA BLAZER: Do you enjoy it?
INTERVIEWER: Of course.
EZRA BLAZER: Of course. You know, I know a poet, who lives in Spain, a wonderful Spanish poet who’s in her sixties now, but when she was in her thirties, late twenties or early thirties, she was extremely adventurous, and she went around to all the bars in Madrid, trying to find the oldest man there, so that she could take him home with her. That was her mission: to sleep with the oldest man in Madrid. Have you ever done something like that?
INTERVIEWER: No.
EZRA BLAZER: Would you like to begin now?
INTERVIEWER: . . . That would be with you?
EZRA BLAZER: That would be with me. Are you married?
INTERVIEWER: Yes.
EZRA BLAZER: Married. Well. That didn’t stand in Anna Karenina’s way.
INTERVIEWER: No.
EZRA BLAZER: It didn’t stand in Emma Bovary’s way.
INTERVIEWER: No.
EZRA BLAZER: Should it stand in your way?
INTERVIEWER: Anna and Emma came to no good end.
EZRA BLAZER: Children?
INTERVIEWER: Two.
EZRA BLAZER: Two children and a husband.
INTERVIEWER: Correct.
EZRA BLAZER: Well [laughs], let’s forget about him. I find you a very attractive woman and I’ve enjoyed this enormously. I’m going to a concert tomorrow night and I have two tickets. A friend of mine was going to go with me but I’m sure he’ll be content to go another time. Pollini is here, the wonderful Maurizio Pollini is here, and he’s playing Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas. So, my final question for you? On Desert Island Discs? Tomorrow night, Maurizio Pollini, at Royal Festival Hall, and I can bring only one woman, and I would like that woman to be you. So. What do you say, miss? Are you game?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The two passages read by Alice on pages 19 and 20 are from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, specifically the Modern Library paperback edition published in 2001.
The passage on pages 20 and 21 is from The Thief’s Journal by Jean Genet, specifically the Grove Press edition reissued in 1994.
The second passage on page 21 is from The First Man by Albert Camus, specifically the First Vintage International edition published in 1996.
The third and fourth passages on page 21 are from Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, specifically the Grove Press edition reissued in 1994.
The passage on pages 22 and 23 is adapted from the text of an information pamphlet provided by Parkmed Physicians of New York.
The passage read aloud by Ezra on page 37 is from a letter written by James Joyce to his wife, Nora, on December 8, 1909. It is quoted from Selected Letters of James Joyce, originally published by Faber and Faber Limited in 1975 and reprinted in 1992.
As Alice says, the lyrics Ezra sings on page 39 are from “My Heart Stood Still” and “September Song.” “September Song” is from the musical Knickerbocker Holiday, with lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and music by Kurt Weill. © 1938 (renewed) Chappell & Co., Inc. and Tro-Hampshire House Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Alfred Publishing, LLC. The lyrics to “My Heart Stood Still” are by Lorenz Hart, with music by Richard Rodgers. © 1927 (renewed) WB Music Corp. and Williamson Music Co. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Alfred Publishing, LLC. © 1927 Harms, Inc. renewed. assigned to Williamson Music and WB Music Corp. for the extended renewal period of in the USA. International secured. All rights reserved.
The passage underlined by Alice on page 47 is also from The First Man by Albert Camus, specifically the First Vintage International edition published in 1996.
As Ezra notes, the “bargeman” passage he reads aloud on page 48 is from The Personal History of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, specifically the Bradbury & Evans edition published in 1850.
The lyrics on page 55 are from the song “Beyond the Blue Horizon.” Ezra sings along to the Lou Christie version. “Beyond the Blue Horizon” is from the Paramount Picture Monte Carlo. Words by Leo Robin. Music by Richard A. Whiting and W. Franke Harling. © 1930 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. renewed. All rights administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 424 Church Street, Suite 1200, Nashville, TN, 37219. International secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Hal Leonard LLC.
The passage read by Alice on pages 58 and 59 is from Into that Darkness: An Examination of Conscience by Gitta Sereny, specifically the First Vintage Books edition published in 1983.
The first passage on page 60 is from Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt, specifically the Penguin Classics edition published in 1994.
The second passage on pages 60 and 61 is also from Into that Darkness: An Examination of Conscience by Gitta Sereny, specifically the First Vintage Books edition published in 1983.
The passage on pages 63 and 64 is from Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity by Primo Levi, specifically the Collier Books/Macmillan Company edition published in 1993.
The lyrics sung by Alice on page 66 are from the “Nonsense Song” performed by Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times, with music composed by Leo Daniderff and lyrics by Charles Chaplin.
The passage about Jordy the Tailor on page 74 is from an issue of Lickety Split published in 1978.
The voiceover quoted on page 107 is from the jury duty orientation film entitled Your Turn, written and produced by Ted Steeg.
As Amar notes, the lyrics quoted on pages 174 and 175 are from the song “They All Laughed,” performed by Chet Baker with minor modifications. Music and Lyrics by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin. © 1936 (Renewed) NOKAWI MUSIC, FRANKIE G. SONGS, IRA GERSHWIN MUSIC. © 1936 (Renewed) IRA GERSHWIN MUSIC and GEORGE GERSHWIN MUSIC. All rights for NOKAWI MUSIC administered by IMAGEM SOUNDS. All rights for FRANKIE G. SONGS administered by SONGS MUSIC PUBLISHING. All rights on behalf of IRA GERSHWIN MUSIC administered by WB MUSIC CORP. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of ALFRED PUBLISHING, LLC. Reprinted by permission of Hal Leonard LLC.
The Desert Island Discs episode summarized and quoted from on pages 186 through 189 is Sue Lawley’s interview with Joseph Rotblat, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on November 8, 1998.
The poem referred to by Alastair on page 215 is an untitled one by Osip Mandelstam. The English is Alastair’s paraphrasing of a translation from the original Russian by Leeore Schnairsohn.
As Ezra recalls, the poem he paraphrases on page 256 is by E. E. Cummings: #24 in the book No Thanks, originally published by Cummings himself in 1935.