"A FILM ADRIFT IN THE COSMOS" "It's your office." "Ring mother after, to check about the clinic" " I told you, I've done it" " She's misunderstood you, then" "When Roland drives your father home from the clinic it would be nice if they both died in an accident" "A FILM FOUND ON A DUMP" " Did he get his brakes repaired?" " No, I managed to make him forget" "Seven people were killed at Evreux junction last Sunday" "That would be lovely" "But what will you do?" "I'm not driving back with them;" "I'll say I have a cough" "What are you thinking?" "Is Roland getting suspicious?" "He gives me funny looks at times" "No, I let him screw me sometimes, so he thinks I love him" "Don't phone here again, it's dangerous" "The row was someone hitting a bloke who'd broken their headlamp" "I thought he was dead, for a moment" "Yes, it would have been nice if it was her" "No, the money first" "Listen, I always say that because I love you" "I've got to go careful, after the sleeping pills and the gas" "She's stupid, but she'll catch on sooner or later" "The main thing is for her dad to pop off" "When Corinne's got the money we'll settle her" "Sure I love you" "You're my splendid bitch, you know that" "Till Monday, then" "When was it, then?" "Tuesday..." "Tuesday after the swimming-pool" " You said it was two days ago" " I was wrong" "I know it was Tuesday because I took the last pill on Wednesday" "Anyway, I wasn't scared about it" "Why should you be?" "It wasn't the first time" "Well, it wasn't like a women's magazine romance" "I don't know... his eyes were so hard... his mouth, his words..." "He started in the Mercedes" "I told him I went for him, I wanted more than just a quick screw" "We ought to meet again somewhere;" "cuddling in cars is dreary" "I said to take me home and I'd call him in the afternoon" "I wanted to fuck, but I'd rather wait" "What did he say?" "He talked about my body and how I turned him on and how it was vulgar and unkind" " Did you think of me, too?" " Of course I did" "But he did drive you home" "But we stopped in rue Molitor and kissed for a long time in the parking place" "He had one hand between my legs, the other grasping my neck" "He stayed like that, without moving" "And you?" "I didn't move, either." "I was cold" "He guessed I wanted another drink, so we drove to St. Lazare" "All the cafés were shut" "He lives in rue Pasquier, near St. Lazare" "I was tired and very cold" "I realize now I wasn't drunk at all" "I wanted him to fuck me then - anywhere, even in the lift" "But I didn't say anything" "His shoulder touched one of my breasts when he shut the lift door" " Why?" " It just did" "Monique came and opened the door" "I was surprised;" "I thought she'd gone to Spain with that designer, you know" "I don't know" "We saw them once in that cinema queue" "I didn't know she was his wife" "They've only been married two months" "Well, what then?" "Well, she opened the door" "Paul took off his coat and asked if there was a hot drink" "Monique said there was only whisky and some vile red wine" "She started laughing" "Suddenly Paul began to look annoyed" "I burst into laughter, too" "He looked at us, then said he'd go and change his clothes" "I went with Monique to her room." "Not bad." "There was a fire" "I took off my raincoat" "Monique looked at me" "She asked why I seemed to be shivering and if I was cold I could undress, no need to feel embarrassed" "Then she helped me" "To do what?" "Take off my skirt and pullover" "I was in my bra and panties" "I went to the fire." "I had my back to her, but I was sure she watched me" "I asked why she said nothing." "She didn't reply, so I turned around" "She was by the window, her back to me" "She sensed my gaze." "She took off her dressing gown." "She was naked" "She asked if I thought her bottom was too big;" "I said no" "She turned around, parted her legs and asked me to describe them" "I said she had white thighs and her bush was a black smudge above them" "She called Paul" "She came up behind me" "Why?" "To unhook my bra" "Then Paul came in" "Wearing pyjamas, the coat open." "He had a bottle of whisky" "He made me drink" "Then he told Monique to go on" " What was she doing?" " Fondling