poetry and proles

"It's been a whole day of atonement."

"You've seen enough of the whatchamacallems? I learned some new words at the poker game from you."

"Which words?"

"Proles," he said, "Lumps. Lumpenproletariat. You gave us a little talk about Karl Marx."

"My lord, I did carry on, didn't I. Completely unbuttoned. What got into me?"

"You wanted to mix with riffraff and the criminal element. You went slumming, Charlie, and you had a great time playing cards with us dumbheads and social rejects."

"I see. I was insulting."

~~ from Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow