{"id":"01KG072RDVD8R7AN16YZF285SS","cid":"bafkreiem43ns77h6qv7ofoe7nnxghydv4w6r4we26gvjr5fssn4j5idtku","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# Chapter 18 \n## Overview \nThis entity is a chapter from a literary work, labeled as \"18\" and spanning lines 3368 to 3527 of the source text. It is part of the file [Rye.pdf](arke:01KFYRMP38MZY7WVH2Q0JN0CWH), which belongs to the collection [More Classics](arke:01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS). The chapter was extracted and structured on January 27, 2026, and consists of five text chunks that together form a continuous narrative passage.\n\n## Context \nThe chapter is narrated in the first person and reflects the voice of a teenage protagonist navigating urban life, relationships, and personal philosophy. It follows the narrator’s evening after leaving a skating rink, during which he reflects on past experiences and social dynamics. The narrative is characteristic of mid-20th-century American literature, particularly in its colloquial tone and themes of alienation and authenticity. The chapter is embedded within a larger work that includes references to characters such as Jane, Sally Hayes, and D.B., and alludes to books like *The Great Gatsby* and *A Farewell to Arms*, situating it within a broader literary and cultural context.\n\n## Contents \nThe chapter details the narrator’s attempt to connect with Jane by phone, his sparse social circle, and his decision to meet Carl Luce for a drink. To pass the time, he attends a movie at Radio City, where he critiques the stage show and a sentimental war film he describes as “putrid.” He reflects on the irony of audiences crying over artificial emotion while displaying indifference in real life. The experience prompts thoughts about war, influenced by his brother D.B.’s service, and leads to a critique of military life. The narrator expresses disdain for conformity and phoniness, contrasting his values with those of society. He concludes with a darkly humorous declaration of preferring to sit on an atomic bomb rather than face another war, underscoring his deep ambivalence toward violence and modern life.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-27T17:22:14.655Z","description_model":"Qwen/Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507","description_title":"Chapter 18","end_line":3527,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:12:16.506Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"18","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":3368,"text":" 3225\t18\n 3226\tWhen I left the skating rink I felt sort of hungry, so I went in this drugstore and\n 3227\thad a Swiss cheese sandwich and a malted, and then I went in a phone booth. I thought\n 3228\tmaybe I might give old Jane another buzz and see if she was home yet. I mean I had the\n 3229\twhole evening free, and I thought I'd give her a buzz and, if she was home yet, take her\n 3230\tdancing or something somewhere. I never danced with her or anything the whole time I\n 3231\tknew her. I saw her dancing once, though. She looked like a very good dancer. It was at\n\n\n 3232\tthis Fourth of July dance at the club. I didn't know her too well then, and I didn't think I\n 3233\tought to cut in on her date. She was dating this terrible guy, Al Pike, that went to Choate.\n 3234\tI didn't know him too well, but he was always hanging around the swimming pool. He\n 3235\twore those white Lastex kind of swimming trunks, and he was always going off the high\n 3236\tdive. He did the same lousy old half gainer all day long. It was the only dive he could do,\n 3237\tbut he thought he was very hot stuff. All muscles and no brains. Anyway, that's who Jane\n 3238\tdated that night. I couldn't understand it. I swear I couldn't. After we started going around\n 3239\ttogether, I asked her how come she could date a showoff bastard like Al Pike. Jane said\n 3240\the wasn't a show-off. She said he had an inferiority complex. She acted like she felt sorry\n 3241\tfor him or something, and she wasn't just putting it on. She meant it. It's a funny thing\n 3242\tabout girls. Every time you mention some guy that's strictly a bastard--very mean, or very\n 3243\tconceited and all--and when you mention it to the girl, she'll tell you he has an inferiority\n 3244\tcomplex. Maybe