Dramatis Personæ

A: Fiftyish. World-weary

and ragged at the edges
(rumpled clothes, tousled
hair, scuffed shoes).
Slumped at the bar,
whisky-glass in hand and
bottle at the ready. But
with a sharp glint in his
eyes, behind the thick,
round lenses of his spectacles.

B: Radiates eagerness and naïveté, even in the low
bar-light. Sits straight-
backed on his stool, odd man
out in the row of
hunched figures. At least
his jacket droops towards
one side, the weight of a
book in a pocket pulling
it down.

C: Shadowy figure, nipping at a bourbon at the
dark end of the bar.”

da Arno Schmidt: a centennial colloquy
– M.A. Orthofer
* in copertina ph. Erwin Olaf