Camus Crosses The Street, parts 821 - 825

821. "You know", said the Duck to Buboni, "I have read all of those existential writers who try to convince everyone that life has no meaning, their writings are quite elegant, and there arguments very convincing but there is not a one of them who would not look both ways before crossing a busy Paris street, because actually they were phonies."

822. Smoking their pipes and drinking fine wine, sitting in their well appointed living rooms with a view of Paris, the Seine and the Pont Neuf, they set down their wine glass, lay aside their pipes and type a few lines about the meaninglessness of existence, and then go out for a few drinks at a cafe with their intellectual friends. And they all agree that the marvelous lives they are leading, are actually without any purpose at all. 

823. Outside around a corner a blind beggar asks for alms. He is old and sick and lately has come to the conclusion that he has not long to live and yet he still asks for a copper from a passing stranger, because he intends to savor the dregs of the wine of his life, even to the last swallow. 

824. Because he knows, as Dostoevsky knew, that life forever poised on a narrow ledge on the edge of a cliff can be enjoyed, and is infinitely superior to eternal nothingness. Here are  Fyodor Mikhailovich's words about it:

825. Dostoevsky: "Where is it I've read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once! Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be!" 

Camus Crosses The Street, parts 817 - 820

817. "For shame Buboni,", said the Duck. "Do you mean to tell me that you think that just because Marie Antoinette dies on the guillotine this means that her life was pointless. That would be the attitude of a self-centered person who thinks that other lives are just a story with a plot, and if you know the end there is no point to watching the movie."

818. "That is not my attitude at all", said Buboni "I am drawing a distinction between two types of lives. Consider Michelangelo, he worked at his art his entire life, was always successful, beloved by everyone, and in old age died happy with what he had done. But then think of Marie, she wanted to be a great queen of France, beloved by the people, and instead she was hated and killed. So you could say her life was a failure and a waste." 

819. That reversal of purpose, when your life's work produces the exact opposite of all that you intended is what inspired the existentialists to write about life as being absurd and pointless.

820. Buboni could not convince the Duck with his existential argument, his idea that life might be looked at as a long sequence of meaningless events culminating in the crowning indignity of death? The idea was of no use to him, he rejected it utterly.

Camus Crosses The Street, parts 813 - 816

813. When the Duck finished narrating his stories, Buboni made some interesting observations. "Duck", he said, "I suppose the real point of the story about Vivaldi and the choir of orphans is this interesting fact that Vivaldi turns out to be Netochka's father. We may have suspected this conclusion to the story if we were paying attention at the beginning when you said that Vivaldi was a priest in name only who enjoyed the fair sex."

814.  But I for one did not see the conclusion coming, and I have to commend you on your storytelling skills in that you suspended the most important point until the last word, since the last word of your story is indeed 'daughter'. And not only that but you didn't bother to foreshadow the conclusion like so many storytellers would do.

 815. We did not know how that story would end till the last word, and it is interesting to compare the Vivaldi story with the earlier one about Marie Antoinette. In the story of Marie Antoinette the Duck gives us all sorts of details about when she is just ten years old, but we know already how the story of Marie Antoinette is going to end, when she is 37 years old and a young mother she will have her head chopped off.

816. Does the knowledge of the conclusion of Marie Antoinette's story affect our reaction. Does the thought run through your mind, 'what difference does it make if Marie learns a piece of music in time for Mozart's visit since no matter what she does she is doomed to tragedy in the end. Do the hanging storm clouds which will bring inevitable tragedy render all the little tender details of her young life superfluous. To the scaffold, let's be done with it, who cares about her childish pranks.

Vivaldi, parts 809 - 812

Images for 809 - 812 by Richard Britell

809. "I am just a simple teacher of music, and my father was only a viola player and transcriber of manuscripts. I have never composed any music, and as for opera, why I would not have any idea where to begin." said the music tutor.

810. But the girls were not to be dissuaded, if the tutor was not going to write an opera for them, they would write an opera themselves, and he would just have to help them do it. He would be the transcriber and the copyist, and they would do all the composing.