my breasts" "And then?" "Paul stripped off, too, and flaunted his penis for me" "He told Monique to take off my panties" "He made me kneel and put my head between Monique's legs" "Now my back was turned to Paul" "I remember that she parted my buttocks and he gazed at them all the time then came closer and fingered them" "The rest of the bottle was poured over my back" "I felt the liquid run between my buttocks" "Paul knelt and began to lick my arse" "It wasn't unpleasant;" "it was quite wonderful" "I felt Monique's bush against my neck her hair mingling with my hair" "While her husband caressed my buttocks she put my hands on her buttocks and she fondled my breasts again" "I felt her buttocks open to receive my fingers, then close upon them" "And you?" "They wanted me to talk about it, so that my sensations excited them" "Only Gitanes?" "No American cigarettes?" "In my jacket" "None left" " Take a Gitane" " I can't bear them" "Is that all?" "After a while, Paul asked Monique to change places with me" "She kissed my bush while I helped Paul fuck her from behind" "And that was all?" "Then we watched each other masturbate" "Then Paul cried:" ""To the kitchen, pussies!"" " What for?" " I'm telling you" "On the fridge there was a dish of milk for the cat" "Monique said: "What will you bet me to sit in the dish?"" ""I bet you wouldn't dare", said Paul" "She climbed on the sink, to be level with the fridge, and sat in the dish" "Never taking her eyes off us, she ordered us to masturbate" "Paul told me to stop just as I was coming and to climb up on the sink, too and kneel in front of Monique" "Then he took an egg from the fridge" "I licked Monique's pussy, in the milk, and he put the egg between my buttocks" "When I came the egg broke and ran down my legs" " Is this true, or a nightmare?" " I don't know" "I adore you, Corinne." "Come and work me up" "SATURDAY 10 A.M." "Hurry up, or the motorway will be jammed" "What make is this banger?" "I know what it is, it's a clapped-out Facel" "As clapped-out as your wife" "A clapped-out Facel!" "A SCENE OF PARISIAN LIFE" "Mama, they've damaged the Dauphine" " Particulars must be exchanged" " I'll kick your particulars!" "Fancy some money?" "Shut up, then" "Hey, 8805!" " See what you've done to my car?" " Your car's all right" "The bumper's dented" "Bumpers are made to be bumped" "Just because your father-in-law owns the block..." "Just because you've got a dress from Chez Dolores..." "Give me the paint thing from the boot" "Little bitch from No. 16!" "Bastard!" "Shit-heap!" "Communist!" "Go on, then, telephone to Oinville" "If you drove faster, we wouldn't be late" "I'll drive the way I please" "We must collect father from the clinic; mother mustn't arrange it" "They're a real drag" "I know, but if papa dictates a new will into his Japanese tape-recorder..." "It wouldn't be valid" "Maybe not, but don't risk losing your winter holiday in Mexico" "You might end up in clink" "Of course not." "Don't worry, it'll work out" "Then why have we been poisoning his grub every Saturday for five years?" "Ring and say the motorway's blocked and we'll be late" "See what happened to that Triumph?" "If only it were papa and mama" "You bourgeois turd!" "You oik of a peasant!" "THE CLASS STRUGGLE" "You killed the man I love!" "Why didn't you stay in your stable?" "Why drive so fast?" "This isn't St. Tropez" "You can't bear us having money while you haven't, can you?" "You can't bear us screwing on the Riviera, screwing at ski-resorts!" "Can't bear us chucking cash around all year while you can't!" "And in spring we go to Greece, where grotty peasants like you are clapped into jail along with their twitty tractors" "No call to insult my tractor, Mademoiselle" "I bet you don't even own it" "It belongs to a yukky union or a crummy co-operative" "Your foreign car!" "Stolen, I bet!" "The heir to the Robert factories gave it to me because I screwed with him" "You impotent lot are incapable of screwing!" "The government screws you and your twat of a tractor!" "Without me and my tractor the French would starve" "I don't care!" "Paul is dead!" " He had the right of way" " Don't you be so sure" "He had the right" "He was