comicbook, and other versions. For instance, in the movie, 20,000 Leagues, the crew fought a giant squid (genus LoKgo), in the View-Master Slides version it was a giant octopus (genus Octopus) , but in the book it was a different cephalopod, the cuttlefish (genus Sepia). Throughout the chapter, with two or three exceptions, Verne kept calling them poulps, which in my French-English Dictionary is French for 'octopus,' though Verne seems to use it for 'any cephalopod.' In those two or three exceptions, however, he did call them cuttlefishes. I say them, because Verne said there were seven.
Senator MANSFIELD. Do you mean to say you read this book in French?
BARRY RUDD. Not really. I read the original and a translation side by side. I like to compare.
Senator MANSFIELD. What languages do you speak?
BARRY RUDD. I don't really speak any but ours. I just collect words. My address on my French notebook is in Chinese characters. The Chinese for America, mei kuo, means 'beautiful country/
Senator SKYPACK. Can you speak Russian, young fellow?
BARRY RUDD. A little. YnpaBJieMe KB.IC. H BojjKa #PJI !
Senator SKYPACK. I thought so! What the hell docs that mean? Damn communist slogan?
BARRY RUDD. It means: 'Administration of Beer and Vodka Production/
Senator MANSFIELD. In other words, sonny, you pick up your languages where you can.
BARRY RUDD. I do, sir. My own keeps me busy enough. I love anomalies, exceptions. Vein, vane, vain. Through, dough, bough, rough, cough. Senator Skypack, do you know how to spell 'fish'?
Senator SKYPACK. What, what, what? What is this? I got out of school second year high school. I don't have to be taught lessons by a doggone little fairy like this. . . . F~i-S'h.
BARRY RUDD. Wrong, Senator. You spell it g-h-o-t-i. You take the gh as pronounced in 'rough/ the o as pronounced in 'women/ and the ti as pronounced in 'nation/ and g-h-o-t-i spells 'fish/ I think it was G. B. Shaw who first pointed that out. He wanted to simplify our absurd spelling.
Senator MANSFIELD. You really love words, don't you?
BARRY RUDD. Oh, yes! Kismet, hieratic, mcllific, nuncupative, sempiternal, mansuetudc, jeremiad, austral, diaphanous, hegemony, exculpatory, homunculus, melanistic, cenobite, prolepsis, platykurtic, mephitic, ceraceous, inspissation, lanate—
Senator MANSFIELD. By the way, what was that common
81
THE CHILD BUYER
eight-letter word you were talking about that only has one vowel?
BARRY RUDD. Do you give up? Do you all give up, Senators? Do you give up, Senator Voyolko?
Senator VOYOLKO. Me? Huh? Yeah, I give up,
BARRY RUDD. Strength.
Mr. BROADBENT. Senator Mansfield, sir, if you'll forgive my saying so, it was you who wanted things kept in a straight line.
Senator MANSFIELD. You're quite right, Mr. Broadbent. I forgot myself. Please carry on. ... Strength. One, two, three-Mr. BROADBENT. You were on your way home, Master Rudd.
BARRY RUDD. Yes, but I stopped off at the Perkonians' on the way to see if Flattop was there, but he's never home. His mother's a laundress, she spends every day of the week in somebody's dark creepy cellar, doing the wash, and she has a morbid dread of rodents, and she drinks. She avoids Flattop and he avoids her; there's a mutual repulsion. But I knew where to find him—at the bowling alleys. We have this twelve-lane bowling center on River Street, with automatic pin spotters, and Flattop hangs around there quite a lot, picks up some change running the house balls through the ball cleaner, sweeping the approaches, so on. I told you he's gone all the way square—even to earning money!
Mr. BROADBENT. He's a pretty tough little character, is he?
BARRY RUDD. Not at all. His haircut sets him apart, and sometimes his behavior does, too. That's all he wants—to be set apart.
Mr. BROADBENT. This haircut.
BARRY RUDD. His head is round, he has a moon face. The hair's blond. The upper surface has been leveled off absolutely flat, a bristling squared-off effect. The hair at the
Senator MANSFIELD. Do you mean to say you read this book in French?
BARRY RUDD. Not really. I read the original and a translation side by side. I like to compare.
Senator MANSFIELD. What languages do you speak?
BARRY RUDD. I don't really speak any but ours. I just collect words. My address on my French notebook is in Chinese characters. The Chinese for America, mei kuo, means 'beautiful country/
Senator SKYPACK. Can you speak Russian, young fellow?
BARRY RUDD. A little. YnpaBJieMe KB.IC. H BojjKa #PJI !
Senator SKYPACK. I thought so! What the hell docs that mean? Damn communist slogan?
BARRY RUDD. It means: 'Administration of Beer and Vodka Production/
Senator MANSFIELD. In other words, sonny, you pick up your languages where you can.
BARRY RUDD. I do, sir. My own keeps me busy enough. I love anomalies, exceptions. Vein, vane, vain. Through, dough, bough, rough, cough. Senator Skypack, do you know how to spell 'fish'?
Senator SKYPACK. What, what, what? What is this? I got out of school second year high school. I don't have to be taught lessons by a doggone little fairy like this. . . . F~i-S'h.
BARRY RUDD. Wrong, Senator. You spell it g-h-o-t-i. You take the gh as pronounced in 'rough/ the o as pronounced in 'women/ and the ti as pronounced in 'nation/ and g-h-o-t-i spells 'fish/ I think it was G. B. Shaw who first pointed that out. He wanted to simplify our absurd spelling.
Senator MANSFIELD. You really love words, don't you?
BARRY RUDD. Oh, yes! Kismet, hieratic, mcllific, nuncupative, sempiternal, mansuetudc, jeremiad, austral, diaphanous, hegemony, exculpatory, homunculus, melanistic, cenobite, prolepsis, platykurtic, mephitic, ceraceous, inspissation, lanate—
Senator MANSFIELD. By the way, what was that common
81
THE CHILD BUYER
eight-letter word you were talking about that only has one vowel?
BARRY RUDD. Do you give up? Do you all give up, Senators? Do you give up, Senator Voyolko?
Senator VOYOLKO. Me? Huh? Yeah, I give up,
BARRY RUDD. Strength.
Mr. BROADBENT. Senator Mansfield, sir, if you'll forgive my saying so, it was you who wanted things kept in a straight line.
Senator MANSFIELD. You're quite right, Mr. Broadbent. I forgot myself. Please carry on. ... Strength. One, two, three-Mr. BROADBENT. You were on your way home, Master Rudd.
BARRY RUDD. Yes, but I stopped off at the Perkonians' on the way to see if Flattop was there, but he's never home. His mother's a laundress, she spends every day of the week in somebody's dark creepy cellar, doing the wash, and she has a morbid dread of rodents, and she drinks. She avoids Flattop and he avoids her; there's a mutual repulsion. But I knew where to find him—at the bowling alleys. We have this twelve-lane bowling center on River Street, with automatic pin spotters, and Flattop hangs around there quite a lot, picks up some change running the house balls through the ball cleaner, sweeping the approaches, so on. I told you he's gone all the way square—even to earning money!
Mr. BROADBENT. He's a pretty tough little character, is he?
BARRY RUDD. Not at all. His haircut sets him apart, and sometimes his behavior does, too. That's all he wants—to be set apart.
Mr. BROADBENT. This haircut.
BARRY RUDD. His head is round, he has a moon face. The hair's blond. The upper surface has been leveled off absolutely flat, a bristling squared-off effect. The hair at the
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