"Three things are important in History." "First of all, numbers... secondly, numbers... and thirdly, numbers." "This means, for example... the blacks in South Africa... are bound to win some day... while Nonh American blacks will probably never make it." "Histoy is not a moral science." "Legality, compassion, justice... such notions are foreign to histoy." "Interview with Dominique Starnaud, by Diane Léonard... for, Writers Today." "You're Chairperson of the Histoy Depanment... and you've just published Changing Concepts of Happiness." "Can you tell us about it?" "It's my premise that the concept of personal happiness... permeates the literature of a nation or civilization... as its influence wanes." "What do you mean by "personal happiness"?" "The expectation of receiving... instant gratification in daily life... and that this gratification constitutes... the normative parameter of existence." "Can you give us a concrete example?" "Take marriage, for instance." "In stable societies, marriage is a mode of economic exchange... or a unit of production." "Meaning?" "The success of a marriage doesn't depend on the personal happiness of the 2 individuals." "The issue never even comes up." "A developing society places greater imponance... on the collective good, orfuture happiness... than on personal satisfaction." "In Rome, for example... the idea of conjugal love first prevails in the 3rd centuy, under Diocletian... as the Empire is collapsing." "And in Europe, Rousseau's idea ofhappiness... ushered in the French Revolution." "So I pose the question:" "is the frantic drive for personal happiness... we see in society today... linked to the decline of the American empire... as we are now experiencing it?" "How's that?" "I need another 5 minutes." "Milan Kundera didn't show." "Just stretch it out." "How?" "Social disintegration, decay of the elites, you know." "Strange that she barely mentions women in her book." "It wasn't her subject." "Still..." "To ignore it..." "Who'd want to equate feminine powerwith social decay?" "But women's rise to power has always been linked to decline." "It's symptomatic." "You can tell herthat later." "Thanks!" "Speaking of feminine power... you should see the Vietnamese girl in my class!" "With Orientals, I have this feeling... they're giving my money to their sick brother." "I can't imagine them ontologically perverse." "I Telephone ringing ]" "Sebastian broke the window in the back door." "I've covered it, but should I call in a repairman?" "I I'll do it Monday. ]" "And my car's dead." "It must be the staner." "Sylvaine had a fit 'cause I couldn't drive herto ballet." "I Uhhuh. ]" "Dominique and Diane aren't here yet." "So don't wory if we're a little late." "No problem, we'll wait." "Danielle wants to speak to Pierre." "I love you." "Really?" "You?" "I Me?" "]" "You still love me?" "Yes, of course." "You're scared to say it because of Rémy, eh?" "I See you later. ]" "Can we help?" "After I've prepared the trout." "The shallots please." "My back's really huning." "You should take a swim." "The water's so cold, and I swim badly." "Making love is the only exercise I really enjoy." "Turn over." "Oh, to be slim, young and attractive... I'm forever on a diet." "I weigh myself evey morning." "I'm terrified of getting flabby." "My problem is... I was born in the wrong era." "I was made to be fat." "My grandmother, never did anything more strenuous... than play the organ in church." "She was an enormous woman who loved to eat... and drank vermouth with her sugar donuts." "In those days, men liked theirwomen big." "There's no vesiga, I suppose." "Use the tapioca." "There's a Polish store that sometimes has vesiga." "But it's way out in Brossard!" "I took Leni Eisenbach to a Chinese restaurant in Brossard." "In Brossard?" "is there a good Chinese restaurant in Brossard?" "What?" "Hand me the parsley." "I was still married then." "I don't get it." "Visual idiots!" "Perhaps you should draw him a picture." "So, tell me." "A month before, I'd invited a student to Delmo's for seafood." "Naturally, intending to screw her madly afterwards." "Never changes." "Afriend of my wife's spotted us." "She had just separated." "Her husband was cheating on her of course." "She hated men." "Familiartune." "At 4 am. when I say the faculty meeting ended late... my wife asks me if the oysters were fresh." "Horror ofhorrors!" "This explains why married men frequent the suburbs." "I discovered amyl nitrite in Brossard." "What's that?" "Drug for hean patients... dilates the blood vessels instantly." "You had a hean attack, in Brossard?" "I'd picked up 2 girls hitching to New York." "Couldn't pass them by." "Not at night!" "So I paid fortheir motel." "Ah, Christian charity!" "It had its rewards!" "They offered to sleep with me." "Two kind souls." "Lovely bodies too." "One of them placed a tiny pill on the night table." "is that the chicken stock?" "Yeah, and get the velouté." "She told me to take the pill 15 seconds before coming." "Amyl nitrite just before orgasm..." "Absolute ecstasy..." "St. John of the Cross." "But it ages your hean years." "I'm such a jerk... I was so excited, I forgot to take it." "I brought it home... and took it the next night, with my wife." "Told her it was a test for the school of pharmacology!" "There's a diver in the pool." "He must be from the club." "You're shivering!" "The water's freezing." "Go take a sauna." "What're those?" "What?" "Those marks." "Nothing... from my judo class." "Judo?" "So I told my daughter." "She's insanely jealous." "I'm having a weird affairwith this guy." "Unbelievable." "Someone I met in a bar." "What does he do?" "I prefer not to