handsome, young, rich" "He had the right over fat ones, poor ones, old ones..." "You shouldn't say that" "You wretched great shit-heap, you!" "You wretched little tart!" "Your cut-price tractor!" "It cost plenty for someone who toils with his hands" "And my Triumph?" "A write-off." "You don't give a damn, do you?" "And now he's dead" "You think you can shrug it off, do you?" "Well, I say you won't!" "Witnesses!" "We had right of way, hadn't we?" "Sorry, but we haven't time" "You can't just go like that." "We're all brothers, as Marx said" "Jews!" "Dirty Jews!" "PHONY GRAPH" "Your short-cuts always waste time and that means money" "Don't get at me" "When did civilization begin?" "You're worried about it?" "No, it's the landscape" "Anyway, I don't understand" "Didn't you hear what he said?" ""We're all brothers, as Marx said"" "It wasn't Marx." "Another communist said it." "Jesus said it" "Anyway, I agree with you" "I don't care, even if it's true." "These aren't the Middle Ages" "What's the time?" "If I humped your wife and hurt her, would you call that a scratch?" "Run them down" "Will it rain?" "Certainly it will" "No, the sun's coming" "I say it'll rain" "Can you give me a lift?" " To Mantes la Jolie?" " It's the other way" "Then turn round" "THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL" "Help!" "Silence!" "Even God has His police" "If you've nothing to fear, prove it" "Prove it!" "Will you shut up?" "Prove it how?" "Well, we're married, we screw legally;" "I bet that's not true of you two" "That's it in a nutshell!" "Tell me your name, Madame" "Me?" "I'm Corinne Durand" "Durand's your husband's name." "What's yours?" "My maiden name?" "Corinne Dupont" "Dupont is your father's name." "What's yours?" "You see, you don't even know who you are" "Christianity is the refusal of self- knowledge; it's the death of language" "Are you going to keep your traps shut?" " And what is your name?" " Joseph Balsamo" "Never heard of him" "I'm not surprised, the way you look:" "A Reader's Digest look" "You remind me of those who wouldn't move André Breton when he was dead" "Anyway, I'll explain" "Joseph Balsamo is the son of God and Alexandre Dumas" "God's an old queer, as everyone knows" "He fucked Dumas and I'm the result." "Thus:" "I am God" "Yes, I'm God, because I'm lazy" "That's not true, my love" "Will you shut up?" "You, too, Marie-Madeleine" "She's nice, but she's not too bright" "Look, shut up." "Pack it in, will you?" "She's nice; she understands laziness" "She understands about God, too." "She obeys me" "What exactly are you up to?" "I am here to inform these Modern Times of the Grammatical Era's end and the beginning of Flamboyance, especially in cinema" "I've had enough." "I'm stopping" "I'll make you a proposition." "Take me to London and I'll grant your wishes" "Oh sure, you nit" "Really, just look and see what's under the dashboard" "Oh shit, a miracle!" "A rabbit" "Anything you wish, if you'll take me to London" "A big Mercedes sports car?" "An Yves St. Laurent evening dress?" "A Miami Beach hotel?" "Make me a blonde - a natural blonde" "A squadron of Mirage IVs, like the yids used to thrash the wogs" "A weekend with James Bond" "I'll go for that, too" "Is that all you want?" "You creeps, I'll give you nothing" "Quick, a miracle, you swindler" "What, for arseholes like you?" "That'll do!" "Get out!" "Out, you whore!" "I'll make you run!" "Silence!" "Vade retro." "Go home" "You see, the sun's come out" "My Hermès handbag!" "FROM FRENCH REVOLUTION TO GAULLIST WEEKENDS" "Freedom is violence" "Like crime" "It seems to be the virtue of vice..." "Is the knife under the pillow?" "...desperately fighting against slavery" "No, in the shed" "Freedom will kill herself in the long struggle" "Can the inconsistency of humanity be conceived?" "And the axe?" "Can one believe that man ordered society in order to be happy and reasonable?" "Weary of wisdom, more like nature's wisdom..." "In the shed, too ...he wishes to be unhappy and witless" "I see nought but constitutions steeped in gold, pride and blood and nowhere do I see the sweet humanity and equable moderation which ought to be the foundation of the social treaty" "SUNDAY" "I cry into the