Benjamin and Debord at the Table, Drinking

Benjamin muses – “If sleep is the apogee of physical relaxation, boredom is the apogee of mental relaxation.  Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience.”

Debord replies – “Boredom is always counter-revolutionary. Always.”

There is a pause, then Benjamin responds as if he had not heard Guy at all – “And boredom is the grating before which the courtesan teases death.”

Being dead, neither the booms and bangs nor susurrus and whistling brings either from the table.  There is nowhere to go but the table and never-finished glasses, half conversations and hollow praises for two men who did not die too soon.  They sit as two suicides must sit.

Debord offers a final, glum remark for the night – “It can be confidently affirmed that no real opposition can be carried out by individuals who become even slightly more socially elevated through manifesting such opposition than they would have been otherwise.”

Another, longer, pause.

“We missed the mark then, didn’t we?”