know." "For openers, he said it was time I met a man like him... a real man." "He's never made love to me normally... always from behind... like a man." "Before him, I couldn't stand that." "The first few times he pulled on my hair... like a mane." "Then... he staned spanking me... on my ass and thighs." "Next it was his leather belt." "Then he began... tying me to the radiator... ln more and more degrading positions." "I had never come like that." "But I have to stop." "It's getting dangerous." "You're afraid ofhim?" "No, it's me I'm afraid of." "I'm the one who always wants to go funher." "I'm the one in control." "I've neverfelt so powerful." "The power of the victim is incredible." "He's totally dependent on me." "It's got nothing to do with wife beating." "It's a game that has fixed rules but no limits." "We could even kill each other." "The strangest pan is, I don't love him." "He knows... how to get right into me." "You lie through yourteeth, that's what saves you." "What else can one do?" "Lying is the basis of all love affairs... of our vey social existence." "Refusing to lie would be much the same as telling an eminent colleague from Laval University... who's devoted years to the histoy of Catholicism in Canada... that he can take..." "Bishop Bourget's sermons... roll them vey tightly... and slowly shove them up his ass." "Not Bishop Bourget's sermons!" "Instead... you shake his hand warmly and say..." ""Vey impressive!"" ""Outstanding research!"" "Think so?" ""Brilliant fact checking!"" "Really, gentlemen, you're embarrassing me!" "Same with women." ""Your hairdo makes you years younger."" ""l thought about you all day."" ""Wanted to call."" ""We can still be friends."" "I couldn't endure a separation." "The screaming, threats of suicide... finding an apanment, fighting overthe furniture." "I knew a couple who even divided up their spice jars." "It's easierto stay together." "Couples renovate their houses... crosscounty ski to Povoknituk..." "Or scourthe sex shops for chains and whatever." "They swap wives in suburbia." "Anything to escape the years ofboredom." "Love, the kind that makes your hean race... makes you send flowers... lasts 2 years at best." "Then the compromises begin." "Life's a compromise." "We've been married years... and still have wonderful times." "You don't have kids." "It's not the same." "I want to be with mine evey day... not evey otherweekend." "You're flushed." "Oh...?" "My sauce won't thicken." "I divorced for purely physical reasons." "I was scared to death of the phone." "When you have affairs... the poorthings are bound to fall in love." "It was awful... knowing one day, one of them would call me at home." "Evey time the phone rang... my hean skipped a beat." "It's been years now." "With Danielle, it's different." "Still, when the phone rings at night..." "I Telephone ring ] I panic, totally." "Who is it?" "Awoman." "Oh, hi mom." "The young lady who answered...?" "She's a student." "A girl called you last night." "She spoke English." "Oh yeah?" "I didn't understand much." "Guess not." "She said her name was Barbara." "Must be the girl from the conference in San Diego." "She sends..." ""a warm kiss"." "Oh?" "She's a lovely girl." "Terrific organizer." "Barbara Michalski!" "She'd done her Ph.D. at San Diego... on the impact of working women in Chicano families." "She was brilliant." "That's what seduction's about... not big breasts or long legs." "It's in the mind." "We were together only days." "We went camping in the Baja." "I knew nothing about psychology." "So at night, before we made love... she'd tell me about R.D. Laing, antipsychiaty... so many things." "I could've listened to herfor nights on end." "I Knock!" "Knock!" "]" "Hi, Rémy." "Sory I'm early." "Am I disturbing you?" "Not at all." "What are you up to?" "Some filing." "What's in that file?" "Nothing." "It's on Shiite factions in Lebanon." "Are you sure?" "Why Lulu... I'm as clear as spring water." "Yeah, transparent even." "Wholesome as fresh bread." "What became ofher?" "I don't know." "We used to phone each other." "Then she disappeared." "Probably married some dumb Mexican." "Whenever I'm in the libray... I look for her name in the psychology journals." "I'll probably never see her again." "I think about her a lot." "How tragic!" "What're you thinking?" "I was thinking how happy we are." "I'm not completely naive." "I'm sure Rémy has flings now and then, on his trips." "But at home he's good." "The one time he wasn't, I was with him." "So I don't wory." "Meaning?" "I don't know ifl should tell." "We'd heard about a doctor... an old school buddy of Rémy's... who organized rather unusual panies." "He had invited us... and we decided to go." "What was it like?" "There were a dozen couples... professional people mostly." "A psychiatrist too." "People from about 30 to 50." "What happened?" "It was a bit strange." "First, they waited for eveyone to arrive." "Then we went to the basement." "It was spacious... with thick carpets, lots of pillows... soft lighting..." "They showed a porno video." "People began to dance." "It wasn't really dancing... more like venical foreplay." "Then suddenly eveyone was making love... all overthe house, in the rooms upstairs." "You too?" "Yeah." "But just once." "I wasn't what you'd call... the life of the pany." "Rémy was more active." "I saw him with 2 women." "Who did you fuck?" "I don't even know." "You don't talk much." "The man making love to me was taking his time..." "That's good." "Yeah, it's just that his wife... must've hit on a premature ejaculator." "Because she arrives..." "Charles..." "What?" "Aren't you being a little slow?" "Thérése, please!" