New Room for Hugo

One phone call was enough to find a new room for Hugo. Then Beer wanted to know how long he would have to remain. "Would half an hour today be enough?"

"I think more."

"But we're only going to be on the air for four minutes."

Silverstein explained. He was a B.C. graduate himself, and had no idea what tutorial was. He also had to find out how loud Beer's voice was, what the best positions for Goldings and him would be, and other details. "Normally," he said, "four minutes of airtime requires one hour of camera work with professionals in New York." He also asked Beer if he could come to a rehearsal Saturday morning ("Kennedy's going to be there") besides Saturday afternoon, when the four minutes would first go on cameras, and Sunday, when at least two dress rehearsals would be staged. Although at first he refused, by the end of the session Beer had agreed to this.

The Tutorial System

But meanwhile Beer explained the tutorial system to Silverstein, with Goldings adding a word or two--including the fact that Beer was not his regular tutor ("Louis Hartz is") and that normally he did not have individual tutorial.

Finally, Silverstein thought he understood. "I see, now we've established that it's quiet and informal. Now how about you two sitting here in nice easy chairs, with a fire in the fireplace."

Beer mildly objected. "Well, that's a little corny. We don't want to make it too informal. It's an exchange of ideas." But he agreed to it.

Silverstein mentioned the script. "Has anyone talked to you about a subject yet?" Beer answered, yes, he had talked to Finley, who was going to give the cue to him. Silverstein looked at his script. "I see there's a line written in for you--it's the first time I've seen it."

Beer replied that he knew about this. He even knew it was meant to be something like "Yes, that's all very well, but the Athenians did lose the war." From there the discussion was meant to go into the relative merits of the democratic system.

While Beer and Goldings discussed what to say, Silverstein wandered around the room, lifting up the rug to see what type of floor it was. He noticed the bare bookshelves.

"You must fill them," Beer said. "You can get some books easily enough from the library."

Silverstein asked two students from the Employment Office to move the furniture around. Beer and Goldings started wondering whether or not they should mention Kennedy's book. "If we do, we could say it's a very good book, but a very short book," Beer said.

Finally the set was ready. Silverstein asked the tutor and tutee to move to the easy chairs. Beer sat down for a moment, but then objected more vehemently than before. "I don't like these easy chairs. I'd rather have a hard chair."