he has, but that still doesn't keep him from being a bastard, in my\n 3245\topinion. Girls. You never know what they're going to think. I once got this girl Roberta\n 3246\tWalsh's roommate a date with a friend of mine. His name was Bob Robinson and he\n 3247\treally had an inferiority complex. You could tell he was very ashamed of his parents and\n 3248\tall, because they said \"he don't\" and \"she don't\" and stuff like that and they weren't very\n 3249\twealthy. But he wasn't a bastard or anything. He was a very nice guy. But this Roberta\n 3250\tWalsh's roommate didn't like him at all. She told Roberta he was too conceited--and the\n 3251\treason she thought he was conceited was because he happened to mention to her that he\n 3252\twas captain of the debating team. A little thing like that, and she thought he was\n 3253\tconceited! The trouble with girls is, if they like a boy, no matter how big a bastard he is,\n 3254\tthey'll say he has an inferiority complex, and if they don't like him, no matter how nice a\n 3255\tguy he is, or how big an inferiority complex he has, they'll say he's conceited. Even smart\n 3256\tgirls do it.\n 3257\tAnyway, I gave old Jane a buzz again, but her phone didn't answer, so I had to\n 3258\thang up. Then I had to look through my address book to see who the hell might be\n 3259\tavailable for the evening. The trouble was, though, my address book only has about three\n 3260\tpeople in it. Jane, and this man, Mr. Antolini, that was my teacher at Elkton Hills, and my\n 3261\tfather's office number. I keep forgetting to put people's names in. So what I did finally, I\n 3262\tgave old Carl Luce a buzz. He graduated from the Whooton School after I left. He was\n 3263\tabout three years older than I was, and I didn't like him too much, but he was one of these\n 3264\tvery intellectual guys-- he had the highest I.Q. of any boy at Whooton--and I thought he\n 3265\tmight want to have dinner with me somewhere and have a slightly intellectual\n 3266\tconversation. He was very enlightening sometimes. So I gave him a buzz. He went to\n 3267\tColumbia now, but he lived on 65th Street and all, and I knew he'd be home. When I got\n 3268\thim on the phone, he said he couldn't make it for dinner but that he'd meet me for a drink\n 3269\tat ten o'clock at the Wicker Bar, on 54th. I think he was pretty surprised to hear from me.\n 3270\tI once called him a fat-assed phony.\n 3271\tI had quite a bit of time to kill till ten o'clock, so what I did, I went to the movies\n 3272\tat Radio City. It was probably the worst thing I could've done, but it was near, and I\n 3273\tcouldn't think of anything else.\n 3274\tI came in when the goddam stage show was on. The Rockettes were kicking their\n 3275\theads off, the way they do when they're all in line with their arms around each other's\n 3276\twaist. The audience applauded like mad, and some guy behind me kept saying to his\n 3277\twife, \"You know what that is? That's precision.\" He killed me. Then, after the Rockettes,\n\n\n 3278\ta guy came out in a tuxedo and roller skates on, and started skating under a bunch of little\n 3279\ttables, and telling jokes while he did it. He was a very good skater and all, but I couldn't\n 3280\tenjoy it much because I kept picturing him practicing to be a guy that roller-skates on the\n 3281\tstage. It seemed so stupid. I guess I just wasn't in the right mood. Then, after him, they\n 3282\thad this Christmas thing they have at Radio City every year. All these angels start coming\n 3283\tout of the boxes and everywhere, guys carrying crucifixes and stuff all over the place,\n 3284\tand the whole bunch of them--thousands of them--singing \"Come All Ye Faithful!