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Are you serious?" "I swear!" "Are you enjoying him?" "Thérése!" "Uhhuh." "Coming dear." "Alright, see you later." "So he staned in for real." "I did my best to help him." "You shouted, "More, more, more!"" "Let's say I kept it to... heavy panting." "Anyway, finally it worked." "He had his little orgasm and went off to find his wife." "Did you come?" "Well, no." "He didn't know me." "I'm not like you, Diane... I was doing it mainly for Rémy." "What do you mean, not like me?" "Well, it was... for married couples." "Married?" "That's right." "These people... are absolutely faithful, do everything together." "For me it was a way... of showing our love." "Have you evertried it?" "Wife swapping panies, orgies, that son of thing?" "I never mix my marriage with my sex life." "I may cheat on Louise, but I know she's the one for me." "Yes?" "Diane's not around?" "Not yet." "Which is her place?" "The one in back." "Right next to mine." "The door's probably locked." "I'll go see." "Not bad!" "Yourtype, eh?" "It's asking fortrouble." "I was in love with someone like him." "It lasted 6 months." "He was killed." "Motorcycle accident." "That's when I began cruising." "I'd be cruising evey night ifl could." "I thought you were." "Not anymore." "I can't teach the next day." "The only time I feel alive is when I'm cruising." "It's incredible, I become... crazed... electrified... I know the feeling." "But for me it's dangerous." "Afriend was stabbed in the shower." "I can't help it." "Some nights ljust have to fuck someone..." "Anyone." "It doesn't matter." "Like an alley cat on the prowl..." "The urge is overwhelming." "I'm always being robbed." "Guys take off with records, wine, my watch." "I'm not physically brave... but when it hits... I can set out at 4 am." "on an expedition... through the saunas of Los Angeles... orthe heaviest bars in St. Pauli in Hamburg." "That's why I live alone." "I never know how the day will end." "Even if nothing happens... the possibility still exists." "Knowing I have to be home at 6, 'cause the old lady has supperwaiting... would kill me." "The old lady orthe old man." "Same thing." "I like knowing supper is ready... and stopping off on the way home." "When I'm in love, I become monogamous." "It lasts a while... then the beast rears its head." "I turn into a public menace!" "I swear, they should lock me up." "I once visited a brothel... on the way to my mistress." "Ty explaining that to a woman." "Oh damn." "What?" "We're out of eggs." "I've got some... the plastic kind from the village." "I couldn't buy any in the city." "They'll do." "It was locked?" "She shouldn't be long." "I'm not like you guys." "I don't need to fuck a new girl evey day." "I didn't either at your age." "But you can't correct our students' papers forever." "You still have to do your Ph.D." "You'll want to buy an apanment... maybe a county house." "It keeps your mind occupied." "Perhaps you dream of writing an imponant book." "I know I'll never be a Toynbee or a Braudel." "All I have left is... sex... or love." "What's the difference?" "I don't know what's left for me." "That's why age leads to vice." "I don't have all that ambition." "Ijust want to be happy." "I need some water." "Would you like mineral water?" "Doesn't yourtap work?" "Are you on medication?" "A home remedy." "It's real strong." "I take multivitamins." "Must be good foryou." "I'm gonna split." "What about Diane?" "I'll be back." "Wittgenstein wrote that... our only cenainty is the ability to act with the body." "lfl'm in love, I get hard." "lfl don't get hard, I'm not in love." "Otherwise, you're deceiving yourself." "Like a woman who says she still loves you... when she's as dy as sandpaper... and you remember how she'd be dripping... if you so much as kissed her on the neck." "Roger had me sleep with his best friend." "In fact, for 6 months we all slept together." "I can recommend it 2 mouths, 4 hands... lt's not as easy as all that." "I tried it in Maninique with 2 young blacks." "As soon as they opened their mouths it was over." ""Madam not know Maatinique... if no sleep with Maatiniquers."" "They show me a gold bracelet..." ""A gift from her HonourJudge Thibodeau."" "They're so macho!" "I'm paying... but they tell me what to do." "White woman on her knees before the black boy's cock." "Not your style, eh?" "Not exactly." "I prefer African blacks." "Like Mustafa?" "No thanks!" "Men who drool over me... I don't know, Africans are somehow... warmer." "Of course they're polygamous..." "You get used to it." "What do you mean?" "Well... lt's not 4:30!" "It's 4:30?" "Shit!" "I told Louise I'd meet her at 4." "I wanted to buy the kids Christmas presents." "My shin!" "The den." "My sweater?" "On the sofa." "Your ring!" "It was great." "See you tomorrow." "I always come back to Italians." "They're impossible, but..." "Ah, my first visits to Italy... I was continually being robbed." "The guys would take my passpon... my traveller's cheques, my watch..." "But there was lots of amore." "Such simple souls, they shout 'Mamma' when they come." "The first time a man shouted 'Mamma'... I thought his mother had come in." "I wanted to hide underthe bed." "You're sure you don't have aids?" "It's 2 to 5 years incubation." "Like to test my saliva?" "You're not scared?" "It's pan of the pleasure." "Anyway, disease is pan of sex." "Ever heard women talk about their insides?" "The fibromas, vaginitus, salpingitis..." "Chlamydia... spirochaetes..." "Herpes... soft chancres!" "To think... you actually dip your cocks in that!" "Our cocks... ourtongues..." "Staphylococcus aureus!" "Come on, that's