Scene: Bruns kitchen, about 6:45pm. Pandora station streaming (Mumford and Sons in the background).

Characters: Doug and Carole

Action: Doug prepping dinner, sipping a cocktail. Carole in a chair reading.

____________

Doug: “I’m feeling a particular depth of emptiness.”

Carole (incredulously): “Depth of emptiness?”

D: “Yeah. You know, the ennui of modern existence and all that…”

C: “Did you just use the word ennui?”

D: “Yes. It means boredom.”

C: “I know what it means. I just can’t believe you used it. Nobody uses that word.”

D: “Fine.”

C: “But I know what you mean, I think.”

D: “Pound referred to the ‘domination of modern life.'”

C: “First you use ennui, then you quote Pound. I can’t believe you quoted Pound.”

D: “I’m a cliché. What can I say? Anyway, I think moderns have a tough time of it. Maybe the species was always troubled this way, but it’s more acute in modern existence, I think.”

C: “And your thesis, professor? Why do you think it’s more acute?”

D: “For two millennium the species had distractions. There were predator beasts to escape. Food to find. Weather to survive. Tribal warfare–all that stuff. For a lot of us, at least those of us in the rich Western countries, those things are no longer factors. Lack of distraction equals too much time facing the void.”

C: “How much have you had to drink?”

D: “No really. It’s the plague of modernity.”

C: “And what do we do about it?”

D: “We have to create a way out of the wilderness.”

C: “Too dramatic.”

D: “Yeah, I get that way, you know. But, really, Camus said we have to create meaning. No one’s gonna hand it to you.”

C: “Lots of people try.”

D: “Indeed. But we’re independent thinkers.”

C: “Maybe we’re just cynical.”

D: “That too. I embrace the cynical, gateway to fresh horizons…”

C: “Okay, you’re officially cutoff.”

D: “Fine. Dinner in ten.”