Feud (TV Series)

The Secret Inner Lives of Swans (2024)

Chris Chalk: James Baldwin

Quotes 

• James Baldwin : Let me tell you something, it's impossible for a white person or an American white person, to not be, in some fundamental sense, a racist.

• James Baldwin : Well, you are of course, but the question is how you address it. I've always wondered at the great effort it seems to take a certain segment of society to work so hard to ignore what was happening. Their good work? Never meant for us.

  Truman Capote : It's all for their world. No one else's.The Met, the Botanical Gardens, the New York Public Library, the Frick. It's for preservation of their monuments.

• James Baldwin : We are here to talk about the swans. I brought you here for a reason. From the collection of William S. Paley.Now, you tell me why. Why do they care so much about art?

  Truman Capote : Well, they love to put their names on things, but they don't know how to love them, these things. They collect and collect and collect, the appetites are insatiable, but the swans are never full. They're like a starving person who keeps buying food only to tuck it away in their pantry and then the person says, "Why am I so hungry? My shelves are positively overflowing with food."

• Truman Capote : You know, sometimes I'm jealous of people making art like this. You get to hide in that abstraction. I much prefer figuration. You know how the goddamn artist feels about the subject. Like those wonderful Dick Avedon's he has out right now. He makes the Duchess of Windsor like a cadaver. He even makes his own father a gargoyle.

  James Baldwin : Maybe this lopsided circle is filled with rage, too. Maybe that's his mother's smile when she's drunk.

  [CHUCKLES] 

  James Baldwin : Art, most of the work in this building, is about anger, truth and revenge for something. Art is revenge, isn't it?

  Truman Capote : And so you're saying... ?

  James Baldwin : Stop apologizing to them. To any of them. Defy them. Defy the foul fowls, the Trumpeter swans, the Tundra swans, the Black-necked swans. Truman, do you understand?

  Truman Capote : People think I wanted to hurt them.

  James Baldwin : And admit you did. Admit it and keep going because you... You are the toughest little faggot in this town, baby. But I don't like what I'm seeing lately. I don't like it when I see you on television showboating and incoherent. You're better than that.

  Truman Capote : I drink, Jimmy, because... I've been wounded my... entire life, over and over. I'm in pain.

  James Baldwin : I know you are. Truman, so am I. So is she and him and them over there, but none of us end up in a blackout on television, so why are you?

  Truman Capote : Because I'm afraid.

  James Baldwin : Of what?

  Truman Capote : Everything. Abandonment. Or acceptance.In their world.Life with them, life without them. Both are unbearable.

  James Baldwin : But, Truman, they have abandoned you. The worst has happened and here you are. The rest is up to you.

• James Baldwin : But you got to finish what you began, baby. That is your obligation, just as mine is to do everything I can do to change my world. You got to do that, too.What is your obligation?

  Truman Capote : [QUIETLY SOBS]  It's not over? It's not too late?

  James Baldwin : Too late? Baby, you set the table, now have the meal. Cote Basque is to be a chapter in your story of how the ruling class dies. So, keep going until you've killed all of them, Truman. Truman, don't you get it? Your book, it is your firing squad that killed the Romanoff's, it's your guillotine that beheaded Marie Antoinette.This is your slave revolt, it's your Rite of Spring ushering in a new world, your Oppenheimer bomb, your Shiva "I am destroyer of worlds."

  James Baldwin : [CHUCKLES]  Hmm.

  James Baldwin : Now go to bed. You have more bends in your river. Wake up without your hangover. Shower, shave, and put on the most comfortable sweater. Have someone go out and get you some great bad bacon, egg and cheese thing from the nearest deli. And you get back to work. The light is dimming. But you're still here. Your light is still shining

• James Baldwin : Why did you leave all that out? You know, fascinating fact, swans are actually terribly aggressive with one another. One race of swan hates the other. I read a bit about them before our lunch, dear man.The Beswick swan, for example, hates the Whooper with a kind of rabid passion. A Mute swan will do anything to eviscerate a Trumpeter swan and take its home, even if the Trumpeter lived there first. A swan? Mm. It will kill if it can.

  Truman Capote : Yes. As they are trying to kill me.My swans, yes. And I think they might actually succeed.

  James Baldwin : No, fuck them. No.

• Truman Capote : Maybe I could just...

  James Baldwin : No, don't go. Stay.Stay here. It will feel like surrender to your adversaries. They want you gone.

• James Baldwin : Stop apologizing to them. To any of them. Defy them. Defy the foul fowls, the Trumpeter swans, the Tundra swans, the Black-necked swans. Truman, do you understand?

• James Baldwin : Art, most of the work in this building, is about anger, truth and revenge for something. Art is revenge, isn't it?