in the throat." "My poor boy... it can spread ever so easily from herthroat to your pecker." "Then its hello urethritis with staphylococcus aureus!" "And the hospital on an empty stomach once a week for months!" "Explain that to yourwife!" "You can't make love, leave forwork at 7... once a week." "Without breakfast." "You can't drink because of the antibiotics." "Not to mention the stains... you ty to wash out of the sheets... while yourwife's in the shower." "It's not as bad as aids." "Otherwise homosexuality would be paradise on eanh." "They're already better dressed, more cultivated..." "They're gayertoo." "Such a sense ofhumour." "They're better cooks, just look at his dough." "Yes, but I'm going to Hell." "Save me a seat." "They have friends all over." "When a man tells me, "l stayed with friends in Amsterdam..."" "I know he's gay" "My friends are married and have children... their apanments are crammed." "And my old girlfriends are with men who don't want me around." "They're even better looking." "That's the worst." "Here are your 2 classic hetero's... overweight, noses too long, our complexions are..." "Ravaged!" "So the question is... are we hetero because we're not goodlooking... orwould our looks improve if we were gay?" "Serious matter." "Atruly superb teenage boy looking in the mirror must think..." ""This is too good for a woman!"" "Exactly!" "Yes, but... the moustache." "Kissing a moustache..." "You have to get to them before they have one." "He's a worse perven than me!" "I'm not talking about myself." "Really, I'm no pederast, but... aesthetically speaking... nothing compares to the ass of a 12yearold boy..." "Not the Sistine Chapel orthe B Minor Mass." "At 12, a boy's ass is sublime." "By that age, girls have gone flabby." "Matter of taste." "A guy in a bar once said to me, "Honey, a hole is a hole."" "Should've called me in." "He may be right." "Plus the joy ofliving with someone who doesn't menstruate." "Louise turns into a monster4 or 5 days a month." "I nearly strangled her one Sunday, last winter." "There had been a huge snow storm." "I wanted to take my carto buy the papers, but I got stuck." "Of course, I'm blocking her car... so she can't go to hertennis lesson." "She made an ugly scene..." ""You should have let me out first." "You never could drive in the snow!"" "I should move out a week before her period." "The Sunday Times is sacred, of course, snowstorm or not." "Naturally he gets stuck, which means I can't go to tennis." "My last chance to see François for a month!" "I was furious!" "François was the tennis pro?" "Yeah, he was going to some tournament." "I was climbing the walls!" "The fact I couldn't say why, made it even worse!" "How long had the affair lasted?" "It wasn't an affair." "Nothing had happened." "But that Sunday I felt something might." "That's what made me mad... I hadn't done anything wrong." "I wasn't sure when he'd be back." "Finally I got my nerve up." "I called." "I know you're not supposed to, but..." "His daughter answered." "He lives with his 14yearold." "I heard him ask who it was." "She said, "Probably one of your mistresses."" "I hung up." "Neverwent back." "Well, I did once." "I didn't go in." "I saw him with a woman." "Ayoung woman." "At least you still had Rémy." "When you live alone, you get used to it." "Your sex drive vanishes." "You stop thinking about it." "Then an old lover comes along... or someone else by accident." "Can't you sleep?" "What is it?" "I want to sleep in my own bed." "It's snowing." "I like sleeping alone." "Me too, but not all the time." "Now you're awake... you want it again." "But he's had his fun, so he's gone." "Leaving you with asymptomatic gonorrhea." "Nice, eh." "All that, just to have some creature to warm your bed." "I'd stoop to almost anything... for a warm body Sunday morning." "Though you don't even need a man." "I cuddle with my daughter..." "We smooch." "How old is she?" "Twelve." "Aren't you worried...?" "I mean, psychologically..." "No." "In therapy, after my depression... I was afraid I was a lesbian." "Why afraid?" "I don't know..." "Have you ever slept with a woman?" "Yeah, a few times." "You too?" "Uhhuh." "God!" "I'm always so scared ofbeing abnormal." "Isn't that a lot?" "We'll send some to Mustafa... in Ouagadougou." "They love coulibiac in the Sahel." "With sour cream and Roben Mondavi." "You're disgusting." "Not at all!" "No one's more devoted to the Negro." "I personally took Mustafa down to the strip last Thursday." "When did he leave?" "The next day." "That was the problem." "In 2 months he hadn't laid a single Canadian." "He was feeling so dejected." "Don't you mean erected?" "Our coeds must be losing interest in the Third World." "Anyway, I took him to St. Lawrence Street" "We spotted this gorgeous blonde, tallerthan me... done up in red silk." "Mustafa was licking his chops." "I negotiated for him." "Wouldn't want him to squander UNESCO funds." "Evening, Miss." "A pleasure to meet you." "I'd like to introduce a friend." "A great guy, but shy." "He's a brilliant historian." "A specialist on Mossy culture." "Think ofit... as your contribution to African relief... like singing in We Are the World." "Get the picture?" "Okay with me... but your Negro's in for a surprise." "Oh boy!" "That's not quite what we had in mind." "I thought I'd bettertell you." "Vey thoughtful!" "Vey!" "We'll be off." "Goodnight... and good luck." "You too." "Come on." "Why?" "I'll explain later." "She's racist!" "Get offit!" "She's not racist, she's sexist." "We walked overto St. Louis Square... and found two lovely little brunettes." "I even took one for myself." "I'd been feeling tired... and