\" like\n 3285\tmad. Big deal. It's supposed to be religious as hell, I know, and very pretty and all, but I\n 3286\tcan't see anything religious or pretty, for God's sake, about a bunch of actors carrying\n 3287\tcrucifixes all over the stage. When they were all finished and started going out the boxes\n 3288\tagain, you could tell they could hardly wait to get a cigarette or something. I saw it with\n 3289\told Sally Hayes the year before, and she kept saying how beautiful it was, the costumes\n 3290\tand all. I said old Jesus probably would've puked if He could see it--all those fancy\n 3291\tcostumes and all. Sally said I was a sacrilegious atheist. I probably am. The thing Jesus\n 3292\treally would've liked would be the guy that plays the kettle drums in the orchestra. I've\n 3293\twatched that guy since I was about eight years old. My brother Allie and I, if we were\n 3294\twith our parents and all, we used to move our seats and go way down so we could watch\n 3295\thim. He's the best drummer I ever saw. He only gets a chance to bang them a couple of\n 3296\ttimes during a whole piece, but he never looks bored when he isn't doing it. Then when\n 3297\the does bang them, he does it so nice and sweet, with this nervous expression on his face.\n 3298\tOne time when we went to Washington with my father, Allie sent him a postcard, but I'll\n 3299\tbet he never got it. We weren't too sure how to address it.\n 3300\tAfter the Christmas thing was over, the goddam picture started. It was so putrid I\n 3301\tcouldn't take my eyes off it. It was about this English guy, Alec something, that was in\n 3302\tthe war and loses his memory in the hospital and all. He comes out of the hospital\n 3303\tcarrying a cane and limping all over the place, all over London, not knowing who the hell\n 3304\the is. He's really a duke, but he doesn't know it. Then he meets this nice, homey, sincere\n 3305\tgirl getting on a bus. Her goddam hat blows off and he catches it, and then they go\n 3306\tupstairs and sit down and start talking about Charles Dickens. He's both their favorite\n 3307\tauthor and all. He's carrying this copy of Oliver Twist and so's she. I could've puked.\n 3308\tAnyway, they fell in love right away, on account of they're both so nuts about Charles\n 3309\tDickens and all, and he helps her run her publishing business. She's a publisher, the girl.\n 3310\tOnly, she's not doing so hot, because her brother's a drunkard and he spends all their\n 3311\tdough. He's a very bitter guy, the brother, because he was a doctor in the war and now he\n 3312\tcan't operate any more because his nerves are shot, so he boozes all the time, but he's\n 3313\tpretty witty and all. Anyway, old Alec writes a book, and this girl publishes it, and they\n 3314\tboth make a hatful of dough on it. They're all set to get married when this other girl, old\n 3315\tMarcia, shows up. Marcia was Alec's fiancée before he lost his memory, and she\n 3316\trecognizes him when he's in this store autographing books. She tells old Alec he's really a\n 3317\tduke and all, but he doesn't believe her and doesn't want to go with her to visit his mother\n 3318\tand all. His mother's blind as a bat. But the other girl, the homey one, makes him go.\n 3319\tShe's very noble and all. So he goes. But he still doesn't get his memory back, even when\n 3320\this great Dane jumps all over him and his mother sticks her fingers all over his face and\n 3321\tbrings him this teddy bear he used to slobber around with when he was a kid. But then,\n 3322\tone day, some kids are playing cricket on the lawn and he gets smacked in the head with\n 3323\ta cricket ball. Then right away he gets his goddam memory back and he goes in and\n\n\n 3324\tkisses his mother on the forehead and all. Then he starts being a regular duke again, and\n 3325\the forgets all about the homey babe that has the publishing business. I'd tell you the rest\n 3326\tof the story, but I might puke if I did. It isn't that I'd spoil it for you or anything. There\n 3327\tisn't anything to spoil for Chrissake. Anyway, it ends up with Alec and the homey babe\n 3328\tgetting married, and the brother that's a drunkard gets his nerves back and operates on\n 3329\tAlec's mother so she can see again, and then the drunken brother and old Marcia go for\n 3330\teach other. It ends up with everybody at this long dinner table laughing their asses off\n 3331\tbecause the great Dane comes in with a bunch of puppies. Everybody thought it was a\n 3332\tmale, I suppose, or some goddam thing. All I can say is, don't see it if you don't want to\n 3333\tpuke all over yourself.\n 3334\tThe part that got me was, there was a lady sitting next to me that cried all through\n 3335\tthe goddam picture. The phonier it got, the more she cried. You'd have thought she did it\n 3336\tbecause she was kindhearted as hell, but I was sitting right next to her, and she wasn't.