The Paper Dragon (3 page)

"If his Honor will allow," Brackman answered, "I would like to bring the matter before us once again —
from
the witness,
in
person,
before
this Court."

"I will allow it. Let him proceed."

Arthur looked at the judge, and then at Brackman. Brackman nodded.

"I would like to start with the thematic similarity of my play and the other works," Arthur said.

"Go ahead, Mr. Constantine."

As Arthur began speaking, he could feel the alert presence of James Driscoll sitting in the jury box on his left, patiently watching with the cold blue guileless eyes of a thief. He could feel the judge erect and attentive beside him at the raised bench on his right, someone only vaguely defined, someone who had the power to rule on what could and could not be said, someone who would in the final analysis make the sole decision as to whether he, Arthur Constantine, had been wronged. He could feel, too, and it added to his sense of security, the enormous paneled dignity of the courtroom, a federal court, copyright offenses were tried in federal courts, the American flag to the right of the bench, the wan December sunlight outside. He was completely at ease now, confident that the truth would be heard and justice would be done. His earlier panic, in fact, now seemed inexplicable, like the terror of a very young child waking in the dark.

"In my play," he said, "I was attempting to illustrate—"

"Your Honor," Willow said at once, "I move to strike that from the record. Whatever Mr. Constantine
attempted
to illustrate is not relevant to the issue before this Court."

"He is trying to be responsive," McIntyre said. "I will allow it."

"I maintain, your Honor, that any similarities must be solely between the works in question."

"I would agree to that."

"And that therefore the author's intent is irrelevant."

"I believe I will allow him to tell it in his own words, Mr. Willow. I think this will take us where we want to go."

"Does your Honor mean the end of the trial?"

"No, I'm referring to the testimony relating to similarities. The end of the trial, however, is another consummation devoutly to be wished. Please go on, Mr. Constantine."

"Thematically, my play deals with the lunacy of war," Arthur said. "My hero is a new lieutenant who feels that human life is more important than the quarrels of nations, and this theme is stated in Act I, Scene 4, pages 21 and 22 of
Catchpole
. This is also the theme of
The Paper Dragon
, where the hero is the same new lieutenant who feels exactly the same way, and who voices his feelings on pages 121, 122, 123, and 124 of the book."

"Do you consider this theme unique?" Brackman asked.

"I do not, sir."

"Do you consider it original?"

"I do not, sir."

"Do you consider it your exclusive property?"

"No sir. But this suit is not based on a similarity of theme alone. In fact, if my play had developed its theme along certain lines and the novel had developed the very
same
theme along different lines, I would never have brought suit at all."

"How
are
these themes developed?"

"They are developed along
identical
lines," Arthur said. "To begin with, the hero of my play is shipped to the Pacific to wage war against the Japanese on Eniwetok. The hero of
The Paper Dragon
is also shipped to the Pacific to wage war, this time against the enemy forces in Korea. Now the men in the platoon to which the lieutenant is assigned, and specifically the men who are in one squad of that platoon—"

"Excuse me," Brackman said, "but are we discussing plot or character?"

"This is plot," Arthur said.

"Very well, go on."

"The men in the squad are described in Act I, Scene 1, page 3 of my play as 'battle-weary and battle-hardened.' In the book, the men in the squad are described with the words — may I have a copy of the book, please?"

"Certainly," Brackman said. The clerk handed him the exhibit copy, which he in turn handed to Arthur. Arthur quickly found the page.

"These are the words Driscoll uses to describe
his
squad. This is on page 42. 'Weary-eyed and cynical, they studied their new lieutenant in his college boy crewcut and freshly issued fatigues, and wondered how he could possibly lead them into hell.' In short, the men in both combat squads are hardened veterans in juxtaposition to inexperienced commanding officers — and the word 'weary' is used to describe them in both works."

"Go on, please."