that's when I like a brunette." "Tall, lazy blonds take too much work." "In sex, practice makes perfect." "My best lovers have always been those who fucked the most." "Are brunettes always best?" "It depends." "Forwinteryou want someone big and warm." "For summer someone tender." "French girls for sparkle." "Fresh California orange juice!" "And the aromas!" "The Jewesses' and Arabs' fragrance of camphor." "The Vietnamese with their scent of orange blossoms..." "Gets me excited." "But do they have to be pros?" "It takes longer when they're not." "You have to go cruising." "It's tonure... hanging out in bars, paying for dinner, dancing in discos..." "You don't like dancing?" "I have always... absolutely abhorred dancing." "The suffering I've endured on the dance floor... just to please women!" "The worst pan is the conversation." ""Oh, I adore Woody Allen's films too!"" ""Did you read Shogun ?"" ""Yeah, I love Bayshnikov."" ""Now it's Patrick Dupont."" ""Acid rain, terrible!"" ""Nuclear reactors, dreadful!"" ""Youth unemployment, awful!"" ""What's your view on serial monogamy, Sylvie...?" "Nathalie?" "Julie?" "Sophie...?"" "You really have to want to get laid!" "That's not all." "Then you have to make her come." "No piece of cake." "You have to find her clitoris." "My God!" "A delicate undenaking!" "Like looking for a needle in a haystack." "You rack your brains to recall Masters and Johnson..." "Shere Hite, the Gspot debate..." "Germaine Greer, Nancy Friday..." "Should you use your fingers, tongue, or prick?" "You sneak a look at her..." "You think to yourself..." ""She looks like..."" ""l hope she..."" ""l wonder if..."" "It's hell, absolute hell!" "I've never had those problems." "Oh no?" "Come into my study." "The Borneo heteropteyx..." "For 100 years, entomologists... searched forthe male of this one... and the female of this one." "A major issue in biology." "Until one day they were found screwing." "The 2 of them." "He was the male to her." "It seems impossible." "She's a reptile... and he's an insect." "They have one thing in common." "What?" "Fucking." "Think about it." "Sory." "The beaches in Sicily were desened." "He was dying of the heat in his uniform." "Was he a policeman?" "A carabiniere ." "So I go in." "I take off my Tshin and shons..." "He stans fumbling with his fly... but he can't get it undone." "They're always anxious then." "He was really wellbuilt, shoulders broad as..." "Finally... he drops his briefs." "The moment of truth!" "His penis was... minuscule!" "Honestly, like a baby's!" "Poor man." "It was eitherthe wine... orthe absurdity ofbeing with a Sicilian cop... but I burst out laughing." "I mean, uncontrollably!" "I laughed until I wept!" "And him?" "Naturally..." "it was a disaster." "I didn't want to hun him." "He was rather sweet." "But it ended in a complete fiasco." "I even tried my "octopus with suckers" routine." ""Suckers"?" "Well, more or less." "Mustn't make fun of their penis." "They're so preoccupied with its size." ""ls his biggerthan mine?"" ""Don't I got a big one?"" "It's their major preoccupation." "It's true, they always ask." "How would you know?" "Well... it's happened." "I can understand... I mean, it's pretty imponant." "How can you say that?" "If you're in love, it's a detail." "Some detail!" "I'm going to take a swim." "You've upset her." "Poor girl." "It's too hot, that's all." "Worse still... is to talk about a former lover..." ""Benoît could really make me come!"" "The guy beside you melts away like butter." "You can't say that!" "Even more subtly..." "You pass a hotel and say..." ""Benoît and I stayed here."" "Sneak a look, and he's green with jealousy." "Orthey say, "Before me you didn't know what sex was."" "I can't stand that!" "That's the time to mention Benoît." ""lt's not the same, darling. I love you..." "With Benoît, it was... purely sexual."" "You can feel him turning to mush." "Orwhen he senses you're rating him... like for a restaurant guide." ""A bit dowdy." "Ponions somewhat stingy."" "Or like for... a tourist guide." ""Restored mill, but... the works are purely decorative."" ""Charming garden but... the fountain is dy."" ""lmpressive manor, but the tower is in ruins."" "lfhe's in his 40's... you reminisce how young men always wake up with hardons." "Oryou calmly begin to masturbate... after he's finished his little number." "That always gets them." "You're terrible!" "Oh, I've done worse." "I was with Roger for 10 years." "You can't imagine what I put up with." "I was constantly left alone with the kids." "He'd be out cheating on me." "It was hell." "I stayed at home, cheerful, loyal, warm." "Till the day I'd had enough." "And all of a sudden... something snapped." "Hello, Roger?" "I'm in Brossard." "Room 216, Continental Motel." "I'm with a friend, having so much fun... I think I'll spend the night." "I didn't want you to wory." "See you tomorrow, okay?" "Goodnight." "Kiss you." "Are you crazy?" "That'll teach him." "He'll come here!" "Don't wory." "Don't wory!" "He's this big!" "So?" "I'm not in shape!" "I'm no boxer like him!" "Scared?" "No, I'm thinking of you." "Anyway, I can't stay." "I have to get home." "He won't care." "He's violent!" "I know!" "He knocked out Yvan Rivard." "You slept with Yvan?" "Don't forget your ring." "I always fuck my wife better after I've cheated on her." "Guilt, that's all." "No, it's physical." "The comparison turns me on." "The more you screw around, the more you want to." "To be happy, I'd need 4 wives." "Four, exactly as the Koran says." "I'm vey happy with Louise... but I'd also take a writer, say Susan Sontag... an Olympic high jumper... and a real sex maniac for group