Where am I 1

Stage lights come on slowly revealing two motionless characters seated at a table. They sit in frozen
tableau for good two minutes before suddenly springing to life.

BOLO. Shall we get started then?

DEPE. Alright. Do you have any idea why we are here?

BOLO. Not a clue. Now that you mention it, I'm not particularly clear on anything. It's odd, I
feel like there is something that I must do, but I'm not sure where to start. [They
notice a piece of paper on the table, Bolo picks it up and examines what is written.]
That's odd.

DEPE. Well, what does it say?

BOLO. Just a second. [Depe fidgets for a moment while Bolo reads.] Well, this is very
interesting. It says we are homunculi.

DEPE. It says we are what?

BOLO. Homunculi. Little imaginary men.

DEPE. I'm not imaginary, or at least, I don't think I'm imaginary

BOLO. I don't either, but this seems fairly clear on the fact. It says we don't exist in any real
sense.

DEPE. Well, that's a stupid thing to say. Imagine telling someone they don't exist, if you are
wrong then you look like a fool, and if you are right, you are talking to thin air and
still look like a fool. It's a losing statement, right or wrong. What else does it say?

BOLO. Hmm, it says that we have a purpose. Apparently we are were created to find
Rye.

DEPE. Created? To find Rye? Why should we find him? I mean, alright, he's likable in his
own way, but it's not like he's terribly important. Bit of a nobody if you ask me. And
what's this business of us being created?

BOLO. The paper doesn't say why we should find him, but there is an answer to your
creation question.

DEPE. And what would that be?

BOLO. Rye created us.

DEPE. [incredulous] Rye? Do you mean to tell me that it says that we are figments of Rye's
imagination?

BOLO. Yes.

DEPE. And that we were created to find him.

 Where am I 2

BOLO. [reading aloud from the sheet] You two were created to answer the question, where is
Rye.

DEPE. From inside his imagination.

BOLO. Yes.

DEPE. According to the paper.

BOLO. That's what it says.

DEPE. That's ridiculous! Assuming this is all true, how can we possibly find Rye? We're in
his imagination! Where do we go from here?

BOLO. It says here we were created with everything we need to know to complete our task.

DEPE. Alright, well, what do you know about?

BOLO. Stories, mostly.

DEPE. How are we supposed to find Rye with a few stories?

BOLO. I don't know, but there's got to be a point to this. How about we go over what we
know and see where that leads us? Look at it this way, if we were created for the
task, I wager that if we go with what comes naturally, everything will work itself out.
It would seem silly for us to have been created for a task that we can't ultimately
complete.

DEPE. I don't suppose there's anything else written on that sheet.

BOLO. No.

DEPE. How convenient. Alright, how shall we begin?

BOLO. Well, let's take what we know and work from there. We can write out what we've
got and see where that takes us. We can even use the back of this sheet to write on
[turns the sheet over], have you got a pen?

DEPE. No

BOLO. [frowns] Hrm, ok, skip that. We'll discuss what we know first, and when we find a
pen, then we'll write it all down.

DEPE. If you say so.

BOLO. Would you like to start?

DEPE. As you like. Where should I begin?

BOLO. [enthusiastic] With whatever comes to mind. Remember, we were created for this!
 Where am I 3

DEPE. I'd suppose the first thing that comes to mind is mythology. I know about some of the
old myths and legends from antiquity.

BOLO. How would you define a myth?

DEPE. I guess, in its most basic form, a myth is a story that people believe in. Normally
when we think about mythology, we think about the Greeks and other ancient
civilizations, but there's lots of myths floating around today. I think we need to make
a distinction between classical and modern myths. In classical myths it was stories
about gods and men forging existence as we know it. Modern myths are stories that
claim to be true.

BOLO. What about history? That's a story that people believe in. Are you going to say it's a
myth?

