THE FILM SOCIETY
So I killed him. No, I didn’t. Not really. That’s just a joke. Why should I kill him? He had a right to snigger. All what-if discussions must inevitably end in a snigger–it’s impossible that they wouldn’t–simply because they’re what-if discussions, and therefore abstract. You can be as sincere and high-minded as you like in the abstract. The real test comes when something actually happens.
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His friends and colleagues are equally bereft. From his wife to his best friend to Blenheim’s proprietor, a Mr. Sutter, they all either go rubberlegged or abandon him entirely. They give up, forgetting whatever principles they might have thought they had, leaving the field free for racists and opportunists. For the people who don’t bother with what-ifs. The worst are full of passionate intensity.
