Summary

The chapter begins with a catalog description of a 20 x 24 inch oil-on-canvas painting, "In Hostile Country."

Jim remembers an interview he did on a live radio show in San Francisco, during which he was uncharacteristically almost sober. He was sober because his dealer Steve had chastised him for being drunk during live interviews. Jim hated being asked invasive questions, and felt out of place and vulnerable. He gazed out of the window at the harbor far below, watching two boats that looked like they were on a collision course. The interviewer asked him why he chose such an unstable career—being an artist—rather than a stable career like his logger father. The interviewer suggested he must want poverty, or be brave or reckless. Jim remembered his father's death on the job. Jim recognized that the interviewer was characterizing him as "visceral...