Chapter 43 Section 42

Chantal asked in a triumphant tone: "How can a Troskeiter be sincere? It's not logical at all!" "My dear friend, you should have heard that Marx's famous saying changed the world, right?" "certainly." Chantal sat by the window opposite their oldest colleague in the company, an elegant lady with rings on her fingers.Beside her, Laila continued: "Well, our century has only made one vague thing clear, that man cannot change the world, and never will. This is what I have learned from my own experience as a revolutionary." The final conclusion that history draws, the one that everyone takes for granted and tacitly accepts. But there is another, deeper conclusion. This one is about theology. It says: Man has no right to change what God has created world. We must obey his commands unconditionally."

Chantal looked at him happily: he looked less like a lecturer than a provocateur.That's what Chantal loves about him: everything he does with this cynical tone is a kind of reformation of Hollywood tradition or a provocation of the unconventional.He always used that tone, even when he was stating a most conventional fact.And, when they are able, will these most traditional facts ("Send the bourgeoisie to the gallows!") become reality?Tradition can become rut, and rut can become tradition, all in the blink of an eye.What matters is the decision to go to the extremes of each situation.Chantal imagines Laila in his intellectual, logical, cynical style at the 1968 student unrest, spouting the aphorisms in his intellectual, logical, cynical style: conventional resistance is doomed; the bourgeoisie has no power As long as it exists, art that the working class does not understand should disappear, and science that serves the interests of the bourgeoisie has no value. Those who teach these must be kicked out of the university, and there is no freedom to speak to the enemy.The more absurd his claims were, the more he was proud of them, because it takes a superior intellect to extract logical meaning from meaningless ideas.

Chantal replied: "Well, I agree, all change is harmful. Then, we have an obligation to protect the world from change. Alas, but the world can't stop its crazy changes..." "...and man is just a tool," Lyra interrupted, "the invention of the locomotive sowed the seeds for the design of the airplane. And the invention of the airplane inevitably led to the creation of the rocket. This logic In the thing itself, in other words, it is a part of God's will. You can replace the whole human being with another, but the transformation from bicycle to rocket is still the same. Man is only an operator, not Creator of change. As a mere operator, he does not know the meaning of his operation. This meaning does not belong to us, it belongs only to God. We live only to obey him, and he can do whatever he wants thing.

She closed her eyes: the sweet word "hybrid" came to her mind and took possession of her consciousness.She said to herself silently: "The idea of ​​interbreeding." How could these unrelated ideas pop up in her head one after the other, like two mistresses in the same bed?In the past, it would have irritated her, but today it distracted her: she knew that it didn't matter that what Laila had said in the past was very different from what he said today.Because both points of view are equally wonderful, because all words and points of view carry equal value and can lie next to each other, cling to each other, caress, mix, deceive, embrace, combine.

A soft, trembling voice came from beside Chantal: "But why are we here? Why are we alive?" It was the voice of a mild-mannered lady sitting next to Lyra.Chantal adored her.Lyra, Chantal thought, was now sitting between two women, and he had to choose between them: romantic or cynical.She heard the lady's small voice of pleading, as if with great reluctance to give up her lovely convictions, but at the same time (in Chantal's imagination) defending them with an unacknowledged hope.She wants to see them endorsed by her saintly heroes.Her hero now turns to her: "Why do we live? Offer God new human beings. Because the Bible, my dear lady, - doesn't ask us to find meaning in life. It only asks us to reproduce. Love another human being, and procreate. Remember these:" The meaning of "being in love with another" is determined by "procreation". This love of "being in love with another" has nothing to do with charitable love, compassionate, spiritual, erotic love, it just means "making love ! "Dominate!" (He lowers his voice, moving closer to her ear) Fuck! "(The lady looked into his eyes like a devout believer.) It, and that alone, constitutes the whole meaning of life. Everything else is meaningless."

Lyra's reasons were as sharp as a razor.Chantal agrees: successful love between two people, loyal love, love for only one person — no, that doesn't exist.If it existed, it could only serve as a self-punishment, a kind of obstinacy, a flight to a monastery.She said to herself that even if it really existed, love shouldn't exist.The thought did not cause her pain, on the contrary, it created a kind of bliss in her and spread throughout her body.She recalled her vision of the rose that pierces all men, and said to herself that she had always been bound by love, and that now she would follow the myth of the rose and melt into its dizzying fragrance.In her thoughts suddenly appeared Jean-Marc: is he still at home?Has he already left?She wasn't agitated at all, as if she was wondering if it was raining in Rome, or if it was fine weather in New York.

However little he had affected her, the memory of Jean-Marc made her look around.At the end of the car she saw a man turning his back and going into another car.She thought she recognized it. It was Jean-Marc.He tried to avoid her gaze.But is that really him?Instead of looking for answers, she looked out the window: the scenery was getting worse and worse, the ground was getting grayer and grayer, and there were more and more towers, concrete buildings, and cables standing on the flat ground.The loudspeaker starts to play: In a few seconds, the train will enter the submarine tunnel.In fact, she had seen the train go into a dark tunnel like a snake.