DEPE. In a way, yeah, though it's a modern style myth. Look, in ancient cultures myths
served as a way to transmit culture (which is basically a value system) and explain
the world as we see it. People studying history aren't learning anything terribly
different. Think about it, when we want to know something's value or where it comes
from we look back on what was decided by those who came before us. Things have
to become pretty incoherent before people abandon their ancestor's practices. The
difference is that now the stories are based on common experiences. The practice of
handing on myths has been replaced with the practice of handing on stories about
history.

BOLO. So do you think that history is . . .

DEPE. A bunch of stories that we believe in.

BOLO. Interesting.

DEPE. So then we come to stories like Gilgamesh. He was the warrior demi-god king who
was the central character of of the ancient Sumerians. He WAS a real person, though
with time he might have gotten a little exaggerated. He is a classic example of his
kind. A virile powerhouse who journeyed around with his companion having
adventures. This became a mythology when the stories got passed down from one
generation to the next. What is interesting is that since the stories and themes are
passed on, they start intermixing and becoming common to different cultures. We see
this sort of thing in all sorts of different types of mythology. The epic journey of
Gilgamesh? It's in Greek mythology with Hercules and his tasks, and even Jesus
spent a good bit of time rambling around with his apostles.

BOLO. Right, so you are talking about themes that crop up in different legends. The flood
story for example. That's in pretty much all the major cultural mythologies
somewhere. The idea that the earth is covered with water shows up in as remote
circumstances and Nordic mythology in the Scandinavian regions.

DEPE. Or the subjugation of women, or the creation of the world, or a divine sacrifice for
the benefit of mankind. These sorts of things intermix and become the way that
people explained what they saw. The stories told them what was important and why.
 Where am I 4

It made a bit of a chicken and egg situation in that the stories came from the culture,
which is passed on through the stories. So the stories come from the culture and the
culture from the stories. The themes just got passed around and plot elements are
recycled with gusto. We also need to remember that barring genocide, cultures
tended to mix when they came into contact. We can see this with the progression
from the Greeks to the Romans to the Christians. First the Greeks were conquered by
the Romans, who assimilated their culture. Then the Romans became Christian and
the Christians took up Roman culture. It's no wonder that these story elements got
passed around a lot.

BOLO. To the victor go the spoils of war: land, riches, women, and plot elements.

DEPE. That's a different way of putting it, but sure.

BOLO. Do you know if Rye believes in a particular mythology?

DEPE. I think Rye sits somewhere between science and narcissism. He places value in
empirical thinking, but puts a lot of value on his view point.

BOLO. I don't think that's uncommon.

DEPE. I didn't say it was. He's got this idea that if he learns everything and accepts nothing,
he will arrive at a working explanation of the world. Though, since it's HIS
explanation as to how things work in HIS point of view, it's as subjective as any of
them. Whether his gods are named Zeus, Thor, Newton, or Freud it's all forms of
belief and faith.

BOLO. And which of these does he believe in?

DEPE. To hear him tell it? All of them. He says that there's truth everywhere you look, it's
just a question of standing in the right place for it to make sense.

BOLO. How refreshingly mad. That doesn't really narrow down where he is though.

DEPE. No, I don't suppose that it does.

BOLO. You know, all this talk about myth brings to mind a story that creates a myth. I guess
you could call it a synthetic myth because it was created by an author to function as
one. It was originally written to imitate the tall tale style stories. The story's called
The Devil and Daniel Webster. What's interesting about it is that the story uses the
principles of mythology to trick the reader.

DEPE. How so?

BOLO. Remember what you said about mythology explaining things? Well, in the story,
Daniel Webster is the archetypical good guy of legend. He's sort of all virtue and no
flaw. The story is all about him selflessly beating the devil at his own game, which is
in this case contract law.

DEPE. Of course. It seems like the more implausible the villain, the lower his chances of
 Where am I 5

success. Has the devil EVER won in the folktales?

BOLO. Not that I know of. Makes you wonder why he hasn't given up yet, but that's not the
point. The thing is, Daniel Webster was a real person. In the story it's mentioned that
he was a lawyer who became a senator and ran for presidency.