"The first time Lieutenant Mason — who is the hero of my play — leads his platoon into battle, this particular squad is ambushed and a young private is killed by a sniper. In the book, this basic situation has been altered only slightly. The lieutenant's name has been changed, of course — to Cooper — and the incident of the sniper takes place
before
his arrival in Korea. It is a major this time who is killed by a sniper who has infiltrated the lines. That's on page 18. But the plot development is essentially the same, and it continues along parallel lines.

"In my play, for example, the men come to resent Mason enormously because they hold him responsible for the private's death. This is stated in Act I, Scene 3, pages 14 and 15. And whereas Mason tries to reach them in various ways, they remain resentful. In the book, the men resent Cooper because he is taking the dead major's place. That's page 51. The same attempts to reach the men are present, and the same continuing resentment is there. Moreover, the biggest troublemaker in Cooper's platoon is a man named Private Colman, and it is implied on page 56 that he has had homosexual relations with the dead major."

"You mean when he was alive, of course," Brackman said, and McIntyre burst into laughter. "I was trying to clarify," Brackman said quickly, "the relationship between—"

"Yes, of course," McIntyre said, still laughing. "Go ahead, Mr. Constantine."

"I mention this homosexual attachment," Arthur said, "only because in my play, a senior officer is also suspected of homosexuality and is sent back from the front to a hospital unit. This is in Act II, Scene 2, pages 6 and 7. It is there that he becomes the patient of an Army nurse who later falls in love with my hero. I think it is significant that an Army nurse appears in
The Paper Dragon
on page 124, and that a love affair between her and Lieutenant Cooper develops along lines parallel to my play."

"Your Honor," Willow said, rising, "I wonder if I might interrupt to ask Mr. Brackman how long this will take. I think we all agree that the final test in a case of this sort is a comparison of the works themselves. Mr. Constantine's opinion as to similarities is not in my judgment competent testimony. Couldn't we shorten this by putting in a paper calling your Honor's attention to the alleged similarities? I would certainly have no objection to that. But if Mr. Constantine intends to go on interminably, I must raise an objection."

"Mr. Brackman?" McIntyre asked. "What do you say to that?"

"I quite agree with Mr. Willow that a comparison of the works themselves is the heart of the issue involved here. But that is exactly what we
are
doing, your Honor, comparing the works themselves. As for the second objection, Mr. Constantine's testimony is
definitely
competent, and I believe precedent will so indicate."

"How much longer do you suppose he will be testifying, Mr. Brackman? Concerning these similarities?"

"The similarities of plot, do you mean?"

"I mean
all
the similarities."

"There are several more similarities of plot, your Honor, and then we had hoped to go into character and specific language."

"Won't there be an overlap between plot and character?"

"Only to a limited extent."

"How long will it take to outline the plot similarities?"

"Mr. Constantine?"

"Only five or ten minutes, your Honor," Arthur answered.

"And the others?"

"At least forty-five minutes, your Honor," Brackman said. "Perhaps longer."

"Well, I notice that Mr. Constantine has been making frequent reference to the prepared charts. Couldn't we simply submit those, as Mr. Willow suggested? I know you want the Court to form an impression of your witness, but I feel we've already done that sufficiently. I do think any means of saving time would be appreciated."

"Your Honor, I would prefer to do it this way," Brackman said. "It it will help, perhaps the witness can leave out the specific page references wherever possible."

"I stand on my objection," Willow said. "I do not see why Mr. Constantine cannot testify that he prepared these charts, and then offer them in evidence as an aid to the Court.
Solely
as an aid to the Court, your Honor, and
not
as expert testimony. To that, I would have no objection."

"Mr. Willow, I don't like to limit an attorney's latitude," McIntyre said. "If Mr. Brackman wishes to present his case in this manner, I think it only fair to allow him to proceed. But if he can think of another way to shorten the testimony, in addition to eliminating page numbers, I think we would all be enormously grateful."

"If he's going to eliminate page references," Willow said, "can he supply a list of them so—"

"I assumed…"

"Yes, of course."

