95
After the disappointment of my first four speculative scripts sent
into 'The Other Show' not gaining their acceptance, I decided my
problem was 'pushing the envelope' too far with each one I had
written. When the show had first started it had some issues and
needed to have its envelope pushed in my humble opinion. But
by the third season they had finally come into their own and I
decided to craft a script that would be completely common place and
unthreatening. After typing it up I passed it around to some friends
as my test readers and I got back less enthusiastic responses
than I normally did: Just as I
had hoped. I
mailed it off to the agent feeling this was the
one
that was going to sell!
Jude's and my relationship seemed to be coming to an end. While he
had been a great help to me during my time having issues with medical
doctors not performing their jobs, he since had little he wanted to
do other than find me that 'perfect doctor' to handle my long term
needs. Yet when I said I was interested in a doctor who could
address my mixed-sex issues, he didn't like that idea at all and I
ended up starting to see a different psychologist on the side for
those questions. It turned out he knew my new psychologist,
'Samuel', and had good things to say about him and even had a nice
supportive chat with him about me. In the meantime Jude and my
appointments had gone from being twice monthly to once every few
months and I was thinking we would end as I focused on working with
Samuel. But at what I assumed would be that final appointment where
we would discuss parting, he had some news for me that he was
thrilled about. He had found that perfect doctor to serve as my
long term primary care physician, 'Dr. Klasper'. The wrinkle was Dr.
Klasper was in Florida, but he would be willing to work on my needs
over the phone, Jude was certain! I expressed misgivings
about this but Jude assured me that he knew this would be just the
doctor for me. He gave me the phone number and told me I could call
him that evening and check for myself.
When I got home, I decided to give it a try as Jude had been a big
help and supporter of mine over these past two & a half years I
had seen him. But when I called, I
was very surprised. I asked Klasper what specialty he was
in, he admitted that technically he didn't have a medical
degree, but was just called 'Dr. Klasper' as an honorary title by his
patients. In reality he was a personal trainer who worked at a
health club in Florida but also did phone consultations. How much
was a phone consultation? I asked. He said it was two hundred
dollars an hour, no insurance accepted, and his price was firm. As
my entire non-rent money supply was about seventy-five dollars a
month at that time, it was impossible for me to afford his fee.
Thankfully, this gave me a conclusive reason not to take him as my
'doctor' and when I next saw Jude I told him of the phone call and
what I'd learned.
Having expected that Jude and I would part amicably at the previous
appointment, now Jude became enraged by what I told him of my call
and said it wasn't possible and I was lying. I told him he could
call and check for himself if he didn't believe me. But he assured
me he didn't have to call as he had already seen the 'video tape'.
Video tape? Yes, he had been passed a video tape
noting Dr. Klasper's skills and extensive knowledge of health
problems.
In the early Nineteen Nineties many 'businesses' and 'professionals',
whose claims couldn't be legally validated well enough to be
touted in broadcast advertisements, had taken up making
'informational videos' of themselves and their claims and then
distributed these tapes through a network of supporters. It turned
out Jude had been passed one of these video tapes by ''someone he
trusted.'' And as he'd seen that tape for himself, Jude
didn't feel the need to question anything he had gleaned from it.
When I again assured Jude of what Klasper had told me directly
on the phone, Jude told me I didn't know what I was talking about and
I should give 'Dr. Klasper' a try. I assured him with the two
hundred dollar price tag for each consultation, I couldn't afford him
even if I wanted to. Jude felt that surely 'Dr. Klasper' would bring
down his price if I told him of my circumstances. I noted that I
had and Klasper was very firm on his price. Jude told me it
couldn't possibly be true.
Our time was up and neither he nor I saw any reason for a subsequent
visit. As our last appointment, it had been very acrimonious and the
first time that we had exchanged any cross words to each other. I
thought it was a shame, but he felt he didn't need to check the facts
himself, I just needed to get different answers.
With this disappointment already in my mind, I soon after received a
letter from my agent lambasting me for how disappointing my most
recent script had been. She stated I needed to learn ''the basic
tenets of good writing'' before I sent her any more scripts. She
then concluded her letter by noting that, if
I really wanted to, I could of course always submit the
script myself. When I called to assure her that I had
specifically designed the script to make it as comfortable for the
show readers as I could and was sure it would sell, she told me that
clearly that wasn't the case as why would they want to buy
something so poor? When I asked her what
she had meant by ''the basic tenets of good writing'' she scoffed as
she thought this meant I didn't know of the 'Man versus Man', 'Man
versus Society', 'Man versus Nature' and 'Man versus Himself''
underpinnings of narrative story structure. When I noted that my
story fit 'Man versus Society' she assured me it didn't as my story
focused on an 'Android' and not a 'Man'. When I told her that
the 'Android' in question was one of the major characters of the show
and they routinely featured stories centered around him, she assured
me I didn't know what I was talking about and it didn't matter as she
wasn't going
to represent me as my agent with that
script. She then echoed in a sarcastic tone what she
had written at the end of her letter, that
I could always send it in on my own if I wanted to, but
she assured me they wouldn't look at it. The call was done.
It didn't occur to me until afterwards that given her strict
interpretation of what qualified as 'Man versus...' for a valid
story, then all stories about women and children would be deemed
invalid by her logic as well.
Not only had my relationship with Jude ended, it seemed like my
relationship with my agent was over as well.
The next time I saw Samuel and discussed these two occurrences he
told me that Jude had gone even further than just having a bad last
appointment with me, he had now joined the old chorus of medical
doctors disparaging me on the grapevine and claiming I never had any
'real' medical problems... Samuel quipped that it might be
nearing the time when Jude would have to renew his medical license
and wanted to ensure a conflict-free process with his peers.
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