Six Degrees of Separation

by John Guare




Ouisa Kitteridge: I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find it extremely comforting that we're so close. I also find it like Chinese water torture, that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the right connection... I am bound, you are bound, to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people.



Flan Kittredge: I'm not a bullshiter, but never bullshit a bullshitter.



Ouisa: And we turn him into an anecdote, with no teeth, and a punchline you'll tell for years to come: "Oh, that reminds me of the time the imposter came into our house." "Oh! Tell the one about that boy." And we become these human jukeboxes spitting out these anecdotes to dine out on like we're doing right now. Well I will not turn him into an anecdote, it was an experience. How do we hold onto the experience?



Paul: It is the worst kind of yellowness to be so scared of yourself that you put blindfolds on rather than deal with yourself. To face ourselves - that's the hard thing. The imagination - that's God's gift, to make the act of self-examination bearable.



Paul: I was wondering if I could fuck you.

Rick: Man, I don't do things like that.

Paul: That's what makes it so nice. You don't.



Ouisa Kittredge: Don't think about elephants.



Flan Kittredge: Why do you stay in South Africa?

Geoffrey: One has to stay there. To educate the black workers. And we'll know we've been successful when they kill us.

Ouisa Kittredge: Oh, goodness.

Flan Kittredge: Planning the revolution that will destroy you.

Ouisa Kittredge: Putting your life on the line.

Geoffrey: We don't think of it like that. I wish you'd come and visit.

Ouisa Kittredge: Oh, would we visit you and sit in your gorgeous house, planning visits to the townships, demanding to see the poorest of the poor? "Oh, are you sure they're the worst off? I mean, we've come all this way. I mean, we don't want to see people just mildly victimized by apartheid. We demand shock." You know it doesn't seem right, sitting on the East Side, talking about revolution.



Ouisa Kittredge: Chaos, control. Chaos, control. You like, you like?





***



Не могу сказать, что это были лучшие времена, но это были те самые времена.

Не могу сказать, что сейчас наслаждаюсь, но знаю что эти моменты когда-нибудь станут золотыми.

Вопросы памяти и восприятия.