At the beginning people talk and someone tests the tape recorder. McCaffery silences the crowd and says Gass has a cold, so they will need to be quiet. He introduces Gass and says he will be reading from his work in progress The Tunnel. The introduction is cut short as the tape is turned off and back on, and Gass starts to speak. He introduces the narrator and says he will read one of the chapters called “Mad Meg.” He says that the narrator is “digging a tunnel through language.” However, as he reads, it becomes clear that the first passage he is reading is from what was published as the first chapter of the book, “Life in a Chair.” From the end of a section in that chapter, he reads passages from several chapters called “Mad Meg” in the published version.