DEPE. And argued with the devil?

BOLO. More like sold out. See, in real life he made this speech saying he'd accept slavery if
it would unite the north and the south of what eventually became the United States of
America. Unfortunately, that didn't sit to well with his supporters and his career
dropped off sharply afterwards.

DEPE. So what's the connection with the story where he fights the devil?

BOLO. Well, the story borrows from Washington Irving's story The Devil and Tom Walker
which in turn borrows from Faust, but it uses the narrative to paint a heroic
portrait of Daniel Webster. In the story, he saves the soul of a poor farmer who made
a deal with the Devil by arguing passionately about unity and humanitarianism.
Daniel Webster becomes justified. The myth here isn't the part about him fighting the
devil, it's about who Daniel Webster was. When you read the story you come away
from it with the impression that he's a folk hero. It could be argued that this is one of
the earliest examples of spin doctoring.

DEPE. Interesting

BOLO. Yeah

DEPE. So where are you going with this?

BOLO. I haven't the faintest idea, you were the one who brought up mythology, I was
following your lead.

DEPE. Well, we still need to find Rye

BOLO. What if he's a myth?

DEPE. What do you mean?

BOLO. Well, the only things we know about him are what we are told, and we don't even
know if it's true. It's all hearsay. What if he's just like Daniel Webster, a story we are
unthinkingly believing in.

DEPE. One way or another, a lot of what we know about anybody is myth. What we know
of Rye, and what he knows of anyone else for that matter, is largely based on the
stories we hear. How much of those stories are believed is based on how much
credence we give to the source. This is why Rye says that when people tell him
things, he only believes that they believe it's true. He says that way he's allowing for
himself and others to make mistakes. Anyway, when the story comes from a
published author, we make an unconscious assumption that there is value in what is
written since there was time and effort put into it's publication. Even if you can't
 Where am I 6

literally believe the material, you still get swayed by what is suggested in the story.

BOLO. Then why are we following an unsigned piece of paper?

DEPE. What options do we have?

BOLO. And if we find out that the paper was wrong?

DEPE. We'll jump off that bridge when we come to it.

BOLO. I'm not sure we're getting anywhere. I think we should talk about something else.

DEPE. Have anything in mind?

BOLO. I suggest we do what civilization has been doing for centuries.

DEPE. Oppress those who can't fight back?

BOLO. No! Go back to the Greeks. How do you feel about tragedy?

DEPE. Well, that's a bit of a trick question. How enthusiastic can a mentally sound person be
about someone else's misfortune?

BOLO. I was thinking of the great Greek tragedy Oedipus the king.

DEPE. Oh, let me rephrase that then. How enthusiastic can a mentally sound person be
about murder and incest?

BOLO. Very funny. We are talking about classic tragedy here. We are talking about a man
who is little more than a puppet of the gods. Yes, a tragedy has an unhappy ending,
but it uplifts us anyway. Characters in tragedies defend principles, and this is usually
their downfall. They are presented with plausible but impossible choices. Oedipus
was asked to decide between saving his life by giving up the search for truth, or
revealing the truth but eventually giving up his own life. In the story we learn that
both Oedipus and his father attempted to avoid an unpleasant fate by defying the
gods, and that in the end their fates were played out. How much choice did Oedipus
really have?

DEPE. So how are we defining tragedies?

BOLO. As I see it, there are two key elements to tragedies. The first is that the central
character be someone of principle and culture. He denies base animal instincts and
defends the values of his culture. The second is that one or more of these cultural
values comes into conflict with either another principle or an undeniable need. One
way or another, the character is presented with a situation where they cannot win.
Oedipus, as was mentioned is set up as king, but as he finds that he must learn who
killed the old king Liaus. His responsibility is to find the truth, even though it brings
about his ruin. We can respect his quest for the truth, and so his suffering is tragic.

DEPE. What if we didn't respect his quest for the truth?

