BILL: I admit this is vague. I doubt anyone could know my meaning here. In my vision, I saw the owner of the club as a distinguished, extravagant “drag queen" who takes great pride in the décor, the surroundings, the ambience of the nightclub. The patrons are impressed! It is not an exclusively gay bar, but all types of people are here.
APRIL: Why is the voice "shrill"?
BILL: Well, it's like, they are all very enthusiasric about the club, and they are being greeted ceremoniously, but underneath it all is a trace of unhealthy need, expressed in the shrillness. I'm not saying a certain sexual orientation is unhealthy, I'm talking about what Burroughs calls "control" by either drugs, lust, thirst for power, thirst for blood.
BILL: Indeed, the seduction continues.
APRIL: What about the honeycomb and the buzzing?
BILL: Really good nightclubs have more than one level, and passageways to connecting rooms, walkways – one might say “like a honeycomb." In the phrase “rich rooms connect" I use the word “rich" as “vividly satisfying" – a description of the connecting rooms.
Next, think of pheromones – those chemicals that animals secrete to attract animals of the opposite sex – that is the sweet “attractions circling around everything" - the word “sweet" goes with both the richness of the rooms and the sweetness of the “attractions" – as we say, “the birds and the bees" as a reference to sex. Also, this scene can describe the “buzz" from drugs. Two people go for a walk on a stone sidewalk. Enchantment is all around.
BILL: Yeah, he stranger-invited her. We teach our children, “Don’t go with strangers! If a stranger invites you to come with them, don’t go!"
APRIL: What happens next? Why did you repeat words like, "he, he . . ."
BILL: Because it's so terrible you cannot speak it without a stutter . . . “He, he, he . . ." What did he do? It's meant to give you a feeling of loathing.
APRIL: And the climax. A girl is dead, right?
BILL: In my mind, I pictured a pretty young person lying on the sidewalk. She could have bloody vampire bites on her neck if you want to see this as a supernatural poem. Or she could have a stab wound from a knife. Like, remember that song, Mack the Knife? "On the sidewalk, lies a body...oozin' life someone's sneakin' round the corner, could it be Mack the Knife...?"
APRIL: I think that was a little before my time. Who sang it?
BILL: Bobby Darin, girl!
APRIL: Was he in the Rat Pack?
BILL: No. I don't think so. He might have hung out with them, I don't know.
APRIL: Is the girl on the sidewalk dead? Or will she turn into a vampire?
BILL: Well, it's open to interpretaion, but it's definitely vampire imagery all the way through.
