Frank Zappa 
1982 Revised short version
ISBN –
157 pp, plastic VeloBind binding, 28 x 21,5 cm
English
I got this book from a person, who got it directly from F.Zappa itself back in the beginning of 80s.
What's Dwell?
"They're doing the Interview of the Century"
Society Pages #2
Eric Buxton: What's 'Dwell'?
Frank Zappa: What is 'Dwell'? Well, 'Dwell' is a screenplay. It's extracted from the 'Them Or Us' book. What I've done is I've put together a hundred and two page screenplay that I've brought up to date. In fact, I worked on it about five days ago, and made some changes in it. I sent a copy of it to my new screenplay agent at ICM (International Creative Management) to see whether he'll send it around, and then, a couple of days later, Beverly D'Angelo was over here, and we sat around, and she read through the whole script. We had a bunch of laughs. She had never seen it before.
This early version of Dwell is very similar to the 1984 published Them or Us (The Book). It's a dot-matrix printing as is Them or Us. Most characters are the same. But it is not a simple cut-and-paste shortened version (Dwell has157, Them or Us 351 pages). Even the same episodes are rewritten.
The end of the story here and there:
| Dwell | Them or Us |
| M. C. U. UNCLE WILLIE on his bed, as he turns and answers: UNCLE WILLIE: "I does not know, YOUR MAJESTY!" It is obviously UNCLE WILLIE, but we see him now with a head like a potato, lips like a duck, wearing an ANGLICAN HABIT and white gloves, on abnormally enlarged hands. THE DUMMY is similarly transformed. He crams his cigar in THE DUMMY'S mouth. It takes a big puff and exhales it toward the camera, where it forms the words "DWELL". FREEZE on the smoke-word. Fade to black. Roll credits. the end | M. C. U. UNCLE WILLIE on his bed, as he turns and answers: UNCLE WILLIE: "I does not know, YO' MAJNESTY!" It is obviously UNCLE WILLIE, but we see him now with a head like a potato and lips like a duck. He crams his cigar in THE DUMMY'S mouth. He winks at us disturbingly, takes a big puff and exhales it toward the camera, where it forms the words "CHRISTMAS IN NEW JERSEY". Freeze on the smoke words. Fade to black. THE END
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If you have anything to add or you have questions, please send me an email – afka (at) afka.net
Beside Dwell there should be some unpublished Zappa's screenplays more Ritz Newspaper interview, January 1983:
P.S. ZAPPA's film treatments – DWELL, LARRY'S PONY and VALLEY GIRL BEACH PARTY plus a treatment for a Broadway show called ZAPPA were EXTRAORDINARY. And out of respect for FRANK, I'm unable to divulge the SENSATIONAL plots – in case he gets ripped off!
C.Ulrich 2006.05.29
Like Them Or Us (The Book), this version of Dwell seems to be made up of several separate stories, some of which may have previously existed independently.
Larry's Pony sounds like a possible title for the storyline about Billy Sweeny, Cecil, and Larry Fanoga (a.k.a. Captain Beefheart Vs. The Grunt People).
Valley Girl Beach Party must be Allan's movie with the giant squid and songs by Manx, and/or the story of Allan making that movie.
Both of the above are included in the Dwell screenplay, as is Hunchentoot.
The parallel mention of the three film treatments in the article you cited makes me wonder if there was an independent version of Dwell, without Larry's Pony and Valley Girl Beach Party. Presumably that might have gone into more detail about bringing people back to life.
The article refers to film treatments, so perhaps FZ never wrote a full screenplay for Dwell proper. (Or maybe he wrote one, but didn't show it to the fashion reporter.)
