The Paper Dragon (7 page)

"We are waiting," Brackman said.

"I'm thinking," Arthur answered.

"Take your time," McIntyre said.

"Thank you," Arthur answered, and he hoped the sarcasm was evident in his voice. "There are," he said, "in addition to those character similarities already mentioned, just a few others. In both my play and in the book, for example, there is a soldier who comes from Brooklyn, a soldier who comes from the South, and a soldier who is Jewish. They are all in the squad that becomes the focus of both the play and the book, the one the lieutenant has all the trouble with in the platoon he commands. Also, in the play and in the book, there is an elderly nurse who is a sort of friend and mother-confessor to the heroine. In the play, she has recently lost her husband — which is why she joins the Medical Corps. In the book, she has also lost her husband and become a nurse." Arthur paused. "I think those are the rest of the specific character similarities, those not already mentioned."

"Your Honor," Brackman said, "should any others occur to the witness…"

"Yes, of course, you may bring them out in the redirect."

"Thank you, your Honor. Would you now tell us please what specific similarities of language you found in the play and the novel, Mr. Constantine?"

"Yes, certainly," Arthur said. He turned to McIntyre. "I thought I might quote from the respective works, if that wouldn't take up too much time, your Honor."

"We have time," McIntyre said. "If you don't finish before two o'clock, there's always tomorrow."

"I'd like to quote then."

"Go right ahead, please."

"In my play, when Lieutenant Mason first arrives on Eniwetok, I have Corporal Janus, the troublemaker, say, 'Another ninety-day wonder. 
I
wonder how long he'll last.' In
The Paper Dragon
, Private Colman looks at the lieutenant right after he first addresses the men, watches him as he's walking away and says, 'Straight out of college. They sent him here for his master's degree,' and Sergeant Morley says, "Cheer up, Pete, maybe he'll flunk out.' That's his first name, Pete. Peter Colman."

"Mr. Constantine, we're all interested in saving time, but it's not necessary to speak this rapidly," Brackman said.

"I didn't realize I was."

"Just take as much time as you need."

"All right. I guess we are all familiar by now with what has been called the 'female rifle' scene in
The Paper Dragon
, where the men are disassembling their rifles. The lieutenant is going through the authorized method, straight from the book, and every time he comes to a word like 'rod' or 'butt' or 'trigger,' it breaks the men up. They're handling pieces, you see, which is Army terminology for a gun, and they keep making sexual allusions, and getting hysterical when the lieutenant says things like 'now twist the rod toward your body with your right hand and then exert a slight pull to the right,' I'm not quoting exactly, but the scene is intended sexually, and the men are doing all this to infuriate the lieutenant, who is running the session according to the book and trying to get a little order into what is a pretty bedraggled band of fighting men."

"This is in
The Paper Dragon
?"

"Yes, but its counterpart is in
Catchpole
. In my play I have the men discussing, within earshot of the lieutenant, the attempt of one of the men to capture a wild pig. Their references to the pig are purely sexual, and they are engaging in this kind of talk because the lieutenant had warned them he was going to try to 'clean up' the outfit before the final assault on Parry Island, those are his exact words. The pig is referred to as 'a juicy morsel,' and 'something to sink your teeth into,' and also at one point one of the men says, 'We almost
had
that sweet little piece of meat.' A piece of meat, of course, is a girl. I see there's a lady in the courtroom, and I hate to talk this way, but I'm referring to actual words in the works that are being questioned."

"You may say what you want to say, Mr. Constantine."

"In the motion picture, of course, this entire so-called 'female rifle' scene was eliminated. Now, in
Catchpole
, there are a great many references to Glenn Miller who was, as you know, a well-known bandleader during the thirties and forties and who was reported missing at about the time of the Eniwetok campaign, and I have the men speculating on what might have happened to him. In
The Paper Dragon
, which takes place in Korea in 1950, the Army men begin discussing Glenn Miller and how he could play trombone, whereas this is a new generation of men who actually would have very little knowledge of Glenn Miller or how he played trombone. The same references apply to the movie, and are mostly given to Sergeant Morley, the Negro."

"The same references to Glenn Miller, do you mean?"