 Where am I 7

BOLO. In that case it would just be a creepy story about some lowlife who murdered his
father, slept with his mother, and ended the story by stabbing his eyes out. Imagine
someone with completely different values watching the play, they would probably
see something like that.

DEPE. They would probably be asking themselves, “Why do these people like this horrid
stuff? That man is a fool! Why does he keep poking at the matter? I wonder if I leave
now will I be able to get a refund.”

BOLO. Do you know if Rye liked the play?

DEPE. It doesn't seem to be his type. Think about it, he's the sort of person who irreverently
laughs at everything. Did you hear his idea about how the only way that the universe
makes sense is to assume it has a sense of humor?

BOLO. Yeah, he also said that the universe is a practical joke that God played on humanity,
and humanity still doesn't get it.

DEPE. There seems to be a human tendency of catching on a little too late. Unfortunately
that means that some people try to justify themselves with the old “nobody GETS
me” line.

DEPE. Leads to the rallying cry of the failed artist, “Just you wait until I'm dead! I'll be
popular then!”

BOLO. Nothing is so universal as feeling misunderstood.

DEPE. Maybe that's one of the ways that people relate to tragedy. I mean, one of the key
characteristics of tragedy is that those who are stuck between a rock and a hard place
don't have anyone who can help them. That feeling of being in trouble with nowhere
to turn is something we can all relate to. You were talking about Oedipus, but he's not
exactly a household name. Romeo and Juliette on the other hand, they have been
popular so long they have become clichés.

BOLO. Why do you think that is?

DEPE. The romance of course! Here we have the ultimate in romance: the tragic romance,
or the romance that could not be. This idea has been kicking around for a long time,
and it still is in fact. It's pretty much one of the clearest examples of the two parts of
tragedy you proposed. The lovers are inherently principled since they are upholding
love, and they are usually denied by something totally out of their control. The point
isn't that they want to be together, it's that they can't and so their love remains pure.
We even saw this as one of the ideals in courtly love.

BOLO. [causticly] Because that was such a perfect system.

DEPE. [shrugs] Before we talk about perfection we should figure out what it is. But that's
beside the point.
 Where am I 8

BOLO. Where does that put Rye?

DEPE. He considered Juliette to be a classic example of the central character in a tragedy
and the actual heroine of the story.

BOLO. Not Romeo?

DEPE. Not really. Rye thinks Romeo was given greater importance in the play, consciously
or not, because of a basically sexist society. Come on, they won't accept women
playing roles in theater, would they really accept a female character more important
than a male character?

BOLO. Nah, because oppressing women was considered manly.

DEPE. Rye says that if you look closely at the story, you find that she is one of the few
people who is truly innocent. This is his comparison of Romeo and Juliette? Romeo
falls in love with Juliette after being spurned by Rosalyn, so he may just be
rebounding. When Juliette falls in love with Romeo, it's her first love. He unloads
this whole courtly love romance on Juliette. She tells him that when it comes to
courtly love, he should drop the court and just stick with the love. Romeo sees his
good friend Mercurtio stabbed and murders Tybalt which is not exactly an example
of keeping a cool head under pressure. Juliette learns of this and makes the
impossible decision to forgive her husband, despite him murdering her cousin, and
uphold her love to him.

BOLO. You've got to have a pretty forgiving nature to let that sort of thing slide, or a
particularly mean cousin

DEPE. She had both.

BOLO. And here we put Romeo's name first on the title

DEPE. I do believe Rye suggested, “The Girly Boy who becomes a Manly Murderer and the
Sensible Girl Who Tries To Do the Right Thing” as an alternative title.

BOLO. At least it would have clearly let us know what we were in for. A Streetcar Named
Desire? There isn't even a streetcar in the story. It's just a metaphor for what happens.

DEPE. That's modern tragedy right?

BOLO. Yeah.

DEPE. What's it about?

