The following is a partial transcript from the video “Terrifying Blankness.”
CASSIE
Nobody has brought me anything for a very long time and I’m getting anxious. I’ve been waiting and waiting for a gift or an acknowledgment of some sort but nothing’s been forthcoming and I’ve been sitting on my chair in the middle of my box and I can’t think what to do with myself next if something doesn’t occur.
DAVID
My dear. You’ve done well. By coming through that door and bringing me this tiara with that golden ring with that giant diamond on top of it, which is exactly the gift I had in mind, you’re doing something proper, to tempt me and steel me against my own sense of vindictiveness.
CASSIE
They say King Arthur was one of the most generous kings. He kept his temper in check. And his knights, his beloved knights, he would regale them with honor whenever they brought him something of especial value.
DAVID
A kind of gentle, powdery snow which fell like flour over the fields so that everything was smoothed and equalized into a kind of blank, smooth whiteness, so that choice was impossible in this field of complete equality.
CASSIE
And cold Isn’t it cold? Equality is chilly on the flesh. One wants some kind of tension, does one not? Some sort of heat?
DAVID
Cheeks. The pain, the red, rosy, the cold tearing at the cheeks. The spitefulness, the spitefulness of equality.
CASSIE
Jealousy. The heat of jealousy. I want this, that I don’t have or I want that that you have or…
I’m blushing.
DAVID
I want that lemon! There’s something I want, and I want a lemon! I want a lemon right in my face, in my throat! I want to be filled with a kind of lemony displeasure.
CASSIE
Very well. Right, then. Exactly as you wish.
DAVID
Lemon Surprise?
CASSIE
Anything,
DAVID
Surprise?
CASSIE
As long as it’s lemon.
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