Free The Anarchist by David Mamet Page B

to lose wars.
    ANN : As in Algeria.
    CATHY : Well, yes. (Pause) Much tragedy . . .
    ANN : As Guillaume’s, for example.
    CATHY : “Speaking of Algeria.”
    ANN : That’s right.
    CATHY : But the meaninglessness—let me be more precise—it was facing the meaninglessness which led me to faith.
    ANN : It led you to faith.
    CATHY : Because, do you see, they’re the same two choices.
    ANN : The same two as?
    CATHY : The bureaucrat and her make-work files. To rebel. Or to submit. And each is unacceptable.
    ANN : Is there a third choice?
    CATHY : Thank you. And that is the essence of the book.
    ANN : That the third choice is Faith.
    CATHY : What else could it be? And to believe . . . in the possibility of another choice, is to long for God. And to discover it is Faith.
    ANN : Faith without certainty.
    CATHY : If there were certainty, why would it be Faith?
    (Pause.)
    ANN : Guillaume had Faith.
    CATHY : Faith. Did he?
    ANN (Takes a book from her desk and reads) : “The growth . . .”
    CATHY : He had certainty.
    ANN (Continues reading) : “The growth of consciousness, causing that pain which may only be . . .” Although a better rendering would be “the growth of conscience ” don’t you think?
    CATHY : It’s the same word, in French.
    ANN : But “conscience” here would be, the better rendering.
    CATHY : You may be right. Yes. I think you’re right.
    ANN : But that was not the translation on the poster.
    CATHY : On the poster, no. Not on the poster.
    ANN : Quote: “The growth of consciousness, causing that pain, which may only be expunged through violence.”
    CATHY : That’s what the poster said.
    ANN : “ Consciousness .”
    CATHY : Yes.
    ANN : Why?
    CATHY : Your point is that a translation as “conscience,” that “‘conscience’ must lead to violence,” would have been recognized as absurd.
    ANN : That’s right.
    CATHY : As absurd and monstrous.
    ANN : Monstrous, yes.
    CATHY : In any case as shocking. Or, say, certainly more brutal . The original was shocking.
    ANN : And yet.
    CATHY : Go on.
    ANN : Many were seduced by it.
    CATHY : Many were.
    ANN : And, I would assume. That it was more seductive in French, which, as you say, is the language of Philosophy.
    CATHY : Yes.
    ANN : And which additionally carried the romance of being Foreign.
    CATHY : Well: to the young, the foreign idea is seductive.
    ANN : Why is that?
    CATHY : As to the young, everything is foreign. Which is why they are the revolutionaries.
    ANN : Because?
    CATHY : It’s easy. One may easily “make things anew” according to one’s insights if one possesses no experience. The French word was “seduire” to seduce.
    ANN : “To seduce.”
    CATHY : “Seduire.” And why would I forget it? It’s the same word. Funny.
    ANN : That was the verb.
    CATHY : That’s right.
    ANN : And you two spoke it.
    CATHY : French.
    ANN : Yes.
    CATHY : Guillaume and I.
    ANN : In Algeria.
    CATHY : That’s right. I wrote of it, in . . .
    ANN : No, I’ve marked it. (She reads) “‘Ecoute,’ he would say, which was, to me, a magic incantation.” You say he affected not to understand English.
    CATHY : That’s right.
    ANN : But he did understand.
    CATHY : He spoke it perfectly.
    ANN : But?
    CATHY : He thought it the language of Colonialism.
    ANN : More than French.
    CATHY : That’s right.
    ANN : But he was fighting the Colonialism of the French.
    CATHY : Well, retrospectively, of course, it’s all irrational. And yet they discount Religion. As based on Faith.
    (Pause.)
    ANN : You wrote in French . . .
    CATHY : Then .
    ANN : Yes.
    CATHY : Did I . . .?
    ANN : The Speech.
    CATHY : . . . in Algeria . . .
    ANN : And it was quoted.
    CATHY : All right.
    ANN : And published.
    CATHY : Published .
    ANN : You knew that.
    CATHY : I’m not sure I knew it.
    ANN : That the speech was published?
    CATHY : After