ELEVEN.

1.

The drizzle continued, and when I arrived at noon the next day there wasn't even anyone around to bribe. I had picked up two blankets for Ishmael at an ArmyNavy store-and had one for myself to keep him in countenance. He accepted them with gruff thanks but seemed glad enough to put them to use. We sat for a while wallowing in our misery, then he reluctantly began.

"Shortly before my departure-I don't remember what occasioned the question-you asked me when we were going to get to the story enacted by the Leavers."

"Yes, that's right."

"Why are you interested in knowing that story?"

The question nonplussed me. "Why wouldn't I be interested in knowing it?"

"I'm asking what the point is, in your mind. You know that Abel is all but dead."

"Well . . . yes."

"Then why learn the story he was enacting?"

"Again, why not not learn it?" learn it?"

Ishmael shook his head. "I don't care to proceed on that basis. The fact that I can't give you reasons for not not learning something doesn't supply me with a reason for teaching it." learning something doesn't supply me with a reason for teaching it."

He was clearly in a bad mood. I couldn't blame him, but I couldn't much sympathize either, since it was he who had insisted on having it this way.

He said: "Is it just a matter of curiosity for you?"

"No, I wouldn't say that. You said in the beginning that two stories have been enacted here. I now know one of them. It seems natural that I'd want to know the other one."

"Natural . . ." he said, as if it wasn't a word he much liked. "I wish you could come up with something that has a bit more heft. Something that would give me the feeling I wasn't the only one here who was supposed to be using his brain."

"I'm afraid I don't see what you're getting at."

"I know you don't, and that's what irks me. You've become a passive listener here, turning your brain off when you sit down and turning it on when you get up to leave."

"I don't think that's true."

"Then tell me why it isn't just a waste of time for you to learn a story that is now all but extinguished."

"Well, I I don't consider it a waste of time." don't consider it a waste of time."

"That's not good enough. The fact that something is not a waste of time not a waste of time does not inspire me to do it." does not inspire me to do it."

I shrugged helplessly.

He shook his head, totally disgusted. "You really do think that learning this would be pointless. That's obvious."

"It's not obvious to me."

"Then you think it has a point?"

"Well . . . yes."

"What point?"

"God . . . I want want to learn it, that's the point." to learn it, that's the point."

"No. I won't proceed on that basis. I want want to proceed, but not if all I'm doing is satisfying your curiosity. Go away and come back when you can give me some authentic reason for going on." to proceed, but not if all I'm doing is satisfying your curiosity. Go away and come back when you can give me some authentic reason for going on."

"What would an authentic reason sound sound like? Give me an example." like? Give me an example."

"All right. Why bother to learn what story is being enacted here by the people of your own culture?"

"Because enacting that story is destroying the world."

"True. But why bother learning it?"

"Because that's obviously something that should be known."

"Known by whom?"

"By everyone."

"Why? That's what I keep coming back to. Why, why, why? Why should your people know what story they're enacting as they destroy the world?"

"So they can stop stop enacting it. So they can see that they're not just blundering as they do what they do. So they can see that they're involved in a megalomaniac fantasy-a fantasy as insane as the Thousand Year Reich." enacting it. So they can see that they're not just blundering as they do what they do. So they can see that they're involved in a megalomaniac fantasy-a fantasy as insane as the Thousand Year Reich."

"That's what makes the story worth knowing?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad to hear it. Now go away and come back when you can explain what makes the other story worth knowing."

"I don't need to go away. I can explain it now."

"Go ahead."

"People can't just give up give up a story. That's what the kids tried to do in the sixties and seventies. They tried to stop living like Takers, but there was no other way for them to live. They failed because you can't just stop being in a story, you have to have another story to be in." a story. That's what the kids tried to do in the sixties and seventies. They tried to stop living like Takers, but there was no other way for them to live. They failed because you can't just stop being in a story, you have to have another story to be in."

Ishmael nodded. "And if there is such a story, people should hear about it?"

"Yes, they should."

"Do you think they want want to hear about it?" to hear about it?"

"I don't know. I don't think you can start wanting something till you know it exists."

"Very true."

2.

"And what do you suppose this story is about?"

"I have no idea."

"Do you suppose it's about hunting and gathering?"

"I don't know."

"Be honest. Haven't you been expecting some noble paean to the mysteries of the Great Hunt?"

"I'm not aware of expecting anything like that."

"Well, you should at least know that it's about the meaning of the world, about divine intentions in the world, and about the destiny of man."

"Yes."

"As I've said half a dozen times, man became became man enacting this story. You should remember that." man enacting this story. You should remember that."

"Yes, I do."

"How did did man become man?" man become man?"

I examined that one for booby traps and gave it back. "I'm not sure what the question means," I said. "Or rather I'm not sure what kind of answer you want. Obviously you don't want me to say that man became man by evolving."

"That would just mean that he became man by becoming man, wouldn't it?"

"Yes."

"So the question is still there waiting to be answered: How did man become man?"

"I suppose it's one of those very obvious things."

"Yes. If I gave you the answer, you'd say, 'Oh. Well of course, but so what?' "

I shrugged, defeated.

"We'll have to approach it obliquely then-but keep it in mind as a question that needs answering."

"Okay."

3.

"According to Mother Culture, what kind of event was your agricultural revolution?"

"What kind kind of event . . . I'd say that, according to Mother Culture, it was a technological event." of event . . . I'd say that, according to Mother Culture, it was a technological event."

"No implication of deeper human resonances, cultural or religious?"

"No. The first farmers were just neolithic technocrats. That's the way it's always seemed."

"But after our look at chapters three and four of Genesis, you see there was a great deal more to it than Mother Culture teaches."

"Yes."

"Was and is a great deal more to it, of course, since the revolution is still in progress. Adam is still chewing the fruit of that forbidden tree, and wherever Abel can still be found, Cain is there too, hunting him down, knife in hand."

"That's right."

"There's another indication that the revolution goes deeper than mere technology. Mother Culture teaches that, before the revolution, human life was devoid of meaning, was stupid, empty, and worthless. Prerevolutionary life was ugly. Detestable."

"Yes."

"You believe that yourself, don't you?"

"Yes, I suppose I do."

"Certainly most of you believe it, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes."

"Who would be the exceptions?"

"I don't know. I suppose . . . anthropologists."

"People who actually have some knowledge of that life."

"Yes."

"But Mother Culture teaches that that life was unspeakably miserable."