"… that he planned to do that, Mr. Willow."

"So that we may have them for reference during the cross, your Honor."

"Certainly. Please proceed, Mr. Constantine."

"In order to save time," Arthur said, "it might be possible to combine plot
and
character in explaining these three soldiers. Would you want me to do that?"

"Which three soldiers?" McIntyre asked.

"Private Colman in the novel, and Corporal Janus and Colonel Peterson in my play."

"Yes, please do," McIntyre said. "We would appreciate any means of saving time."

"Just so we can keep this straight," Arthur said, "let me again say that Private Colman is the prime troublemaker in the novel, and is also suspected of having had homosexual relations with the major. In fact, there is a stream-of-consciousness passage beginning on page 212—"

"We want to leave out the page references," Brackman reminded.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I was going to say that this interior monologue clearly indicates,
beyond
mere suspicion, that Private Colman
did
have homosexual relations with the major. In my play, the prime troublemaker is a man named Corporal Janus, but in addition there is the homosexual colonel who is sent up for observation — he later goes psycho, but that's beside the point. The point is the
two
characters in my play, Corporal Janus and Colonel Peterson, are
combined
in Driscoll's book to form the single character named Private Colman. In other words, Driscoll has taken a troublemaker and a homosexual and put them together to form a homosexual troublemaker."

"Did you find any other evidence of this merger?"

"Yes. The private's first name in Driscoll's book is Peter. His full name is Peter Colman. If we put this alongside the name of the character in my play, Colonel Peterson, we see that one name is an anagram of the other."

"Your Honor," Willow said, rising, "an anagram transposes the exact letters of a word or sentence to form a
new
word or sentence. There is no such transposition here, and I object to the misleading use of the word."

"May I amend that?" Arthur asked.

"Please do," McIntyre said.

"May I simply say that the names, when reversed, are very similar?"

"Shall I strike the anagram reference?" the clerk asked.

"Strike it," McIntyre replied.

"Please go on," Brackman said.

"Where was I?" Arthur asked.

"You were explaining…"

"Oh, yes, the combining of two characters to form a single character. The final evidence of this is what happened in the film based on the novel. For some unex-plainable reason, the character named Peter Colman in the book has once more become two
separate
characters in the film. One of them is still Colman the troublemaker, but he is no longer homosexual. The other is a corporal who does not appear in the book, and who is very
definitely
homosexual. In other words, the screenwriter reversed Driscoll's copying process, and went back to the original play to recreate a character who was in the play but not in the book."

"Are these characters important to the play?"

"They are important to the play, the book,
and
the movie. Without them, the plot would stand still. In fact, it is Janus in my play and Colman in the book who suggest that the lieutenant be murdered."

"How do they plan to murder him?"

"In my play, a Sergeant D'Agostino volunteers to shoot the lieutenant from ambush. In the book, the men plan to lead the lieutenant into a Chinese stronghold where he will be killed. The motive is identical in both works, only the means differ slightly."

"Does the lieutenant actually get killed?" Brackman asked.

"Again, there is only a very slight difference in story line," Arthur said. "In my play, the psychopathic colonel steals a bayonet and escapes his guard on the night of the planned murder. He accidentally stumbles on Sergeant D'Agostino where he is waiting to ambush Lieutenant Mason. There is a struggle during which D'Agostino is stabbed and killed by the ranting colonel. And there is speculation later as to whether D'Agostino actually sacrificed himself in order to avoid having to murder the lieutenant."

"And how has this been changed in the book?"

"Your Honor," Willow said, "I have let one such allegation pass, but I must object to…"

"Sustained. Please rephrase the question, Mr. Brackman."

"Can you tell us the plot sequence in the book?" Brackman said.

"In the book, Lieutenant Cooper realizes at the last moment that the men are leading him into a death trap. But he also recognizes that his scout, Sergeant Morley, is in danger of losing
his
life as well. He takes the point from Morley, and sacrifices himself to the Chinese guns."