BOLO. Well, it sort of embodies one of the classic human problems. You've got three
characters, Stanley, Stella, and Blanche, and each one is a almost a personification of
a part of the Freudian psyche structure. On the surface you've got Blanche who goes
to visit her sister Stella because she was told to take time off from her job as an
English teacher. She's also kind of living in a fantasy world of the past. On the
opposite end of the spectrum you have Stanley who is a brute, full of animal desire,
impulsive actions, and raw emotion.
 Where am I 9

DEPE. So it's a caveman and a princess

BOLO. After a fashion. Anyway the story is about the downward spiral of our princess as it
becomes apparent that has been holding together her fantasy of civilization and
culture by ignoring the harsh world around her. She's deeply in denial and when she
has that illusion stripped from her, she loses her grip on her own sanity.

DEPE. Sounds like fun

BOLO. I don't think she saw it that way. Anyway, where this becomes interesting is when
you think about what lost to whom.

DEPE. I'm not sure I follow

BOLO. Look at this from a Freudian perspective. Freud divided the psyche into three parts:
das Es, das Ich, and das Über-Ich. That roughly translates to the it, the I, and the
over-I though most people have heard the terms the id, the ego, and the super-ego.
Anyway, I found the three characters filled these roles fairly well. Stanley was the
savage, uncultured id, Stella the unifying element as the ego, and Blanche was the
civilized, moralized super-ego. The play then becomes a confrontation within the
psyche where the rules of civilization and morals fight and lose to base animal
desires. Stella is the unfortunate prize who shows how we are invariable drawn to our
darker nature. She is like a moth circling a candle flame; unable to draw away from
it's irresistible attraction, but knowing she is going to be destroyed by it. Of course,
it's not really an equal fight, since our civilization and morality themselves contain
dark desires.

DEPE. That's a rather bleak outlook

BOLO. Though it does inspire us to not let the situation happen to ourselves. All these cases
have a tendency to make us consider our own actions. We vicariously live these
experiences out, and then try to learn from their mistakes.

DEPE. Rye liked this one didn't he?

BOLO. I think so. It seems to fit with his general cynicism. Though I think it's more that
we've moved away from tragedies tauting cultural ideals as if they are universal and
into criticizing today's problems.

DEPE. Right, we can't underestimate his inherent love of griping.

BOLO. He's going to be a real peach when he becomes senile.

DEPE. And what does this tell us about where Rye is to be found?

BOLO. Why does it always come back to that?

DEPE. It's what we were created for.

 Where am I 10

BOLO. But do we know where he is yet?

DEPE. I don't think so.

BOLO. I hope we are getting closer

DEPE. You really think we can find him in all this?

BOLO. If we couldn't what would be the point?

DEPE. I don't know. Let's change the topic. Talk about something else.

BOLO. What do you want to talk about?

DEPE. Comedy! That's much cheerier. Happy endings for everyone.

BOLO. Well, it's certainly more popular than tragedy.

DEPE. That's because it doesn't make you feel bad.

BOLO. That's because it doesn't make you think. It makes you laugh. While that's not
necessarily a bad thing, it is a point to be considered.

DEPE. What do you mean?

BOLO. Look at the old story by Chausser, The Miller's Tale. What do you learn from it?

DEPE. Don't fart in people's faces?

BOLO. I think we should understand that bit of social politic without needing the play.

DEPE. Well, I don't know, what do we learn?

BOLO. Nothing really.

DEPE. I beg your pardon?

BOLO. Look, you go through the story and laugh at the carpenter getting fooled, Nicholas
branded, and Absalon kissing ass. When you walk out of it, the whole thing was so
ridiculous that we shake our heads. The whole thing mostly is based on people
being weak, stupid, or disreputable. How can you learn anything from that?

DEPE. Well the point isn't to learn anything, it's to relax. Which in a way is the point of
comedy. Tragedy is so full of meaning that the main character can't turn around
without tripping over a plot element. On the other hand, in comedy, things just
happen. I would actually say that we learn something in comedy that we can't learn
from tragedy.