• Truman Capote : Jimmy, I have to say this. Because you're a gentleman, you haven't brought it up. I-I am ashamed, I have been unkind.

  James Baldwin : About whom?

  Truman Capote : You.

  James Baldwin : Not really. A few picayune criticisms of my work here and there, mostly true. I've criticized you, Truman, but only with the intent to... educate and uplift.

  Truman Capote : Yes, and your words sting because I admire you so.

  James Baldwin : A criticism only hurts if you believe it.

• James Baldwin : A life without appetites is a life without joy.

• James Baldwin : I don't know what you sold to the devil to write it, but let me tell you a secret. You can steal whatever the devil took right back.

• James Baldwin : The moment you are born, Mr. Capote, the process of our dying begins. Ticktock, ticktock. And as the years go on, the dying accelerates until the final breath, and then silence. That is the order of the universe. This life, Truman, is vicious and dark, and you and me, we are angels sent here to light it on fire, and illuminate. Some of us, some of us real swans, not those fake dime store porcelain trinkets that you call swans, some of us, like you and me, we are given a torch, and your job was to keep it alight, it was to endure it and write the world

• Truman Capote : [TRUMAN ON ANSWERING MACHINE]  It's Truman. You know what to do, so do it after the beep. Here it comes, the beep.

  [ANSWERING MACHINE BEEPS] 

  James Baldwin : Mr. Capote, it's Jimmy Baldwin. If you are there, hiding behind some hideous piece of Ormolu furniture, please pick up. I'm counting. One. Two...

  Truman Capote : Hello, Mr. Baldwin.

  James Baldwin : Mr. Mailer tells me you're despondent. Is this true? N'est-ce pas ?

  [French for Is not it ?] 

  Truman Capote : Oui, je suis desolé.

  [French for Yes, I am sorry] 

  Truman Capote : I mean, stunned, shocked. I'm speechless. This is the worst time in my life. I think... I may have tried to kill myself last night. Let me turn this thing off, it's taping us. I don't need that.

  James Baldwin : So the ladies who lunch are taking their pounds of flesh, are they?

  Truman Capote : Oh, no. Not pounds. All of it. Flaying me alive. A concentrated effort to effectively ensure I am a social pariah.

• James Baldwin : Let's meet for lunch. The scene of the crime, today,

  Truman Capote : I don't want to go there. It's full of enemies. They might not even let me in.

  James Baldwin : What a story that would be. They can't refuse entry with this Black man, can they?

  Truman Capote : They're all glowering. What if somebody comes over and starts a ghastly scene?

  James Baldwin : Well, I'll just beat the living shit out of them.

  [LAUGHING] 

  James Baldwin : Besides... you've had ghastly scenes here before, haven't you? Didn't that murderer spritz you with Chablis once?

  Truman Capote : Sancerre, actually.

  James Baldwin : Mr. Capote, I am going to tell you some hard truths today. You're going to spend the day listening and learning from me. Class begins henceforth, baby.

  Truman Capote : I'm not a very quick study, Jimmy.

  James Baldwin : Then let's order some oysters. Oh, what is this faux Basque shit? I've been to the Basque coast, darling, this is not Basque. This is New York continental frou-frou.

• Waiter : Mr. Baldwin, I'm told you have a special request.

  James Baldwin : Oh, yes, the best thing... the best thing I ever ate was at a place outside of Biarritz. Something called kokotxas

  [The Spanish translation of the Basque word would be Cococha] 

  James Baldwin : . Do you know it?

  Waiter : Ko-ko-txas?

  James Baldwin : With cod cheeks in a salsa verde. Olive oil with fish stock, garlic, finely-chopped parsley, and it comes on this perfect crusty bread. Could you do something like that? We need to do something to bolster this man's flagging spirits.

  Waiter : Of course, sir.

• James Baldwin : I have noticed that most minorities, Blacks, thank God, Asians, women, Jewish folk, they all have a community to turn to in their time of need. The homo, not so much. Not yet. You, me, Gore, Tenn, we are the only Gay American Men of Letters pretty much. I'm not counting Frank O'Hara and Ginsburg because they are just poets. Gore hasn't reached out to you, I'm guessing.

  Truman Capote : [LAUGHS]  Gore? Are you kidding? He's dancing in joy at my misfortune, voodoo doll in hand.

  James Baldwin : It's because he's jealous of you. I'm not jealous of you. Today, Truman, I am going to be your community. Because you need one.You are important to this country.Your words and ideas.

  Truman Capote : As... as are yours.

  James Baldwin : Well, we know that. We're not talking about me today.Your story is being dismissed as a... as a small salacious roman à clef. And it is much more than that.

  Truman Capote : It is? I mean, it is.