811. "But girls,", said the tutor, "You can't even start on an opera unless you have some idea to plan the entire thing around. What would your opera be about, who would be its heroes, who the villains, where would it take place? And even more than that, what would be the purpose of the opera, what would be its message?" With such questions he sought to discourage the girls from such a difficult project.

812. Marie Antoinette was ready for the question and said, "The opera will take place in the royal kitchens, a feast will be the setting. The royals will eat a huge meal in the dining room and retire to the ballroom, the dining room will be invaded by poor people who will eat up the leftovers. The poor people will become drunk and shout insults at the king and the queen.  Then the cooks and servants will return to clean up the dining room, and drive the poor out of the dining room and into the night. 

Vivaldi, parts 805 - 808

805. One's eye searches the faces to combine the sound with the features amidst the crowd. Finally the eye and the ear make the connection, and the face somehow explains everything.  After the music is over  many people will search out that singer and ask for an autograph, but they really just want a closer look, because they are recognizing a future Prima Donna.

806. Such was Netochka's voice, and she did go on to become a Prima Donna. When she was older her performances were in demand all over Europe, and even after she married and raised five children, still she continued her successful singing career. 

807. The nuns of the orphanage were not surprised about Netochka’s success, they suspected it would happen. It was not just all the attention Vivaldi lavished on the girl, it was something else. It was her flaming red hair and her freckles which were exactly like Vivaldi's. They were quite certain that Netochka was Vivaldi's daughter.  

808. The music tutor did not know how Marie Antoinette and Gloria would react to his little story about Vivaldi, but their reaction took him completely by surprise. What interested them the most was the business of Vivaldi's composing a piece of music especially for the orphan girls. "Please compose an opera for us dear music tutor", pleaded the girls, "please oh please"

Vivaldi, parts 801 - 804

801. In the room the girls found several pairs of  cotton tights, as well as gauze pads to be placed in vulnerable places. Once the layers of stockings and padding were in place the girls were taken one at a time to be whipped. They felt nothing but knew they were supposed to scream bloody murder. The leather strap was wielded with terrible cruelty, but did no harm. Everyone was happy with the outcome except for Vivaldi, who, completely taken in by the charade, suffered terrible pangs of guilt.

802. Many months went by before Netochka and Simmona were allowed returned to choir practice again. When they returned they seemed to Vivaldi to have completely grown up, their voices had matured, especially Netochka, and Vivaldi was able to give her difficult solo parts which she executed with confidence.

803. During this time Vivaldi had also changed. He no longer felt that the teaching of the orphan girls was a waste of his time. The memory of their rendering of his little oratorio about Agamemnon remained in his mind, and he began to compose vocal works of great majesty, especially for the girl's choir.

804. He was especially motivated to create works featuring Netochka. What was Netochka's voice like? Sometimes one hears a huge choir singing in some concert  hall and among those voices in the crowd of singers one detects one individual voice that has a strangeness about it, perhaps it is a reedy quality, or an inexplicable darkness.

Vivaldi, parts 797 - 800

797. Poor Vivaldi, if the orphanage fathers had not been in the choir room he would have found the caterwauling of the girls just as funny as the girls did even if he would have pretended to be angry, but under the circumstances he had to demand their punishment.

798. As usually happens in these situations it was decided to punish the 'ringleaders', that is Netochka, and Simmona. Even though all the girls had joined in, it was those two who were singled out for punishment.

799. The girls were beaten with a leather strap, a punishment administered by a nun, and witnessed by a committee of six of the elder nuns. I know you are expecting to hear terrible details of a severe punishment but that was not the case. The fact was, many of the nuns of the orphanage had been inmates of the same institution when they were young. The old leather strap about to be used on Netochka and Simmona was the same strap that had been used on them when they were children.

800. Over the years an elaborate scheme had been worked out between the elder nuns and the young girls about how to deal with these punishments. The girls to be punished first had to be locked up in a small room where they were to pray for forgiveness for a full hour on their knees.