{"id":"01KG0750F9WW5THVVSYZAYREG6","cid":"bafkreicccpy3mvmfv5w3wvcqswtcngu2tr3m6b3n4zbs6kbqdmaq74iixu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":737,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:13:49.920Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":686,"text":"   657\tIt was very ironical. It really was.\n   658\t\"I'm the one that's flunking out of the goddam place, and you're asking me to\n   659\twrite you a goddam composition,\" I said.\n   660\t\"Yeah, I know. The thing is, though, I'll be up the creek if I don't get it in. Be a\n   661\tbuddy. Be a buddyroo. Okay?\"\n   662\tI didn't answer him right away. Suspense is good for some bastards like\n   663\tStradlater.\n   664\t\"What on?\" I said.\n\n<!-- [Page 16](arke:01KFYTACA0EJ1V0G7E974SNQF0) -->\n   665\t\"Anything. Anything descriptive. A room. Or a house. Or something you once\n   666\tlived in or something-- you know. Just as long as it's descriptive as hell.\" He gave out a\n   667\tbig yawn while he said that. Which is something that gives me a royal pain in the ass. I\n   668\tmean if somebody yawns right while they're asking you to do them a goddam favor. \"Just\n   669\tdon't do it too good, is all,\" he said. \"That sonuvabitch Hartzell thinks you're a hot-shot in\n   670\tEnglish, and he knows you're my roommate. So I mean don't stick all the commas and\n   671\tstuff in the right place.\"\n   672\tThat's something else that gives me a royal pain. I mean if you're good at writing\n   673\tcompositions and somebody starts talking about commas. Stradlater was always doing\n   674\tthat. He wanted you to think that the only reason he was lousy at writing compositions\n   675\twas because he stuck all the commas in the wrong place. He was a little bit like Ackley,\n   676\tthat way. I once sat next to Ackley at this basketball game. We had a terrific guy on the\n   677\tteam, Howie Coyle, that could sink them from the middle of the floor, without even\n   678\ttouching the backboard or anything. Ackley kept saying, the whole goddam game, that\n   679\tCoyle had a perfect build for basketball. God, how I hate that stuff.\n   680\tI got bored sitting on that washbowl after a while, so I backed up a few feet and\n   681\tstarted doing this tap dance, just for the hell of it. I was just amusing myself. I can't really\n   682\ttap-dance or anything, but it was a stone floor in the can, and it was good for tap-dancing.\n   683\tI started imitating one of those guys in the movies. In one of those musicals. I hate the\n   684\tmovies like poison, but I get a bang imitating them. Old Stradlater watched me in the\n   685\tmirror while he was shaving. All I need's an audience. I'm an exhibitionist. \"I'm the\n   686\tgoddarn Governor's son,\" I said. I was knocking myself out. Tap-dancing all over the\n   687\tplace. \"He doesn't want me to be a tap dancer. He wants me to go to Oxford. But it's in\n   688\tmy goddam blood, tap-dancing.\" Old Stradlater laughed. He didn't have too bad a sense\n   689\tof humor. \"It's the opening night of the Ziegfeld Follies.\" I was getting out of breath. I\n   690\thave hardly any wind at all. \"The leading man can't go on. He's drunk as a bastard. So\n   691\twho do they get to take his place? Me, that's who. The little ole goddam Governor's son.\"\n   692\t\"Where'dja get that hat?\" Stradlater said. He meant my hunting hat. He'd never\n   693\tseen it before.\n   694\tI was out of breath anyway, so I quit horsing around. I took off my hat and looked\n   695\tat it for about the ninetieth time. \"I got it in New York this morning. For a buck. Ya like\n   696\tit?\"\n   697\tStradlater nodded. \"Sharp,\" he said. He was only flattering me, though, because\n   698\tright away he said, \"Listen. Are ya gonna write that composition for me? I have to\n   699\tknow.\"\n   700\t\"If I get the time, I will. If I don't, I won't,\" I said. I went over and sat down at the\n   701\twashbowl next to him again. \"Who's your date?\" I asked him. \"Fitzgerald?\"\n   702\t\"Hell, no! I told ya. I'm through with that pig.\"\n   703\t\"Yeah? Give her to me, boy. No kidding. She's my type.\"\n   704\t\"Take her . . . She's too old for you.\"\n   705\tAll of a sudden--for no good reason, really, except that I was sort of in the mood\n   706\tfor horsing around--I felt like jumping off the washbowl and getting old Stradlater in a","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG0725KS20AJHNWVF53R5WKQ","peer_label":"4","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:13:50.525Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:13:50.525Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}