void" "STORY FOR MONDAY" "The social treaty" "SUNDAY" "I cry into the void" "STORY FOR MONDAY" "I cry into the void." "I call you in the midst of night" "Get a move on" "Hallo, can you hear me?" "Are you having good weather?" "Even here, in the rain, I breathe your air again" "Here in the phone booth I'm cooped for all to see" "I imagine you in a bar Looking out across the sea" "Hallo, can you hear me?" "How's Laurent, Jean-Luc and Joelle?" "Do they still fish off the islands At the spot we know so well?" "There go the pips again." "They tot up every word" "I'm doing all the talking." "Tell me what news you've heard" "Tell me with whom you're dancing." "What lies behind your words?" "Hallo, can you hear me?" "Reply." "Are your lips too slack?" "Can't you speak any louder?" "Will you be there if I call back?" "I must be ringing off now." "People are waiting outside" "Although I have been babbling I've hardly said a word" "Hallo, can you hear me?" "They're getting impatient outside" "In this world of dog eats dog Who cares for a love that's died?" "Is it a Porsche gearbox?" "Can you take us to the nearest garage?" "There's only room for your wife, not you, too" " I can sit at the back" " No, you'll clobber my hood" "You'll break it" "Clear off, or I'll smash your face" "But you said I could go with you" "If you like, but not him" "Hold him while I start up" "Do you know if there's a garage nearby?" "Is Oinville that way?" "These twits are dead" "Here's someone" "Do you come from these parts?" " Are you deaf?" " Are you blind?" "Robbed in Los Angeles, where one trades in dreams I concealed the theft, committed by an immigrant such as I a reader of my poems as I feared the deed might be observed by... animals, let us say" " Thank you, Miss Brontë" " Not at all, love" "Excuse me, but..." "Which way is Oinville?" "Poetical information or physical information?" "We only want to know which way to Oinville" "Physics does not yet exist, only individual physical sciences, perhaps" "What a rotten film, all we meet are crazy people" "It's your own fault." "Take it or leave it" "Perhaps fate knows everything and only appears to mishandle things" "Hesitatingly, it gives seven years of happiness, then takes back two" " Thank you, Emily" " Not at all, love" "Mademoiselle, please!" " What is this?" " A pebble" "THE LEWIS CARROLL WAY" "Poor pebble" "Ignored by architecture, sculpture, mosaic and jewellery" "It dates from the beginning of the planet, perhaps even from another star" "Warped by space, like the stigmata of its terrible fall" "It pre-dates man." "And man has not embodied it in his art or industry" "He did not manufacture it and thus decide its place" "The pebble perpetuates nothing more than its own memory" "Obviously, minerals are neither independent nor sensitive" "That's why it takes much to stir them" "The heat of a blowtorch, for instance, or an electric arc earthquakes, volcanoes or aeons of time" "Which way is Oinville?" "And I ask you what this is" "Grass" "No." "Poa nemoralis" "Where's Oinville?" "And what is that?" "Chestnut" "No." "Castanea sativa" "The start of a new day, in the grey dawn vultures will take wing to far shores flying soundlessly in the name of order" " Thank you, Mademoiselle" " Not at all, love" "We've been in an accident, people are expecting us" "And I beg you to help me solve this problem" "One." "A kitten which likes fish is a good pupil" "Two." "No tailless kitten is ready to play with a gorilla" "Three." "Kittens with whiskers always love fish" "Four." "No kitten fond of study has green eyes" "Five." "No kitten with whiskers has a tail" " What is the answer?" " No idea" "And this one" "One." "No shark doubts that it is well-armed" "Two." "A fish that cannot dance the minuet is worthy of contempt" "Three." "Without three rows of teeth a fish is not undoubtedly well-armed" "Four." "All fish except sharks are kind to children" "Five." "No corpulent fish can dance the minuet" "Six." "A fish with three rows of teeth is unworthy of contempt" " What's the answer?" " No idea" "Mademoiselle Emily, cease punishing petty crime and big crime will die" "Ponder that black night, in this vale of tears and horror but exterminate