encounters." "Looks sinfully good!" "We won't mention calories." "I put on a kilo last week." "Too bad Mustafa can't be here." "Seems he had otherfond memories." "Like what?" "Well, I mean he must have enjoyed his visit." "What's the sauce?" "A mousseline." "But I made it with sour cream." "It seemed more Russian." "I heard about a course in creative cooking." "You're not staning with your courses again!" "Why not?" "Why are women so obsessed with taking courses?" "It's pretty obvious." "The university's full of them... madly taking notes on the meaning of the Locarno Pact." "I teach those courses." "I still don't understand." "That's why..." "Histoy is criticized for dealing only with the victors." "Often this is due to the documents available." "There are more records about Egyptians than Nubians... more about Spaniards than Mayas... and of course, many more records about men than women." "This limitation to Histoy is vey real." "There is perhaps also a psychological reason." "We far prefer hearing about winners... than about losers." "I don't mean your courses..." "But what is it about studying German, the guitar..." "Tap dancing..." "Shiatsu..." "Primal therapy..." "Nothing personal." "Seems obvious." "Not to me." "Except for a pathological need to have teachers, gurus..." "That's not it!" "It's a way ofbreaking out." "You can't understand, you got your Ph.D. at 26." "When we were studying... I was evey bit as sman as the rest of you." "But I fell in love, like a woman is supposed to." "So while you were at Berkeley, and Pierre at Princeton... I rotted in the county 'cause Rogerwas on his nature trip." "You seemed happy enough." "I was happy." "I had kids, but instead of studying demography... I learned how to make jam." "Now I have to work as a TA... at one fifth your salay, and without job security." "I'm not covered by the best contract in Nonh America." "I can't take... a years sabbatical in Brazil." "I have to do radio interviews... to send my kids to private school." "I'll never have tenure." "I'm getting old." "I can't read and take notes for 5 hours straight." "My memoy's going too." "I had to referto the KelloggBriand Pact." "I couldn't remember Briand... only the name of the cereal..." "Kellogg's Corn Flakes." "That's not age, it's drugs!" "You're an old hippy." "I'll bet you remember Souvanna Phouma!" "And Souphanouvong!" "And?" "Phoumi Nosavan!" "What's that?" "Laotian politicians 2 halfbrothers and a cousin." "The scourge of contemporay histoy exams." "Worse than SchleswigHolstein." "You never really know how you should lead your life." "So your kids got in the way of your Ph.D.... but they're yours." "That' s something to treasure." "Who's that?" "Afriend of mommy's." "What's he doing there?" "Sleeping." "I want him to go!" "I'm going." "I always wanted a child." "Children are life... an affirmation oflife." "I was going to adopt a Cambodian child." "A social worker had to evaluate me, so..." "Betterto have kids who love you... than to end up like Pierre... alone, bitter, without any family." "But I do have a family." "Here, sitting around this table." "I feel closerto this family..." "than to my brother the insurance broker... or my parents... who could neverfigure me out... and complain 'cause I don't go to mass." "You're my family." "I Someone knocks at the door ]" "Who can that be?" "Are we expecting anyone?" "Diane, it's foryou." "He was here earlier." "I never see anyone outside the depanment." "I'm like you." "Take off your glasses." "Mario, you haven't met Dominique..." "Louise..." "Hello Mario." "...and Danielle." "I'll get you a chair." "Would you like some coulibiac?" "Some what?" "It's a salmon pie, but I used trout instead of salmon." "It's good, it's a Russian recipe." "I don't like fish." "Would you like some Stilton cheese?" "I'm not hungy." "But you didn't eat." "Have some wine at least." "Got any beer?" "Do you live around here?" "Talking to me?" "Are you from the area?" "You may be wrong about my getting old alone." "I probably won't make it." "There's lung cancer... hean attacks..." "Women live to old age, not men." "Isn't that levelling out?" "Just the opposite." "Women's life expectancy is 78." "For men it's 70." "The gap keeps widening." "That's the crucial change in our lives." "Less than 200 years ago... women lived to about 36." "Not a long life." "The records are full of widows and widowers... orphans and stepchildren." "That's all vanished in less than a centuy." "What's with this beer?" "It's imponed Pilsner." "You like this?" "Occasionally." "Think about it, marriages... lasted an average of 15 years." "We've been married 15 years." "Five generations back it would all be over." "One of you would be dead." "You should write a paper on that." "17,000 scholarly anicles are published evey day." "One more or less... I've had enough of this." "We're still eating." "This is a drag." "We're talking." "lntellectuals love to talk." "All you do is talk." "All afternoon they went on about sex." "I expected an orgy." "Instead, the big thrill is a fish pie." "What are you suggesting?" "When I'm horny, I fuck." "What d'you say?" "Mario, please." "Well, how 'bout it?" "I'll be outside." "It was delicious, but I'm not hungy." "Excuse me." "I didn't think she was that far gone." "People should speak about..." "what they know, that's it." "The Pope knows all about... masturbation and prostate ailments." "He can talk about that." "Banking too." "And the ClA." "Don't underestimate the Pope." "Marx was your average middleclass German... who fucked the maid behind his wife's back." "His theories are rooted in his sense of guilt." "Same for Freud." "A latent