BOLO. What's that then?

 Where am I 11

DEPE. To no take things too seriously. Take your example of the millers tale. You've got a
story of cuckoldry and deceit. These are real problems, but you laugh at them.
Instead of happening to noble people, they happen to fools. Instead of people being
set apart by their struggles, they are brought together. Not to mention that usually,
though the millers tale isn't necessarily the greatest example, the characters are better
off for their struggles.

BOLO. The miller's tale is a pretty clear example of pure buffoonery. I think we are on the
right track.

DEPE. How so?

BOLO. Rye loves comedy, or more precisely he loves not taking things seriously. He also
loves confronting social taboos around natural functions. Essentially, he likes being
rude. Though comedy is more than just vulgarity. Look at The Importance of Being
Earnest. Two couples find love and then have to unwind their own foolish lies and
complications before all can end happily. Comedy allows us to see that things can be
light-hearted. A life of seriousness makes you old quickly. Though in the importance
of being Earnest there is another facet of comedy.

DEPE. What do you mean?

BOLO. Well, the characters are comical because in theory they are supposed to be the upper
crust of society. Yet here they are, bumbling around making a mess of things while at
the same time they are professing to hold positions in high society. In The Miller's
Tale the characters were supposed to be uneducated louts, and their humorous
debauchery is based on their desires. The carpenter is possessive and both Nicholas
and Absalon are lusty souls.

DEPE. Perhaps that's one of the pleasures of the thing. We all feel these desires, but are
supposed to ignore them. Seeing them cause mischief and mayhem is fun. It's the
idea of playing with taboos. When we can laugh at ourselves and our ways, it helps
us stay human.

BOLO. So we need to be able to laugh at ourselves is we want to get through life.

DEPE. Yeah

BOLO. And we get practice by laughing at others.

DEPE. Have to practice somehow

BOLO. So that is comedy

DEPE. So that is comedy

BOLO. Which brings us to an important question

DEPE. Shoot
 Where am I 12

BOLO. If that's comedy, where is Rye?

DEPE. Laughing at us?

BOLO. I thought he imagined us

DEPE. I'm beginning to wonder about that myself

BOLO. Maybe we imagined him.

DEPE. Does it matter?

BOLO. I don't suppose it does.

DEPE. What's left?

BOLO. More stories

DEPE. It's all stories

BOLO. Pity

DEPE. What?

BOLO. Well, we don't really talk about anything real

DEPE. WE aren't real

BOLO. That depends on where you are standing, but look, stories can comment on real
things. Take H G Wells' story The Country of the Blind. In it, a man finds himself
trapped in a country where he is the only one who can see. What do you suppose
happens?

DEPE. He dies defending his principles?

BOLO. No, that would be tragedy.

DEPE. He has misunderstandings with the natives that create harmless chaos that is resolved
neatly?

BOLO. No that would be comedy.

DEPE. He turns into an animal and has sex with virgins?

BOLO. No that would be mythology. And tasteless. What happens is that he is considered a
madman.

DEPE. What? For looking at things? Well, I can't imagine what would happen if someone
went to a museum. You'd never even get to finish an exhibit before you get whisked
off to a madhouse.
 Where am I 13

BOLO. You're forgetting that the people are all blind. They have no idea what he is talking
about when he says he can see. The world doesn't even exist for them. It's the
equivalent of someone telling you that they are psychic.

DEPE. Or imaginary?

BOLO. Very clever. Consider this, if someone came to you and said that they should be
crowned emperor because they are psychic.

DEPE. Probably laugh a bit.

BOLO. And consider them maybe a bit mad?

DEPE. Hrmmm, I see your point.

BOLO. And here is where we get to talk about something real. While the story is fiction, it
comments on the real world. It helps us see how our own beliefs blind us to different
possibilities.

DEPE. So the story is an allegory.

BOLO. Yeah. Wells was a big fan of Darwinism at a time when it was still a new movement.
How do you think the theory of evolution was received when it was first proposed?