the big thieves today for it is from them that the chill and the night come from them stems this world of horror" "Be he black or white, I demand the death of the crocodile, common killer" "This isn't a novel, it's a film." "A film is life" "Cover the flowers in flame, stroke their hair, teach them to read..." "It's rotten of us, isn't it?" "We've no right to burn even a philosopher" "Can't you see they're only imaginary characters?" " Why is she crying, then?" " No idea." "Let's go" "We're little more than that ourselves" "I said to myself:" "What's the good of talking to them?" "If they buy knowledge, it's only to resell it" "They want cheap knowledge to sell at a profit" "They want nothing which would stand in the way of their victory" "They don't want to be oppressed, they want to oppress" "They don't want progress, they want to be first" "They'll submit to anyone who promises them they can make the laws" "I wondered what I could say of them." "I decided it was that" "A TUESDAY IN THE 100 YEARS WAR" "We know nothing" "We're totally ignorant of ourselves" "We're as totally ignorant of what this worm is" "We're both enigmas" "Anyone who denies it is the most ignorant of all" "Anyone who denies it is the most ignorant of all" "Look, trousers from Chez Eddy" " How many days has it been now?" " Today's Thursday" "Your old man must have died by now;" "Monday at the latest" "Your mother will be furious with us" "It's too bad, not fair" "I bet the old bitch will have altered his will." "She won't share now" "A little torture will change her mind" "I remember a few tricks from when I was a lieutenant in Algeria" "Isn't that a lorry coming?" "Quick, off with those trousers and lie down in the middle of the road" "Raise your knees!" "Open them wide, you fool!" "Are you going Oinville way?" "We must help with his concert;" "his helper's run off with a bird" "There's music you listen to and music you don't" "Mozart you listen to" "Just imagine the royalties the poor man would get nowadays" "Music you don't listen to is what's called modern "serious" music" "No one goes to the concerts." "Real modern music, paradoxically is based on Mozart's harmonies, you hear bits of Mozart in Dario Moreno, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or whatever" "Fundamentally Mozart's harmonies" "Modern "serious" music looked for others resulting in what is probably the biggest disaster in the history of art" "I'll continue the sonata, as all this bores you" "No, it's best to start again" "Extraordinary grace, isn't it?" "Just think, when the poor man died he was dumped into a pauper's grave, like a dog" "How sad, when you think of such melodic tenderness" "Do remember that all Vienna attended his funeral, happily" "A snowstorm drove them off, though." "They were a pack of dogs." "Unfeeling" "Where had I got to, my dear?" "You ought to know" "Don't think I play well, I'm no good" "If you could have heard Schnabel." "He was my master." "He's dead now" "He was a pianist, I'm just crap." "You must excuse me playing like a pig" "If only you'd heard him, his extraordinary tone" "He rarely tackled Mozart, because he used to say:" "Mozart's too easy for beginners and children, too difficult for virtuosi" "It's this bloody cigar that's making me play wrong notes" "A WEEK OF 4 THURSDAYS" "Straight ahead" "Your turn" "A FRIDAY FAR FROM" "What's this lot doing?" "They're the Italian actors in the co-production" "A FRIDAY FAR FROM ROBINSON AND MANTES LA JOLIE" "Are you coming?" "I've had enough" "Are you in a film or in reality?" " In a film" " In a film?" "You lie too much" "We'll find the way in the end" "I've had enough, I'm going to sleep or I'll die" "Die, then" "Got a light?" " There's a bird there" " What of it?" "Is she your bird?" "Help!" "Are you going Oinville way?" "Would you rather be screwed by Mao or Johnson?" "Johnson, of course" "Drive on, Jean." "He's a Fascist" "To Oinville?" " Who struck first:" "Israel or Egypt?" " The bloody Egyptians" "Pathetic ignoramus" "Your turn" "Your turn" " To Oinville?" " Yes, jump on" "Just one mouthful" "A little bit more" "That piece exactly corresponded with the fraction of the U.S.A. Budget given to the