In the chap­ter titled “Kareem Abdul-Jab­bar and Beethoven Shams,” the set­ting begins with a sur­re­al dream landscape—a vacant park­ing lot ele­vat­ed among flower-filled trees and expan­sive yel­low grass. This space lacks con­text, diverg­ing from typ­i­cal dreams that start with char­ac­ter intro­duc­tions. Ini­tial­ly, the park­ing lot is devoid of inhab­i­tants, but soon two fig­ures emerge: Kareem Abdul-Jab­bar, known for his tow­er­ing height and dis­tinc­tive bas­ket­ball attire, and Beethoven, Cyrus’s imag­i­nary younger broth­er, char­ac­ter­ized by curly hair and casu­al wear.

Their con­ver­sa­tion begins with Kareem inquir­ing about what Beethoven loves. Beethoven men­tions bas­ket­ball, a col­lec­tion of inter­ests includ­ing Borges, pecans, and the show “Twin Peaks,” prompt­ing laugh­ter between the two. The jovial exchange includes ban­ter about their per­son­al­i­ties, with Kareem play­ful­ly sug­gest­ing Beethoven’s affin­i­ty for DJing or Bit­coin, and Beethoven claim­ing he might excel at improv.

As they walk through the dream­like set­ting, Kareem shares an anec­dote about a dev­as­tat­ing fire that destroyed his exten­sive jazz record col­lec­tion. Beethoven express­es that the mem­o­ries attached to those records are far more sig­nif­i­cant than their phys­i­cal forms. A poignant moment aris­es when Kareem reflects on the loss of art that pro­vid­ed mean­ing and pur­pose in life, touch­ing upon the emo­tion­al weight of los­ing cher­ished items.

Their dia­logue deep­ens as Beethoven chal­lenges the notion of kind­ness from strangers who sent Kareem records—drawing a par­al­lel to per­son­al motives. Amidst this con­ver­sa­tion, Beethoven’s pres­ence becomes ethe­re­al, with his skin pal­ing, and he appears old­er and less human, blend­ing into the envi­ron­ment. The imagery sug­gests a trans­for­ma­tion or real­iza­tion of his nonex­is­tence.

As they both acknowl­edge the philo­soph­i­cal impli­ca­tions of their expe­ri­ences, with an ele­ment of poet­ic reflec­tion on scarci­ty and rich­ness, the chap­ter con­cludes with a light-heart­ed twist reflect­ing their dynam­ic. Beethoven attempts anoth­er joke, high­light­ing the some­times triv­ial yet mean­ing­ful moments shared in life, which cul­mi­nates in laugh­ter that fills the air, encap­su­lat­ing the blend of humor and grav­i­ty present through­out their dis­course.

Wait­ing ai