Chapters 11-15 Summary

The author bemoans losing the appreciation of reading over the decades in Chapter 11. He writes to a poet friend who turns the author's prose into poetry. The poet friend sends it back, and although the author appreciates the effort, he still thinks his writing is bad and not fit for publication. In Chapter 12 the author imagines a meeting of the elements from the periodic table. Sodium predicts that acne and jock itch will become fatal. In Chapter 13 the author tells of Trout's location next door to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in a building that once housed the Museum of the American Indian. Now set up as a homeless shelter, Trout has a cot against the wall shared by the Museum and Academy. He had been taken to the shelter during a sweep of New York City public libraries...