  James Baldwin : [CHUCKLES SOFTLY]  I want to know what you left out. All the awful things you could've said about the swans.

  Truman Capote : Why do you want to know that?

  James Baldwin : I'll tell you at the end of the day. Let's start with Babe.I know she's your favorite.

• Truman Capote : Does this have anything to do with Bianca's

  [Bianca Jagger] 

  Truman Capote : skin not being alabaster white? Of course they would argue no, they don't include Bianca because she's too loud, or some such other reason, but I think it does. They don't want to corrupt the pool. Whites only. WASPs only. They're not even aware they're doing it, it's just that this kind of bigotry is so intrinsic to their world and who they are that they can't see it even when it's right in front of them.

  James Baldwin : Let me tell you something, it's impossible for a white person or an American white person, to not be, in some fundamental sense, a racist.

  Truman Capote : Mm. Well, I worry about what I'm not seeing. I spend so much time with them, how can I not be guilty as well?

  James Baldwin : Well, you are of course, but the question is how you address it. I've always wondered at the great effort it seems to take a certain segment of society to work so hard to ignore what was happening. Their good work? Never meant for us.

  Truman Capote : It's all for their world. No one else's. The Met, the Botanical Gardens, the New York Public Library, the Frick. It's for preservation of their monuments.

• Truman Capote : The swans, they despise growing older. Once the bloom of youth began to fade, every one of them either underwent a brutal regime of fetal sheep cell injections or went under the knife.

  James Baldwin : What about yourself? You've succumbed to the same pressures and vanities, no?

  Truman Capote : Well, it comes from a very dark place.

• Truman Capote : Tell me more swan facts.

  James Baldwin : I had so much fun at the library. Y-You must know that a full one-fifth of male swans are homosexuals.

  Truman Capote : Mm. Well, it makes sense. Swans are so comme il faut

  [French for as it should be or proper] 

  Truman Capote : .

  James Baldwin : Yes, and they couple, even raise cygnets together, and are far more successful than the straights. 80% of the children of gay swans live as opposed to something like 30% of the heterosexual ones. A lady swan might join them, I kid you not, for a ménage, and then go off, and the two gents raise the babies.

  Truman Capote : Why do they thrive so well, their kids?

  James Baldwin : The gay swans are stronger, you see. They are more able to provide.

  Truman Capote : Hmm. Can you imagine all the successful, gay New York artists and writers as swans? Tenn, Frank O'Hara, Ginsburg, Albee, even Gore, Andy, and so on.

• James Baldwin : Sit down and listen to me. It is time for our the reason I gave you this day, one of my few days in New York before I fuck off back to France. Close your eyes, just for a second, until you see a glimmer of your great gargantuan, enormous worth and gifts which you have criminally lost sight of in your sickness. In your disease, which you reek of. Yes, you threw away the ten years since you published In Cold Blood, you jettisoned your unparalleled ability to paint hell. I cannot blame you. In Cold Blood would have flattened anyone. I don't know what you sold to the devil to write it, but let me tell you a secret. You can steal whatever the devil took right back. The moment you are born, Mr. Capote, the process of our dying begins. Ticktock, ticktock. And as the years go on, the dying accelerates until the final breath, and then silence. That is the order of the universe. This life, Truman, is vicious and dark, and you and me, we are angels sent here to light it on fire, and illuminate. Some of us, some of us real swans, not those fake dime store porcelain trinkets that you call swans, some of us, like you and me, we are given a torch, and your job was to keep it alight, it was to endure it and write the world. Goddamn it, Mr. Capote, your work isn't even half done, you have miles to go. Your fucking torch is still lit. Faint fuck glow, but it is still lit. The lunches and the trips and the soufflés and the yachts, and the nausea of demented privilege with these pathetic creatures are over. Their world, you captured it forever and everybody knows what you wrote, it's a dictionary of disgust, a thesaurus of American nausea, and I promise you: one day it will be seen.

• James Baldwin : And, Truman, there's one final bit of swan lore I forgot to tell you.

  Truman Capote : Oh, okay.

  James Baldwin : You see, in England, the queen owns all the swans, all the unmarked Mute swans in wild waters there and it's been that way since the 12th century. The rich and the royal, they feasted on so many of them, they were disappearing. Served as centerpieces in their skin and feathers, with a lump of blazing incense in the beak at Christmas.

  Truman Capote : A lump of blazing incense?

  James Baldwin : If she wanted to now, the queen is still the only person who could legally eat a swan in England.

  Truman Capote : That's wonderful.

  James Baldwin : I thought you'd appreciate it. It's time for my flight, Truman, I've got to go. But you take care now, you hear? Remember what I said.

  Truman Capote : Thank you