"Yes. Now regarding the love story, the nurse in my play is a first lieutenant and of course the hero is a second lieutenant. There is a great deal of playful love-making where she constantly kids him about rank, and about reporting him to the company commander if he doesn't kiss her right that minute, all jokingly of course, but very important to the development of their affair. In the book, there is an extremely erotic sex scene where the couple are alone together for the first time, and she suddenly says, 'You'd better kiss me now,' and he says, 'Do you think it's safe?' and she replies, 'Do as I say, Coop. I outrank you.' The identical line is used in the motion picture. I'd like to say something here about the names of these characters, by the way."

"Go right ahead."

"This has to do again with specific language. My lieutenant's name is Roger Mason, and he is familiarly called 'Mase' by the nurse and by his fellow officers. The lieutenant's name in
The Paper Dragon
is Alex Cooper, and he is called 'Coop' by the nurse and by his friends. Which leads me to another startling similarity between—"

"Your Honor," Jonah said, "might we not do without the editorializing adjectives?"

"If you will simply state the similarities, Mr. Constantine," McIntyre said, "that will be sufficient."

"Yes, sir, I was only going to say that in my play the men keep calling the lieutenant 'Loot,' that's all. At one point in my play, the lieutenant says, 'How about lengthening that to Lieutenant Mason?' and Janus replies, 'Isn't that what I said,
Loot?
' stressing the word. Well, in
The Paper Dragon
, there's a scene where the lieutenant says to the men, 'A
lieutenant
is an officer in the United States Army. A
lute
is a Chinese stringed instrument.' And Colman, the troublemaker, answers, 'Maybe those Mongolian bastards would prefer lutes to bugles, Loot.' This same line is used in the motion picture, though of course the word 'bastards' is deleted. But the reference is the same in all three versions of my play."

"Objection, your Honor," Willow said. "There is only
one
version of the play, as I understand it."

"Sustained. Strike that."

"From where, your Honor?" the clerk asked.

"The reference to all three versions. There has been, as Mr. Willow pointed out, only one version of
Catchpole
submitted to this Court."

Brackman glanced at Willow ruefully, and then turned again to Arthur. "Would you tell us what other specific similarities of language you found?" he said.

Arthur cleared his throat. "In the stage play," he said, "we obviously could not use profanity in the New York theater, or at least the kind of profanity a combat squad would be apt to use in the midst of one of the bitterest campaigns in the Pacific war. But I had one man in the squad addicted to the use of a word which was easily understood by the audience as a substitute — an acceptable substitute, I should say — for a more obscene word. I had this one character, one of the minor characters in the squad constantly using variations of the word 'bug,' so that he would be saying 'This bugging Army food,' or 'This bugging war,' or 'Bug off, Mac,' expressions like that, which made it absolutely clear which word I really meant. In
The Paper Dragon
, because such language is allowed in novels, one of the characters in the squad is addicted to the use of the actual word, I think we all know the word I mean, in all of its various forms, the same way my character uses the word 'bug.' I don't remember this character's name. I think—"

"Is it Kenworthy?"

"That's right, his name in the book is Kenworthy. And every other word out of his mouth is an obscenity, identical to the character in my play."

"Go on, Mr. Constantine."

Arthur paused. Brackman studied him for a moment and then said, "Yes?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You seemed to be hesitating."

"Oh. I was only trying to remember if I'd left anything out, before I come to the most amazing similarity of all."

"Your Honor. " Willow started, rising.

"I do think we might get along better without the descriptive adjectives, Mr. Constantine," McIntyre said.

"I'm sorry, your Honor. To my mind, this next similarity
is
amazing, and—"

"Objection, your Honor."

"Please, Mr. Constantine."

"I'm sorry. May I tell this last specific similarity of language?"

"Yes, certainly," McIntyre said.

"Well, in the actual campaign for Eniwetok, the 106th was the United States Infantry Regiment that made the assault, and the other forces involved were the 22nd Marine Regimental Combat Team, and a temporary command echelon called Tactical Group One — this was all in February of 1944 when I was there on the island. I was attached to C Company, and I guess you know that Army companies are broken down into platoons and then squads, as was the Army company in my play. A squad consists of twelve men, and that's the number of soldiers I focus attention on in my play — this was done because of technical reasons, I wanted to get a microcosm of the Army into this relatively small group of men. When I started writing the play, however, I thought it would be best to use a
fictitious
infantry division, so I—"

"Why did you want to do that, Mr. Consantine?"