homosexual... unable to lay his wife after age 40... hot and bothered over his female patients." "His quarrels with Jung... were really about women... about sex." "I get a kick out of eminent... sociologists and psychologists... who spew fonh theories of sexuality... when I've seen them... being flogged with wet towels in a massage parlour." "You go to places like that?" "Sure." "Often?" "Yeah." "How do you feel about it?" "How I feel?" "Well, I mean... ifl everfound out Rémy had been to one... I'd neverforgive him." "Why not?" "He's got me." "lfhe wants a massage, I'll be happy to give him one." "I don't go to those places." "That's no surprise." "What do you mean?" "Want me to describe a female fantasy?" "The female fantasy?" "The woman is at home... in the nest she has so lovingly decorated... her husband or lover arrives." "He's brought flowers and a bottle of champagne." "He is extremely nice." "They spend a pleasant evening... and make love." "End of fantasy." "What a bore!" "Whenever he talks about love... he makes it seem ridiculous." "But Pierre... don't you realize the lives those poorwomen lead?" "How they're forced to work there?" "You might as well be a rapist." "It's just as bad." "Those poor girls..." "they need help." "How do you know?" "I've seen stories on them." "Thursday afternoon I can't." "I'll miss "Demographic Methodology"." "What about after?" "I was hoping to take "Statistics and the Computer"." "Be reasonable, Thursday's our busiest day." "Manon can't get a sitter and Carole's husband is home." "What'll I do?" "lfl miss that course I'll never be able to keep up." "We'll see." "It's been a while." "It's end of term." "I'm up to my neck in corrections." "You need a good massage." "With shower?" "Yeah." "This afternoon I have Miss Kim, Miss Sandra... and Miss Susan." "A new girl." "She only works pan time." "Vey well liked." "I recommend her." "Alright, I'll take yourword." "One regularwith shower." "Coming ." "It won't be long." "This way." "See you later." "You work pan time?" "Yeah, I'm a student." "What are you in?" "Histoy." "At the university?" "Yeah, my first semester." "People go on about how we live in a violent society." "It comes up on TV all the time." "From a historical perspective, that's just not true." "It's a relatively peaceful age." "Yourtowel?" "Your glasses?" "What?" "Reponers get all worked up because of 10% unemployment." "When we think about London back in 1850 having a population of millions" "600,000 people were literally starving to death." "That's what I like about histoy, it's so reassuring." "Papers finished?" "I still have one in Mediaeval Histoy." "What's your subject?" "Millenniarism." "I'm fascinated by all the talk about the year 2000." "Do you want the special?" "Yeah." "The price is... 25$ for manual, 40$ for oral." "I don't go funher." "Let's make it by hand." "Should I pay now?" "No, after." "That's why the year 1000 interests me." "In Europe, it was a major event." "People believed that on Januay 1 of the year 1000, the world would end." "Gabriel's trumpet... the Four Horsemen, the Last Judgement, the whole bit." "God, I forgot to take off my robe." "I'm not vey sexy." "You're just fine." "The churches were packed." "People sold their houses and gave their money to the poor." "Others whipped themselves during public processions." "Some even... kissed lepers and licked their sores." "What interests me..." "Excuse me... I'm about to come." "Oh, sory." "I talk too much." "Thank you, Miss." "My pleasure, Sir." "That's when it happened." "I fell head over heels in love." "Ejaculating while discussing the millennium... was intellectually and physically overwhelming." "Signs of the empire's decline are everywhere." "Society despises its own institutions... the binh rate keeps dropping... men refuse to serve in the army... the national debt is out of control... the work week is getting shoner... the bureaucracies are rampant..." "the elites are in decay..." "With the collapse of the MarxistLeninist dream... and model exists... of which we can say..." ""This is how we want to live."" "In our personal lives... unless one is a mystic or a saint... there are no models to live by." "Our vey existence is being eroded." "And you believe this process is inevitable?" "Yes, absolutely." "Though there will always be charlatans claiming... salvation lies in communications... microchips, the return to religion, physical fitness... or some other idiocy." "A civilization's decline is as inevitable as old age." "We can ty to slow down the process." "That's all." "We're fonunate here to be on the outskins of the empire." "The shocks are less violent." "Life in these times... can be vey pleasant in some respects." "Anyway... our mindset precludes any otherform of experience." "Few of us would be able... to live among the Puritans ofNew England in the 1650's." "Thank you, Dominique StArnaud." "That was cheerful." "Well, I don't agree." "I'm sure there are expens who can prove just the opposite... that we're living in an age ofincredible rebinh... that science has never progressed so fast... that life has never been better." "It's impossible to understand the age you live in." "All you can do is ty to be happy." "That's what people have always wanted." "The rest invent theories to justify their misey." "You said so yourself." "Just because you choose... to live all alone... and sacrifice your life to a career... doesn't mean that ifl'm lucid... I have to be depressed." "You haven't said a word about the book." "I bet they agree with me but are scared to say so." "I think they feel superior." "Superior?" "Why?" "Because you've both slept with me." "What