The Laughter of Adam and Eve

Contents

vii Contents Acknowledgments ix The Laughter of Adam and Eve: A Detail 3 New Covenant, Causality 5 The One Who Knows All Language 6 Brouhaha 8 At the Akhmatova Museum, Fountain House Annex 10 Signs and Wonders 13 Film Clips of Munkacs, 1933 17 Gunga Din 20 Saint Kevin, Blackbird, and Others 23 No Script 27 Resignation Bird 33 Sleeping with a Woman Who Writes 34 The Love of Pygmalion 37 Lover 39 A as Insignia 40 Vile 44 That Dream, Your Dream, She Says 46 Enemies 47 Her Pleasure in Herself 48 Fashion Show 50 Plague Tale 51 In a Breath 53 Mytheme 54 What Old David Felt 55 Religion, Then Science 56 To One at Risk 59 This My Failure This My Life This My 62 viii Regret 63 First Things 64 Escaped to Tell 65 Passengers Will . . . 67 At Day’s End, as at the End of Any Day 68 Evening 69 Letting It in a Little 70 That the Compensations of Art 72 Spend, Spend 74 ...