\n 3337\tShe had this little kid with her that was bored as hell and had to go to the bathroom, but\n 3338\tshe wouldn't take him. She kept telling him to sit still and behave himself. She was about\n 3339\tas kindhearted as a goddam wolf. You take somebody that cries their goddam eyes out\n 3340\tover phony stuff in the movies, and nine times out of ten they're mean bastards at heart.\n 3341\tI'm not kidding.\n 3342\tAfter the movie was over, I started walking down to the Wicker Bar, where I was\n 3343\tsupposed to meet old Carl Luce, and while I walked I sort of thought about war and all.\n 3344\tThose war movies always do that to me. I don't think I could stand it if I had to go to war.\n 3345\tI really couldn't. It wouldn't be too bad if they'd just take you out and shoot you or\n 3346\tsomething, but you have to stay in the Army so goddam long. That's the whole trouble.\n 3347\tMy brother D.B. was in the Army for four goddam years. He was in the war, too--he\n 3348\tlanded on D-Day and all--but I really think he hated the Army worse than the war. I was\n 3349\tpractically a child at the time, but I remember when he used to come home on furlough\n 3350\tand all, all he did was lie on his bed, practically. He hardly ever even came in the living\n 3351\troom. Later, when he went overseas and was in the war and all, he didn't get wounded or\n 3352\tanything and he didn't have to shoot anybody. All he had to do was drive some cowboy\n 3353\tgeneral around all day in a command car. He once told Allie and I that if he'd had to\n 3354\tshoot anybody, he wouldn't've known which direction to shoot in. He said the Army was\n 3355\tpractically as full of bastards as the Nazis were. I remember Allie once asked him wasn't\n 3356\tit sort of good that he was in the war because he was a writer and it gave him a lot to\n 3357\twrite about and all. He made Allie go get his baseball mitt and then he asked him who\n 3358\twas the best war poet, Rupert Brooke or Emily Dickinson. Allie said Emily Dickinson. I\n 3359\tdon't know too much about it myself, because I don't read much poetry, but I do know it'd\n 3360\tdrive me crazy if I had to be in the Army and be with a bunch of guys like Ackley and\n 3361\tStradlater and old Maurice all the time, marching with them and all. I was in the Boy\n 3362\tScouts once, for about a week, and I couldn't even stand looking at the back of the guy's\n 3363\tneck in front of me. They kept telling you to look at the back of the guy's neck in front of\n 3364\tyou. I swear if there's ever another war, they better just take me out and stick me in front\n 3365\tof a firing squad. I wouldn't object. What gets me about D.B., though, he hated the war so\n 3366\tmuch, and yet he got me to read this book A Farewell to Arms last summer. He said it\n 3367\twas so terrific. That's what I can't understand. It had this guy in it named Lieutenant\n 3368\tHenry that was supposed to be a nice guy and all. I don't see how D.B. could hate the\n 3369\tArmy and war and all so much and still like a phony like that. I mean, for instance, I don't\n\n\n 3370\tsee how he could like a phony book like that and still like that one by Ring Lardner, or\n 3371\tthat other one he's so crazy about, The Great Gatsby. D.B. got sore when I said that, and\n 3372\tsaid I was too young and all to appreciate it, but I don't think so. I told him I liked Ring\n 3373\tLardner and The Great Gatsby and all. I did, too. I was crazy about The Great Gatsby.\n 3374\tOld Gatsby. Old sport. That killed me. Anyway, I'm sort of glad they've got the atomic\n 3375\tbomb invented. If there's ever another war, I'm going to sit right the hell on top of it. I'll\n 3376\tvolunteer for it, I swear to God I will.","title":"18"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG07B2HZ3AAMVF1S1WV1TBJ6","peer_label":"Chunk 1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG07B2HTJ5RZ7B0WKTZ13FY6","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG07B2HXZH84BY7KT6NNZ16R","peer_label":"Chunk 3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG07B2HD8K58JTDFFX1JKDMB","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG07BPT77YKKDEKPGTSXXZFX","peer_label":"Chunk 5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:12:36.675Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:22:15.062Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}