7. The arrival of "Future Schlock" (see New York, January 25).

8. The Greening of America.

9. The Merv Griffin Show.

10. Joan Didion's novel, Play It As It Lays, in which the heroine opts out of suicide for daily drives up and down the California freeways.

11. The end of full employment.

12. The failure of the 747s.

13. The selection of Derek Bok (Beverly Hills, Stanford) as President of (Eastern) Harvard.

14. Everything that pertains to Orange County.

15. "The Dry Look" from Gillette.

(Or are we all going to the moon?)

IX

And there you are. Bankruptcy is the order of the day, and there will shortly be Zum Zums in Laos (More Restaurant Associates Great Places).

Jack Crabb's experience (real or not) is the American experience (real or not) is our experience (real or not).

(Or does it make any difference?)

There are several things to be done if you passionately want the pieces to fit together again-or, even more, if you want ultimately to trade the pieces in for something besides a bed in an old-age home. But far be it for me to tell you what those things-to-be-done are. I have to write a thesis as it is, and anyway, I'm not quite sure what I would say.

Except maybe: Try to get to bed at a reasonable hour.

X

And finally. There is an intensely passionate moment near the end of Little Big Man. The very old Old Lodge Skins has lived to see his race perish as the white man under the leadership of General Custer has closed off the West. The old chief knows that's the ball game because while "there's an endless supply of white men, there's always been a limited supply of human beings."

The chief is full of despair. He knows that the Cheyennes, the human beings, will "soon walk a road that leads nowhere," and from then on things will go only further downhill, for "a world without human beings has no center to it."

So Old Lodge Skins prepares to die. He takes his adopted white grandson Jack up into the hills to be a witness to his death. Up into the hills go the old man and the young as the sky grows darker. Having reached a clearing, Old Lodge Skins does a farewell dance to the gray sky. He finishes. He lies down. Just before he shuts his eyes for his final slumber, he speaks once more to God. "Take care of my son here," he says. "See that he doesn't go crazy."

It doesn't work out as he planned. Old Lodge Skins does not die that day. And Jack Crabb lives on to go crazy. And so, Jesus Christ, do we all.