Part 7 (2/2)
Why does he speak like he's lecturing? Samira wondered. ”And the presage of imminent death?” And why am I sounding like the brownnosed student?
”That too. Like matter and its double, anti-matter. You shake hands and you're annihilated.”
Samira smiled, then thought of a novel she'd been forced to read at school, and a line in an essay that got a checkmark in the margin. ”Is your friends.h.i.+p like the one between Max and Emil in Hesse's Demian Demian? A bond that frees a person from other bonds and leads into a new dimension?”
”No.”
”Right. So is Noel your double, or your opposite? You're different in so many ways.”
”He's left-handed, I'm right.”
”Noel seems, well, a.n.a.l retentive, whereas you seem ...”
”a.n.a.l explosive.”
”And you two move so differently-”
”Especially when he's nervous. He gets so spasmodic you start looking for the strings. Remember when he met you?”
”Yes, but ... why did that make him nervous?”
”Because he thought you were an actress he's in love with.”
Samira nodded slowly, lost in a maze of thoughts. ”The poor actress, to look like me.”
”Well, it's true you look like h.e.l.l, but when healthy I imagine you look almost average.”
”Such flattery.”
”Perhaps I did get carried away.”
”You don't like women, do you.”
”Generally, I hold them in medium esteem.”
”And men?”
”Much lower.”
”You're a misanthrope, in other words.”
”How can anyone not be? The human species, the evolution of the human species, was all a colossal mistake. Darwin must have realised that. Humans and chimps evolved from a common ancestor around six million years ago-we share 98.7 per cent of the same genes. But the genes in our our brain somehow evolved differently, giving us greater brain power. So what have we done with this brain power? We've used it for the pursuit of narcissism, to prove that we're the only living things that matter in this world.” brain somehow evolved differently, giving us greater brain power. So what have we done with this brain power? We've used it for the pursuit of narcissism, to prove that we're the only living things that matter in this world.”
”But you're ... never mind.” You're quite a narcissist yourself, she was about to say.
”And this evolution, this development of the brain, has not gone well. In fact it's been botched-the glitches, bugs, cross-wirings in the brain have given us things like depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's ...”
”And misanthropy?”
”Yes.”
”So what should we do? What can humans do with all this bad wiring? Should we dumb down, go back to living like chimps?”
”That's already happening.”
”Think of all the great individuals, the geniuses in the world, the great scientific advances-”
”Modern civilisation no longer produces great individuals, geniuses. Instead of forests with giant trees, we get scraggly saplings with roots no deeper than a thimble. If you doubt that, watch any awards show.”
”How about John Lennon or Kurt Cobain or Marie Curie or Krzysztof Kie 'slowski or-”
”We're on the same path as the dinosaurs. Nature will have its revenge, and the sooner the better. The world is obscenely overpopulated. What we need, what Noel should concoct in his laboratory, is a pathogen that would destroy half the world's population overnight.”
”Only half? So as to save a race you detest?”
Norval arched an eyebrow. ”OK, all. And I shouldn't say nature nature will have its revenge. Nothingness will have its revenge-a rogue black hole with the weight of ten million suns will take things back to that ... that not-anything state that preceded the big bang.” will have its revenge. Nothingness will have its revenge-a rogue black hole with the weight of ten million suns will take things back to that ... that not-anything state that preceded the big bang.”
”You don't say. And have there ever been ... exceptions to your general dislike of humanity? Noel, presumably?”
Norval took a drag from his Arrow. ”Correct.”
”Does he teach Symbolist lit as well? Is that where you met him? At school?”
”No. But I pulled strings to get him in. He lasted one course.”
What is my role in this conversation? Samira asked herself. Prompter? ”Why did he last only one course?”
”He had trouble understanding the students' questions.”
”Does he have ... qualifications, a degree?”
”No, but he was accepted at MIT as a teenager by getting unheard-of marks in the entrance exams. And he was asked asked to attend McGill by the Dean of Sciences.” to attend McGill by the Dean of Sciences.”
”But he didn't graduate.”
”No.”
”So what do you two ... share?”
”The relief of being wordlessly understood. A companion mind.”
”I mean, he seems so taciturn and unsure of himself and, I don't know, unhappy, whereas you seem-”
”He's a Scot. Ipso facto, not of a sanguine nature. Like his father he's got the black choler, the humour of despair. When he's down he thinks the period will never end, when he's up he thinks it will shortly end.”
<script>