1:12:03
She comes on a cultural exchange. The
university sends its trusty radical, me...
1:12:10
I enter the dining room of her hotel.
I spot her, and die.
1:12:20
Beauty that could melt Emperor Qin's
7000 terra cotta warriors.
1:12:24
I order tea, we make small talk.
1:12:27
I can see us doing Pekinese lotus.
-The Szechuan dragon.
1:12:32
To make myself appear intresting,
1:12:35
I dive in: "Your country has achieved so much.
1:12:39
We're so envious. Your
Cultural Revolution is wonderful!"
1:12:46
Her lovely black eyes glaze over.
1:12:50
I'm mortified to realize
that she's thinking,
1:12:54
"He's either a CIA agent
or the worst cretin in the West."
1:12:59
So much for the lotus and dragon.
1:13:02
For two years she'd cleaned pigsties
on a re-education farm.
1:13:06
Father murdered,
mother committed suicide.
1:13:10
And some dumb French-Canadian who's
seen the films of Jean-Luc Godard
1:13:15
and read Philippe Sollers
1:13:18
says that the Chinese
Cultural Revolution, is wonderful!
1:13:24
Cretinism doesnt sink any lower.
1:13:38
Voluntary simplicity.
1:13:40
Scrambled eggs with ossetra caviar
and fresh truffles. -From Tuscany.
1:13:48
And to stay in Italy, Castello Banfi Excelsus,
a modest vintage.
1:13:54
Why were we so dumb?
-Are we to infer congenital stupidity?
1:13:59
Not at all.
-Intelligence isn't an individual trait.