but the office gestalt was hawkish

generally inimical to bell-bottomed, lefty film-studies majors

[...] The script, which I'd written, had a large number of bit parts and one very generous role that I'd created with my own memorization abilities in mind. The action took place on a boat, involved a taciturn villain named Mr. Scuba, and lacked the most rudimentary comedy, point, or moral. Not even I, who got to do most of the talking, enjoyed being in it. [...]

My memory of that shriveling and rolling was sui generis, distrinct from my other memories.