Daily Dialogue — September 5, 2013

DARYL: This is my bedroom, I deserve a little luxury. You have to take care of yourself, nobody’s going to do that for you. Are they?
ALEX: Excuse me, but what exactly do you think you are doing?
DARYL: I’m being as direct as I know how. I thought you’d appreciate that. And anyway, I always like a little pussy after lunch. What do you say?
ALEX: Are you trying to seduce me?
DARYL: No. I wouldn’t dream of seducing you, Alexandra. I wouldn’t insult your intelligence with anything as trivial as seduction. But I would love to fuck you.
ALEX: I do appreciate your directness, Daryl. And I will try to be direct and honest with you, too. I think… no, I know. I am absolutely sure that you are the most unattractive man I have ever met. You are vulgar, stupid, insensitive, selfish, egotistical, you have no taste, a lousy sense of humor and you smell. You are physically repulsive, intellectually retarded, and morally reprehensible. In the short time that we have been together, you have demonstrated every loathsome characteristic of the male personality and even discovered a few new ones. You are a creep. A jerk. You are not clean. And you’re not even interesting enough to make me sick. Understood?

Daryl sits in the bed smiling.

DARYL: Do you like to be on top or on the bottom?
ALEX: Goodbye, Daryl. Thanks for lunch.

She turns to go.

DARYL: Well. If that’s the way you feel about it, then that’s the way you feel about it.

Alex stops. She turns to face him.

DARYL: Is that the way you feel about it?
ALEX: Who are you?
DARYL: Just your average horny little devil.
ALEX: I have to get home.

Daryl’s tone changes. Suddenly he is calm, quiet, direct and very gentle. And painfully accurate.

DARYL: What is it you have to go home to, Alex? There’s nobody there. Is there? What’ll you do? Wait for the kid to come home? Make some coffee? Do a little house cleaning? Pop a few more dolls in the oven? What’s the point? The kid can take care of herself. She’ll grab some food, fall asleep on her bed doing her homework. I promise. And house cleaning. Well. You clean up the dirt, there’ll be some more tomorrow. Make the beds, they just have to be made again tomorrow. Wash the dishes, you’ll wash them again tomorrow.
ALEX: I have to…
DARYL:… Make dinner? It just gets eaten, doesn’t it? You’ve done your best, Alex. You’ve done the wife bit, the motherhood bit, the garden club, the car-pools, the cocktail parties, coffee in the morning with the cleaning lady, a couple of drinks, a couple of pills, a little psychoanalysis — where are you now?
ALEX: I don’t know…
DARYL: Pretending to be somebody else. Pretending to be half of what you are. How long can you last like that? The world keeps growing, you feed it, but it doesn’t feed you anymore. Does it? It washes through you, wasted, down the drain. A woman is a hole, isn’t that what they say? All the futility of the world pouring into her. How much can you take, Alex? How much before you snap?

Alex is dizzy. The truth of what he’s saying is hurting.

ALEX: Don’t…
DARYL: Lying on a bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for something to happen. And knowing all the time that you were meant for something better. Feeling it. Wanting it. Having so much power. Use it, Alex. Use me. Use me. I’ll be your hole. Fill me up. I want your magic. I can take it. Make it happen. No. Don’t wait. Time is a killer. Make it happen. Do it, Alex. Do it now.

Tears are coming involuntarily from Alex’s eyes. She moves to the bed. She crawls into Daryl’s arms. He
cradles her. The bed and the black sheets slowly enfolding Alex’s body.

— The Witches of Eastwick (1987), written by Michael Cristofer, novel by John Updike

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is seduction, suggested by Despina. Today’s suggestion by blknwite.

Trivia: The quote “A woman is a hole, isn’t that what they say? All the futility of the world pouring into her” is from the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s book, “Being and Nothingness”.

Dialogue On Dialogue: As I watched this scene, I made an interesting connection, the famous scene in The Silence of the Lambs where Lecter ‘reads’ Clarice:

“You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste. Good nutrition’s given you some length of bone, but you’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? And that accent you’ve tried so desperately to shed: pure West Virginia. What is your father, dear? Is he a coal miner? Does he stink of the lamp? You know how quickly the boys found you… all those tedious sticky fumblings in the back seats of cars… while you could only dream of getting out… getting anywhere… getting all the way to the FBI.”

And, indeed, it turns out Lecter does want to be with Clarice romantically as proved by the sequel. So perhaps his brutally honest take on Clarice is the first step in his seduction of her a la Daryl with Alexandra.