DEPE. Sigh. Like a bunch of blind people first listening to someone talk about sight. I get it,
I get it. It's a nice way of making a comment though.

BOLO. Yeah, if you don't like the allegory, you can always just enjoy the story.

DEPE. Do you think people are that influenced by these stories?

BOLO. I'd say so, the personal quest for identity only ends when you die.

DEPE. The one moment that everyone can agree on who someone is, is when they are a
corpse. Though that's when they start arguing about who they were. There was a
story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. about personal identity. I think it was called, Who Am I
This Time? or something like that. Anyway, it tells the story of two people who
ultimately have no identity. It assumes that we construct our identities from what is
around us and influences us. The two characters, for one reason or another, don't
really have a chance to define who they are, so in the end they take other peoples
personalities.

BOLO. Sounds ghastly.

DEPE. No, not real people. Characters from plays.

BOLO. I hope they never run across Titus Andronicus. But it's an interesting idea. It sort of
goes back to what when you said that when we read stories we live them vicariously.
These characters are doing just that, but taking it to a greater extent.
 Where am I 14

DEPE. I thought you said that.

BOLO. Honestly, I can't remember.

DEPE. Maybe Rye said it. Do you think that if we imitate Rye we might figure out where he
is?

BOLO. I doubt it. He says that he spends his time imitating everyone else, so we'd just be
copying a copy. I think it's one of the reasons he liked this story, it fits in well with what he calls the
social chameleon effect.

DEPE. What's that?

BOLO It's the tendency we have to imitate the people we are around. Rye believes that we
are all blank biological sheets that adapt to our surroundings, so to be honest with
ourselves we need to leave ourselves fairly undefined so as to be able to adapt to new
situations. You can't learn something new if you've already decided it has no merit, or
something like that. He basically believes that that whole taking on roles that Helen
and Harry do is a common social characteristic, and can actually have very positive
effects. Do you think that we lack defined character?

DEPE. Well, not really, no. I mean, I'm definitely not you, and I'm most definitely not Rye.

BOLO. I wish you were Rye, then we'd know where he is. [moment of silence] Not to
offend you or anything, but are you a man or a woman?

DEPE. I beg your pardon?

BOLO. Are you a man or a woman?

DEPE. You can't tell?

BOLO. Well, I've to date just sort of assumed you were a man, but all this talk of identity got
me thinking.

DEPE. And?

BOLO. Well, I can't really tell if I'M a man or a woman. See, nobody told me which I was,
and all I've got to compare myself to is you. So the way I see it, I'm whichever you
are.

DEPE. Oh

BOLO. Well?

DEPE. This is awkward

BOLO. Sorry?
 Where am I 15

DEPE. Now that you mention it, I don't really know myself. Does it matter?

BOLO. Not that I know of. I was just thinking that I could be a woman and not have noticed.

DEPE. Or a man. What difference does it make?

BOLO. Well, we were just talking about culture and identity. I mean, culture as I know it is
unconsciously sexist. There's an old riddle that goes, “A man and his son were
driving down a road one day when they are hit by a large truck. The father is killed
instantly, and the boy is in critical condition. The boy is rushed to the hospital and
brought to emergency in critical condition. The local surgeon walks in to operate on
the boy and goes white as a sheet. The surgeon than says, “I can't operate on this boy,
I'm too nervous. He's my son.” Since the father was killed instantly, how is this
possible?

DEPE. It's his step-father?

BOLO. No

DEPE. Adopted father?

BOLO. No

DEPE. Biological father?

BOLO. No

DEPE. The surgeon also runs a cloning facility and he bio-engineers . . .

BOLO. No! The surgeon is MOTHER

DEPE. Oh . . . I knew that.

BOLO. See? Why can't the surgeon be a woman? Some people have great difficulty with that
riddle. There's this cultural unconscious that includes the idea that men are human
and women also, but not as much. Their time honored role of being subservient to
men is still going strong.