Congo" "Roland, help me" "Monsieur, I'm hungry" "Kiss me" "Pack it up!" "I'm applying the law that the big oil companies apply to Algeria" "What law?" "The law of a kiss and a kick up the arse" "WORLD 3" "My black brother will utter my thoughts" "The optimism reigning today in Africa  is not inspired by the forces of nature at last benefiting Africans" "Nor because the old oppressor is behaving less inhumanely  and more benevolently" "The optimism is the direct result of revolutionary action  political and/or military by the African masses" "Recently, a large section of humanity  was shaken to the core by the outbreak of an ideology  Nazism, which brought a resurgence of torture and genocide  from the distant past" "The countries most immediately threatened by Nazism  formed an alliance and pledged to liberate occupied territory  and to break the back of Nazism  to destroy the evil at its very source  and liquidate all such régimes" "Africans must remember that they also suffered a form of Nazism  exploitation, physical and spiritual liquidation  deliberately executed" "They must attack its French, English, South African manifestations  and be just as ready to confront it throughout all of Africa" "We Africans declare that for over a century  the lives of two hundred million Africans have been held cheap  denied, perpetually haunted by death" "We must not trust in the goodwill of the imperialists" "We must arm ourselves with resolution and militancy" "Material development of material resources will not liberate Africa" "It is the African's hand and brain which will set in motion  the dialectic of the continent's liberation" "Given those conditions, we may allow ourselves to be optimistic" "My Arab brother will speak for me" "Now our hour of liberation is at hand, you scrape the barrel  hoping to find non-violent, pacific men  men hardened by suffering - yet willing to pardon the outrage" "That is not what I seek" "I say a black's freedom is as valuable as a white's freedom" "I say that to gain his freedom, a black has the right  to do everything that other men have done to win their freedom" "I say that you and I won't win our freedom  by non-violence, patience and love" "We won't win it until we make everyone realize  that it is our right to follow the example  of all who sacrificed their life and took the life of others  and that to win our freedom we are ready to follow their example" "We blacks are at war with America and its friends" "But we can't actually fight them  because we haven't enough arms or the knowledge to use them" "Furthermore, we are less in number" "We have chosen guerrilla warfare perforce" "It is a tactic which is advantageous and easy to conduct" "We work at strategic points:" "Factories, farms, homes of whites" "It is easy  for us to sabotage and destroy, often without firing a shot" "We can destroy telephone lines, railways, airfields  electric and electronic installations" "Western communities  depend on electronic systems;" "they're paralysed without them" "Town by town we will bring the West to its knees  ruin it economically" "We will also undertake bloody acts of sabotage" "It is not by accident that Viet Cong guerrilla warfare impresses us" "Our black brothers fighting in Vietnam for white America  are gaining priceless lessons in modern guerrilla techniques" "They'll be useful when they come back to our midst" "Not only as fearless soldiers, but as guerrilla teachers" "Of course, weapons are essential for bloody acts of sabotage" "But all blacks have at home a rifle or a revolver at least  and Molotov cocktails are easy to make" "Anyway, we have the means of acquiring weapons" "I'll say that, but I'll give no details" "THE WEST" "Civilization means belonging to class society  a reality of contradictions" "The development of productive forces is linked to the exploitation  of man by man" "Slavery, serfdom, wage-earning  these are the forms of servitude characterizing civilization's epochs" "Engels observed the steps leading to class society  and inter-class relations  as beginning with the Greeks  and ending in industrial capitalism" "When the three elements:" "Private property, monogamy and the state  combined