"I didn't want to run into any possible trouble with the Army, or with the inadvertent use of names that might possibly belong to real men who had been in the 106th Regiment during the Eniwetok campaign."

"You were afraid of possible lawsuits, is that it?"

"Yes, I didn't want to libel anyone who might be an actual living person. So I invented a division, and I called it the 105th, the digits one-oh-five, and I almost changed the name of the atoll to a fictitious one. That is, I almost changed it from Eniwetok, but I decided that would be taking too much historic license. So I didn't, after all. But I would like to say that there were only sixty-seven infantry divisions in the United States Army at that time, and that there was not then during 1944, nor was there during the Korean conflict, nor is there today at present an Army infantry division called the 105th. That's important when we come to compare this with
The Paper Dragon
."

"Would you explain that, please?"

"Well, the actual Army divisions involved in the battle for Korea when the Chinese began their Ch'ongch'on River offensive were the 2nd, the 24th, and the 25th. There was no 105th Division involved because there is no such division in the United States Army. The novel
The Paper Dragon
is set in Korea during October and November of 1950, prior to and during the Chinese offensive across the Ch'ongch'on. It is significant to me that James Driscoll chose to call
his
division in
his
novel the 105th, the identical number I chose for the division in my play. I think it's safe to say that the possibility of coincidence involving those three digits, one-oh-five — the odds against hitting on those same three digits accidentally and in sequence would be staggering. Yet those same three digits are used to label a division in my play and in the novel." Arthur paused, and then looked up at the judge. "That's all I have to say about the similarities between the two works, the three works when we include the movie."

"Your Honor, may I now offer copies of the various charts?" Brackman asked.

"Does anyone object?"

"No objection," Willow said, "if Mr. Brackman will tell us which chart is which."

"I offer this chart titled Plot Similarities."

"Do we understand that these charts represent Mr. Constantine's
complete
list of similarities?" Willow asked

"These three charts include each and every similarity Mr. Constantine found between the works in question. We have one additional chart listing the similarities between the play and the movie, and I would like to offer that as well."

"I would like to have it understood that these charts were prepared by Mr. Constantine, and are being offered to show James Driscoll's access to the play The
Catchpole
," Willow said.

"It's
Catchpole
" Arthur said.

"What?"

"It's
Catchpole
. There's no article. It's not
'The' Catchpole
."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Willow said. "But are we clear as to their offer?"

"We are clear, Mr. Willow," McIntyre said.

"The second chart is labeled Character Similarities."

"Mr. Brackman, we did not get the number designation of the first chart."

"Plot Similarities is — do you have the number?"

The clerk consulted his notes. "Plaintiff's Exhibit 5 is Plot Similarities," he said. "Character Similarities is Plaintiff's Exhibit 6."

"Then this chart," Brackman said, "Language Similarities, would be number 7. The last chart, Play and Movie Similarities, is number 8."

"That's correct."

"No objection."

"No objection."

"Does that conclude the direct, Mr. Brackman?" McIntyre asked.

"It does. Defendants may examine."

"In that case, I would like to recess until ten a.m. tomorrow morning, at which time you may begin the cross-examination, Mr. Willow."

"This court is recessed until ten tomorrow morning," the clerk said.

"I don't know why you let him do that to me," Arthur said outside the courthouse. He was watching the oncoming traffic for a taxicab, his eyes squinted against the strong wind, his back to Brackman, who stood with his gloved hands in his coat pockets, homburg tilted down, muffler tight about his throat, heavy briefcase resting beside him on the sidewalk.

"
You
let him do it," Brackman said. "You walked right into it."

"You should have stopped him. You're my attorney."

"You were your
own
attorney at that point."

"I was getting angry."

"Yes. So you attempted to argue your own case. That was a brilliant move, Arthur, absolutely brilliant."

"
Someone
had to argue it.
You
certainly weren't."

"Thank you, Arthur."

"Don't get petulant, Sidney. Petulance is unbecoming on a middle-aged man."

"Yes, and ingratitude is unbecoming on a man of any age."

"If we win this case…"

"If we win this case, I'll be amply rewarded, yes. 
If
we win it. In the meantime, it's cost me a considerable amount of time and money, and I would appreciate your letting
me
handle it from now on."

"I didn't think McIntyre was being fair. He can't—"

"He can do whatever he wants in his own courtroom."

"But he has to be fair."

"No, he only has to be judicious."