Daniel and Jack are walking around downtown, and they're in the rundown area behind the beer parlor. Some toughs are gathered around an old car. Two of them are bent over, talking to the people inside. One is an overweight squarish man, with a huge endomorph middle. Characteristically low slung pants barely hang on his no-waist hips, and a none too clean blue T-shirt fails by far to meet the pants, leaving bare an expanse of distended light blue-gray mottled skin sporadically tufted with black hair. The leaning over accentuates this exposure. Jack has a strong feeling of revulsion.
As they come alongside, Jack says "Hey, buddy. You're gonna lose your pants."
Dan stares at Jack, mouth open wide.
The man slowly straightens up and turns around. He's huge! Jack wonders if his big mouth has taken him too far this time.
Slow, deliberate "What's it to you? Who the hell are you?"
Jack, smiling what he hopes is a relaxed friendly smile, "Ooh, uh. I just wouldn't want you to be embarrassed."
Not quite sure what to make of this, the man just squints. His friend has seen Jack around, and thinking it better to avoid trouble, decides to intervene. Softly he says "Come one, forget it. He's alright."
Glancing over, the big man grunts. "Hmmph. Let's get a beer. I'm thirsty." They both walk away, officiously ignoring the two young students.
"Vick, are you crazy! Are you suffering from a death wish or something? What on earth did you do that for?"
"I don't know. I was repelled by the sight of his big gut hanging over the car that way, and his naked ugly bulges. I felt I had to say something. It's okay. No harm done."
"Through no fault of yours! If you don't mind, when I'm with you please don't get yourself brutalized or killed. I don't want to get splattered just because I happen to be close by."
Laughing nervously, "Oh don't fret. Nothing happened."
"Huh. Vick, after that, can you still insist you don't believe in Freud's thanatos? If you're not suffering from a death wish, what drove you to do that?"
Jack tries to figure this out. A stupid thing to do! No way would it accomplish anything positive, but it could certainly have landed him in trouble. Why did he do that? Poe's imp of the perverse?
Jack "More like a megalo-maniacal impulse to set something straight, I would think. The idea of a death wish is repellent, it is so self contradictory I cannot countenance it."
"Vainglorious Victor, just consider this. People subject to impulses they do not understand are not in a good position to lecture others on what is or is not wrong with them. Addicts are not addicted; they merely do certain things in a compulsive way. They are driven, by uncontrollable impulse. Right? An impulse they cannot account for."