in one society, it went from barbarism to civilization  and from a classless society to a class society" "To be precise:" "Morgan, whom Engels drew upon  said man progressed from advanced savagery to primitive barbarism  when clan developed into tribe" "Mankind advances from primitive barbarism  when individual tribes form a confederation of tribes" "It achieves the highest stage of barbarism  when it passes from tribal confederation to military democracy" "In its "heroic" age  on the threshold of civilization, of class society  mankind finds itself organized in a military democracy" "As with Greece of the heroes, Rome of the "kings"  was a military democracy which had developed from the gentes  phratries and tribes" "Even though the patrician nobility had gained some ground  even if the administrators were slowly gaining privileges  that did not change the fundamental constitutional character" "The Greeks passed from tribe, to confederation, to military democracy" "To understand this evolution one must understand its origin" "The gens" "Engels, after Morgan  assumed the American gens to be the original form  and the Greco-Roman form to be a derivation" "He assumed that the Iroquois gens and particularly the Seneca gens  to be the classic form of this primitive gens" "By the 19th century the Iroquois had evolved a tribal confederation" "Thus the Iroquois clarified the early history of the West" "However, according to Morgan and Engels it was not the Iroquois  who represented the most advanced organization of American Indians" "The great pre-Columbian civilizations  Inca, Maya, Aztec  had ended their independent history  had paralleled the Greeks at the end of their heroic age  and were about to change into class societies" "It's Oinville!" "Now for a bath!" "It wasn't our fault we weren't here when your father died" " What exactly did she say?" " She won't split fifty-fifty now" "All that for nothing" " What's this book?" " It was loaned to me" ""The hippopotamus lived on land, but he went to the Lord of Animals..." ""...and asked to be allowed to live in water"" "She's not getting away with it" ""The Lord refused and the hippopotamus asked why" ""'Because you are a monstrous creature', the Lord replied"" "I'll sort her out" ""'You'll eat all the fish"" ""'I swear I won't eat one fish', the hippopotamus replied" ""'Who'd believe that of such a monster?" "' replied the Lord"" "It just won't do, Roland" ""The hippopotamus thought it over, then said:" ""'I'll offer a deal." "Let me live in the water." "Whenever I shit..." ""'..." "I'll fan it out with my tail to show there are no fish bones'" ""The Lord considered the deal fair enough..." ""...and the hippopotamus was allowed to spend his days in the water"" "...LIFE..." ""The hippopotamus is quite different by day" ""Night cloaks its ugliness, its bulging eyes, enormous mouth..." ""...misshapen body, tiny legs and ridiculous tail" ""Maybe it's the acme of beauty to a hippopotamus"" "SCENE OF PROVINCIAL LIFE" ""...reveals how abject is his acceptance of collective life"" "Roland, we must do something" "A rabbit from Monsieur Flaubert" " Sixty-forty" " Out of the question" " Seventy-thirty" " Out of the question" " Eighty-twenty" " Out of the question" "Be reasonable!" "Ninety-ten" "Impossible!" "We'd only get four million" " What shall we do?" " There's the Doctor Petiot method" "The neighbours would see the smoke" "The Doctor Tar and Professor Feather method." "Put her in the car boot" "We'll find an accident on the way back and set fire to the lot" " The perfect crime" " Happy ever after" "With the millions" " I love you" " I love you, too" "I've doused it in petrol" "Wait for me, you bastard!" "Is this the road to Versailles?" "Yves, the car!" "Claude, the food!" "The poppet and you two, over there!" "Lie down, grandpa!" "Hurry up, Yves!" "Grandpa, lie down!" "Pretty little spot" "We've got money, I tell you" "Listen, will you?" "Are you crazy?" "I've got fifty million in the bank, I tell you" "Come with us and we'll give you half" "Found it, then?" "What are you doing there, Gérald?" " Who's that?" " A friend" "We fought in Ethiopia together" " What have we?" " Two middle-aged, one