DEPE. That was the point of The Handmaid's Tale right? It imagines a dystopia where a
woman is only worth the babies she can bear. Women are subjugated and control of
their own bodies is taken from them. I remember that a woman masturbating or being
lesbian were punished with violence and death respectively. Those are both actions
that make women sexually unavailable to men.

BOLO. Yeah, but the most important part of the whole story is the historical notes. We can
see this retrospective look back on the story from some time in the far distant future.
Despite these past atrocities to women, we see indications of continuing unconscious
sexism.

DEPE. Sort of like today.

 Where am I 16

BOLO. Right, we all know that women were treated as possessions in the past, and we still
don't do much to try make things truly equal. Women still have dozens of hoops to
jump through, that men can ignore. And we want to pat ourselves on the back
because the hoops are no longer flaming.

DEPE. Didn't the story also criticize the religious right?

BOLO. I think that was more based around the reality that fundamentalist religions are
inherently conservative. That means they want to keep the old ways, which includes
subservient women. Personally I don't they they are doing it to debase women. I
think it's more about preventing change.

DEPE. Rye read this essay once that argued that oppression of women goes back to pre-
civilization. In the essay it said that the oppression was originally a mechanism that
kept population growth down. The idea is that if you have more women you have
more babies, so if you reduce the number of women you keep population growth
down.

BOLO. I'm not sure I see how that works. You need both sexes to make babies.

DEPE. Yeah but imagine two ancient tribes of people. They both get attacked by something,
a giant savage wombat or whatever, and there are eleven survivors in both camps. In
one tribe, there is one guy and ten women, and in the other, there is one woman and
ten men. Now, how many pregnant women can each camp have?

BOLO. Alright, so less women equals less babies. Does Rye really think that is the root of
the oppression of women? The argument seems a bit thin.

DEPE. Yes, Rye does believe this, but there's more to the argument. It's safe to say that
raising a child takes a lot of resources, so the practice of abandoning unwanted
babies was created. The unwanted children died of exposure, and since baby girls
were less valued than baby boys, they tended to be the first ones abandoned.
Incidentally female infanticide is still practiced in some cultures. Less baby girls
means less women in the long run. It was all about producing a stable culture that
didn't change, finding an ecological niche. Once you've found that niche, not letting
it get changed by such problems as overpopulation.

BOLO. So, devaluing women is part of an ancient survival mechanism to reduce population.

DEPE. Seems that way

BOLO. And in the story women are devalued so that they MUST have babies.

DEPE. It's all about control.

BOLO. Which is all about survival and reproduction.

DEPE. We don't really evolve, we just get older.

BOLO. It's fifty thousand years, and back to the jungle

 Where am I 17

DEPE. You can't change human nature.

BOLO. Do you think you and me are human?

DEPE. Rye said that if you call yourself a human, you might as well be. No other species on
the planet would consider it a compliment.

BOLO. That doesn't really help define what a human is.

DEPE. I don't know that there is an answer to that one.

BOLO. I wonder if we will find an answer?

DEPE. I wonder if we will find Rye?

BOLO. I don't think so. I think we have failed. Do you think we should go over the material
again?

DEPE. We went over what we know. There isn't anything else we can do.

BOLO. Do you think we will be punished for this? Sent to wherever bad figments of
imagination get sent to?

DEPE. I don't know. I don't know anything really. It's unfair! We couldn't have answered this
question anyway! It doesn't make sense.

BOLO. Maybe. I don't really care anymore. I mean, I've failed at what I was created to do,
everything else seems small right now. Where do you go from knowing that you've
failed at the very meaning of your existence?

DEPE. I suppose we wait for further instructions.

BOLO. I suppose we do.

DEPE. Do you think Rye could show up here?

BOLO. I think that waiting is the only answer to that.

 Where am I 18

References

Various works from class, see website : http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/ang140-gr/index.html

Harris, Marvin (1977) Of Cannibals and Kings

Beckett, Samuel (1994) Waiting for Godot