does that have to do with it?" "I think that for men like you... love always entails a struggle for power." "Rémy's often said he'd like to seduce a big intellectual... I don't know, say..." "Susan Sontag." "Right." "It's the urge to appropriate her." "To dominate her, almost physically." "Come on... it can also be the desire to share, to be with..." "Perhaps... but I can't trust the disdain of men who've made me come... who've "had" me." "Well, who knows... I may be wrong." "I've always wondered..." "Would we see the missiles in a nuclearwar?" "No, they'd be too high." "But when they stan to fall?" "The missiles don't fall, just the bombs." "And they're small." "Would we see the explosions in the US?" "If Plattsburgh were hit..." "we'd probably see the fireball." "Do you have any valium?" "I don't think so, but we'll get you something." "I was taking too much valium, I had to stop." "There's librium." "Anything else?" "I've got Mogadons and Sorpax." "I'll take 2." "It's hit you hard, eh?" "I'd like to have a baby with you." "To remind me..." "For later." "You have to like yourself to procreate." "I don't." "I'm not optimistic enough." "You'd be a good father." "lntellectuals rarely make good parents." "Think of Diane's kids, or Rémy's." "Disasters." "And I'm too selfish." "Having to listen to heavy metal... when I'm reading..." "You are going to grow old alone." "Having kids won't change that." "They'd put me in a home... and resent having to visit me at Christmas." "I love you." "I love you too." "Want to make love?" "I'm too tired." "You'll have to ask some kid, like Alain." "He can't hope for better." "I want to make love to you, you old fool." "You never understand." "I know you're just after my body." "You can hardly get it up!" "I love you, tubby." "Me too, you're real lucky." "Don't I know." "Scotch?" "No, I don't like it." "Too bad." "Why did you do it?" "What?" "Tell Louise about you and Rémy." "It just slipped out." "I wanted to get back at her." "Why?" "I don't know." "It just came over me." "It's not like you." "You're always so calm... so cheerful." "I've never seen you lose your patience." "It's one thing I can't stomach." "What?" "Blindness." "People who are unable to see reality." "Talk to me." "Tomorrow." "What went on with Dominique?" "Nothing." "That's not what she said." "Can we talk about it tomorrow?" "Ijust took Sorpax." "Talk to me." "Don't cy." "It's not wonh cying over." "Ijust can't take these middleclass housewives... with their cute husbands and cute kids." "I've watched so many men getting dressed at 2 am." "Still, Rémy's special... he's screwed all Montréal." "He says he's like the Red Cross, a universal donor." "Two years he slept with Diane." "Oh yeah?" "With Diane?" "Yup." "Anyone in a skin at school... down to the last secretay." "And then there are all the others." "He told me he laid Louise's sister... and really got off on it." "But he's not that handsome." "Doesn't mean a thing." "He loves sex." "That's irresistible." "So many men don't really enjoy it." "I Someone knocks at the door ]" "Please take me in your arms." "If only you knew how much that calm look costs me." "Evey morning I wake up in a rage." "What about?" "Anything, nothing, everything." "It takes two cups of coffee to hold me together." "There are painters of the night like Rembrandt... or Georges De La Tour... but there are few who paint the dawn." "Dawn is the hour of death... the hour of seagrey light." "There is Géricault... and above all Caravaggio." "I brought you something." "Hope you like it." "Rough night?" "The way I like'em." "There was blood in my urine again." "A lot?" "The bowl was full." "It's been like that for a week." "What is it?" "They don't know yet." "God, you're soaking." "Come and eat." "Bacon and eggs those I can handle." "You seem chipper." "County air... does me good." "Dominique, Diane, Claude will always be alone, abandoned..." "Pierre and Danielle won't last more than a year." "We've been together 20 years." "That's what love is." "It lasts, it can overcome a child's illness, or old age." "It's you I want to sleep with... the rest of my life." "I love you so much." "Shit!" "Need help?" "Yeah, maybe." "Let me." "Can I see you again?" "Of course." "Why do you ask?" "I dunno." "I never know what you really mean." "Words are cheap, baby." "What's that?" "Don't listen to me... touch me." "Touch me, baby." "...like when Roben Turmel returned from Venice... I know, I was with him." "Oh yeah." "So you heard about his hot affairwith an Italian." "Come on, he spent one night... with Monica Massaferro, the Pollaiuolos specialist..." "His wife said it was more than one night." "One night, he told me so." "Anyway, when he got back, he told his wife..." "He didn't tell her!" "But I got this from her!" "He should know." "Dominique can settle this." "What did Roben tell his wife when he got back from Italy?" "All he said was he had an affair." "The way I heard it, just as he was about to confess... his wife told him she had an affair." "He was shattered." "His wife never said that!" "No, it's impossible." "His wife probably suspected something." "No she didn't." "If she'd suspected..." "You can sense these things." "No, he sensed her uneasiness." "I know Roben vey well." "He wouldn't lie to me." "One of them is lying." "I tend to believe his wife." "Me too, when it comes to that." "He is vey sensitive." "You mean touchy." "You think he's touchy?" "Come help." "is that it?" "Do you still give lessons?" "Two afternoons... lt's tough with the kids." "You could get a sitter." "I swearthat's what happened." "I guess we'll never really know for sure." "You okay?" "Yeah."