Page 20
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Stavrogin walks through sunlit beach towels while recalling women arguing over drinks, a Chicago policeman seeking licence plates, and an acting teacher who seduces O'Neill and promises plates.
He connects the beach and the room through the repeated ice, bodies and red and blue colors. His laughter accompanies memories of the policeman and the acting teacher while he looks at the crowd in the sun.
Numbered '5.', the page recalls women in a posh room, 'The ice. The glasses / of ice.', a cop looking for missing licence plates, and a teacher of acting 'promising plates for THEir exit.'
The beach in the present and a Chicago escape in memory are cut together like film, with Stavrogin laughing at both.