Shipwreck ( Coast of Utopia-2)

She leaves the room abruptly, leaving Herzen baffled. Belinsky is now on his knees on the floor, puzzling over some small flat wooden shapes, one of the toys. Bakunin loudly calls for attention.

BAKUNIN   My friends! Comrades! I give you a toast! The liberty of each, for the equality of all!

There is a mild, dutiful attempt to repeat the toast.

HERZEN   What does that mean? It doesn’t mean anything.

BAKUNIN   I am not free unless you, too, are free!

HERZEN   That’s nonsense. You were free when I was locked up.

BAKUNIN   Freedom is a state of mind.

HERZEN   No, it’s a state of not being locked up … of having a passport … I am devoted to you, Bakunin, I delight in the fanfare, no, the funfair of your pronouncements, I would name my child for you, but equally I would name you for my child, because everything which is simple you make difficult and everything difficult simple. You’ve made yourself a European reputation by a kind of revolutionary word-music from which it is impossible to extract an ounce of meaning, let alone a political idea, let alone a course of action. What freedom means is being allowed to sing in my bath as loudly as will not interfere with my neighbour’s freedom to sing a different tune in his. But above all, let my neighbour and I be free to join or not to join the revolutionary opera, the state orchestra, the Committee of Public Harmony …

TURGENEV   This is a metaphor, is it?

HERZEN   Not necessarily.

SAZONOV   An orchestra is a very good metaphor. There is no contradiction between individual freedom and duty to the collective—

HERZEN   I’d like to be there when they play.

SAZONOV   —because being in the orchestra is the individual right.

HERZEN   We all missed it, Plato, Rousseau, Saint-Simon, me …

BAKUNIN   The mistake is to put ideas before action. Act first! The ideas will follow, and if not—well, it’s progress.

HERZEN   Belinsky—save me from this madness!

BELINSKY   I can’t fit the pieces together to make a square—it’s a children’s puzzle, and I can’t do it …

TURGENEV   Perhaps it’s a circle.

Natalie enters and hurries to Herzen, making it up with him.

NATALIE   Alexander …?

Herzen embraces her.

GEORGE   Mir geht es besser. [I feel better.]

BELINSKY   Turgenev’s got a point …

EMMA   Georg geht es besser! [George is feeling better!]

The dialogues which follow are written to be ‘wasted’. They are spoken on top of each other, to make a continuum of word-noise.

BELINSKY   Our problem is feudalism and serfdom. What have these Western models got to do with us? We’re so big and backward!

TURGENEV   (to Belinsky) My mother’s estate is ten times the size of Fourier’s model society.

BELINSKY   I’m sick of Utopias. I’m tired of hearing about them.

Simultaneously with the above dialogue:

BAKUNIN   The Poles should go in with the Slavs. Nationalism is the only movement that’s reached a revolutionary stage. A rising of all the Slav nations! Let me finish! Three necessary conditions—break up the Austrian Empire—politicise the peasants—organise the working class!

SAZONOV   (talking over Bakunin) Some of the Poles think you’re a Tsarist agent. The French despise the Germans, the Germans distrust the French, the Austrians can’t agree with the Italians, the Italians can’t agree among themselves … but everybody hates the Russians.

Simultaneously with the above, the Servant enters to talk to Herzen.

HERZEN   (to George) Du riechst wie eine ganze Parfumerie.

[You smell like a perfume shop.]

GEORGE   Wir haben der Welt Eau de Cologne und Goethe geschenkt. [Eau de cologne and Goethe, we gave to the world.]

SERVANT   (to Herzen) Il y a deux messieurs en bas, Monsieur le Baron, qui retiennent deux fiacres. [There’s two gentlemen downstairs, Baron, keeping on two cabs.]

HERZEN   Allez les aider à descendre leurs baggages. [Please help with the luggage.]

SERVANT   Hélas, c’est mon moment de repos—c’est l’heure du café. [It’s my time to go to the café, alas.]