come out looking like
you
do, you come out looking like shit. I love you, Chicken, I really do, otherwise I wouldn’t tell you that you got a ruined face. Now watch me smile. See? I look real happy—don’t I, don’t I, don’t I?—but if you’ll notice, I keep my eyes wide open so I won’t get disgusting wrinkles all around the edges like you have and when I open my mouth I open it very, very wide so that it won’t destroy the beauty of my cheeks, their beauty and smoothness.This teacher from the university tells us to smile, smile, smile, smile, but you go around smiling all the time like he teaches us to, you get to look like a very old person, a very old and haggard person who nobody wants anything to do with especially in the line of banking investments.”
When Jody talked scornfully about the Fiduciary University, Farragut’s attitude seemed parental, seemed to express some abiding respect for anything that was taught by an organization, however false the teaching and however benighted the organization. Listening to Jody describe the Fiduciary University as shit made Farragut wonder if disrespect was not at the bottom of Jody’s criminal career and his life in prison. He felt that Jody should bring more patience, more intelligence, to his attacks on the university. It may have been no more than the fact that the word “fiduciary” seemed to him to deserve respect and inspire honesty; and in its train were thrift, industry, frugality and honest strife.
In fact, Jody’s attacks on the university were continuous, predictable and, in the end, monotonous. Everything about the school was wrong. The teacher was ruining his face with too broad and committed a smile. The spot quizzes were too easy. “I don’t do no work,” Jody said, “and I always get the highest marks in the class. I got this memory. It’s easy for me to remember things. I learned the whole catechism in one night. Now, today we had Nostalgia. You think it’s got something to do with your nose. It don’t. It’s what you remember with pleasure. So what you do is your homeworkon what the potential investor remembers with pleasure and you play on his pleasant memories like a fucking violin. You not only stir up what they call Nostalgia with talk, you wear clothes and look and talk and use body language like something they’re going to remember with pleasure. So the potential investor likes history, and can’t you see me coming into the bank in a fucking suit of armor?”
“You’re not taking it seriously, Jody,” Farragut said. “There must be something worthwhile in it. I think you ought to pay more attention to what is useful in the course.”
“Well, there may be something in it,” Jody said. “But you see, I had it all before in Charm School, Success School, Elite School. It’s all the same shit. I had it ten times before. Now, they tell me a man’s name is for him the sweetest sound in the language. I know this, when I was three, four years old. I know the whole thing. You want to hear it? Listen.”
Jody ticked off his points on the bars of Farragut’s cell. “One. Let the other fellow feel that all the good ideas are his. Two. Throw down a challenge. Three. Open up with praise and honest appreciation. Four. If you’re wrong admit it quickly. Five. Get the other person saying yes. Six. Talk about your mistakes. Seven. Let the other man save his face. Eight. Use encouragement. Nine. Make the thing you want to do seem easy. Ten. Make the other person seem happy about doing what you want. Shit, man, any hustler knows that. That’s my life, that’s the story of my life. I’ve been doing all this ever since I was a little kid and lookwhere it got me. Look where my knowledge of the essence of charm and success and banking dumped me. Shit, Chicken, I feel like quitting”
“Don’t, Jody,” said Farragut. “Stay with it. You’ll graduate and it’ll look good on your record.”
“Nobody’s going to look at my record
you
do, you come out looking like shit. I love you, Chicken, I really do, otherwise I wouldn’t tell you that you got a ruined face. Now watch me smile. See? I look real happy—don’t I, don’t I, don’t I?—but if you’ll notice, I keep my eyes wide open so I won’t get disgusting wrinkles all around the edges like you have and when I open my mouth I open it very, very wide so that it won’t destroy the beauty of my cheeks, their beauty and smoothness.This teacher from the university tells us to smile, smile, smile, smile, but you go around smiling all the time like he teaches us to, you get to look like a very old person, a very old and haggard person who nobody wants anything to do with especially in the line of banking investments.”
When Jody talked scornfully about the Fiduciary University, Farragut’s attitude seemed parental, seemed to express some abiding respect for anything that was taught by an organization, however false the teaching and however benighted the organization. Listening to Jody describe the Fiduciary University as shit made Farragut wonder if disrespect was not at the bottom of Jody’s criminal career and his life in prison. He felt that Jody should bring more patience, more intelligence, to his attacks on the university. It may have been no more than the fact that the word “fiduciary” seemed to him to deserve respect and inspire honesty; and in its train were thrift, industry, frugality and honest strife.
In fact, Jody’s attacks on the university were continuous, predictable and, in the end, monotonous. Everything about the school was wrong. The teacher was ruining his face with too broad and committed a smile. The spot quizzes were too easy. “I don’t do no work,” Jody said, “and I always get the highest marks in the class. I got this memory. It’s easy for me to remember things. I learned the whole catechism in one night. Now, today we had Nostalgia. You think it’s got something to do with your nose. It don’t. It’s what you remember with pleasure. So what you do is your homeworkon what the potential investor remembers with pleasure and you play on his pleasant memories like a fucking violin. You not only stir up what they call Nostalgia with talk, you wear clothes and look and talk and use body language like something they’re going to remember with pleasure. So the potential investor likes history, and can’t you see me coming into the bank in a fucking suit of armor?”
“You’re not taking it seriously, Jody,” Farragut said. “There must be something worthwhile in it. I think you ought to pay more attention to what is useful in the course.”
“Well, there may be something in it,” Jody said. “But you see, I had it all before in Charm School, Success School, Elite School. It’s all the same shit. I had it ten times before. Now, they tell me a man’s name is for him the sweetest sound in the language. I know this, when I was three, four years old. I know the whole thing. You want to hear it? Listen.”
Jody ticked off his points on the bars of Farragut’s cell. “One. Let the other fellow feel that all the good ideas are his. Two. Throw down a challenge. Three. Open up with praise and honest appreciation. Four. If you’re wrong admit it quickly. Five. Get the other person saying yes. Six. Talk about your mistakes. Seven. Let the other man save his face. Eight. Use encouragement. Nine. Make the thing you want to do seem easy. Ten. Make the other person seem happy about doing what you want. Shit, man, any hustler knows that. That’s my life, that’s the story of my life. I’ve been doing all this ever since I was a little kid and lookwhere it got me. Look where my knowledge of the essence of charm and success and banking dumped me. Shit, Chicken, I feel like quitting”
“Don’t, Jody,” said Farragut. “Stay with it. You’ll graduate and it’ll look good on your record.”
“Nobody’s going to look at my record
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