girl" "That's for Ernest" "You can fuck her before eating her, if you like" "SEINE ET OISE LIBERATION FRONT" "Battleship Potemkin calling The Searchers" "This is The Searchers." "I hear you, Battleship Potemkin" "It was under the Trocadero Bridge in 1964" "It was terribly cold, you remember" "The famous winter of 1964" "Alphonsine's hands were so cold  she'd grabbed my prick to warm them and she was wanking me" "It was so cold, everything was frozen" "Alphonsine said:" ""What a huge prick you've got"" ""You fool, I'm shitting", I said" "The sweater" "The skirt" "The bra" "The panties" "It's ready" "Lie down" "The fish" "AUGUST LIGHT" "They're going" "Go in thirty seconds" " Why disembowel him?" " It's best that way" "It's horrible" "The horror of the bourgeoisie can only be overcome by more horror" "All right, Mademoiselle Gide?" "A touch of black would be nice, too" "A little orange" "Johnny Guitar calling Gösta Berling" "This is Gösta Berling." "I hear you, Johnny Guitar." "Over" "OCTOBER LANGUAGE" "I intend  to declaim in an unemotional voice  the following solemn, cold lines" "Listen carefully to them  prepared for the painful effect they must have  on your troubled imaginations" "Do not believe that I am at the point of death  for age is not yet branded on my brow  spurn any comparison with the dying swan  when its spirit flees  and see me only as a monster whose face you happily cannot see  though it is less horrible than its soul" "However, I am not a criminal." "Enough said" "Ancient ocean!" "At first sight of you a deep sigh of sadness  like your sweet zephyrs  ruffles the troubled soul, leaving indelible traces" "Your admirers remember, sometimes unwittingly  man's rude awakening to the pain which has never since left him" "Greetings, ancient ocean!" "I suppose man believes in his beauty only because he is vain  and he suspects that he isn't really beautiful" "Otherwise, why should he be so contemptuous of a face like his own?" "Greetings, ancient ocean!" "Ocean, often I have asked myself which is the easier to divine:" "The depth of the ocean or the depth of the human heart" "I may say that despite the depth of the ocean  it cannot be compared in this respect with the depth  of the human heart" "Psychology has much to learn." "Greetings, ancient ocean!" "From your dark, mysterious depths you pulse your waves  with all the coolness of your eternal power" "Your moral grandeur, a reflection of infinity  is as immense as philosophy's reflections, like love of women  like the divine beauty of a bird" "Tell me, ancient ocean, will you be my brother?" "Ignorant of your secret destiny, everything about you interests me" "Are you the abode of the Prince of Darkness?" "Tell me, ocean; you must tell me  for I shall rejoice to know that hell is so close to men" "So once more I wish to greet you, and bid my farewell" "Ancient ocean, I lack the power to continue, I feel the moment has come  to return to the brutal land of men" "Let us make a supreme effort  and, conscious of our duty, fulfil our destiny on this earth" "Greetings, ancient ocean" "All right?" " Let me stay with you" " Too late" "Don't wait for me." "Good-bye, Valérie" "How happy I'd be if you knew" "You, who I'm leaving tonight" "That though it seems everything's through" "To others it seems it's all right" "A smile, though the heart may be torn" "Pretend that it's not past mending" "Write the last word, so forlorn" "Just a novel with an unhappy ending" "MISMATCH" "When your foot slips on a frog, you have a feeling of disgust" "But when you as much as lightly graze a human body your fingers fragment like scales of mica beneath hammer-blows" "And just as a shark's heart beats for an hour after death so our guts throb long after making love" "I don't understand" "Because of man's immense horror of his fellows" "Perhaps I may be wrong in this, but perhaps I am right" "There must be a malady more terrible than the swelling of eyes after contemplating man's strange nature but I still seek it" "Well, Ernest?" "Not bad" "A mixture of pig and the leftovers of the English tourists" "Those from the Rolls?" "There must be a bit of your husband, too" "I'll have a bit more later, Ernest"