Contempt - Alberto Moravia [79]
As I spoke, I saw Rheingold’s half-moon smile grow narrower and narrower till it faded away altogether. Then he said, in a harsh tone and putting into his voice a Teutonic accent which he generally managed to conceal: “My dear Molteni, allow me to say that, as usual, you have understood nothing at all!”
“As usual?” I repeated, hurt.
“Yes, as usual,” asserted Rheingold; “and I say so at once because—now listen to me carefully, Molteni.”
“I’m listening, you can be sure of that.”
“I do not wish to make Ulysses, as you seem to imagine, into a man without dignity, or decency, or honor. I merely want to make him into the man who appears in the Odyssey... Who is Ulysses in the Odyssey, what does he represent? Ulysses in the Odyssey is, simply, civilized man, he represents civilization. Amongst all the other heroes who are, to be precise, non-civilized men, Ulysses is the only one who is civilized. And in what does Ulysses’ civilized quality consist? It consists in not having prejudices, in always making use of reason, at all costs, even in questions—as you say—of decency, of dignity, of honor...in being intelligent, objective, I would almost say scientific. Naturally,” Rheingold went on, “civilization has its inconveniences. It forgets, for instance, very easily, the importance that so-called questions of honor have for people who are not civilized. Penelope is not a civilized woman, she is a woman of tradition. She does not understand reason, she only understands instinct, blood, pride. Now listen carefully, Molteni, and try to understand me. Civilization, to all those who are not civilized, may appear—in fact often does appear—to be corruption, immorality, lack of principles, cynicism. That, for instance, was the complaint that Hitler, a man who was certainly not civilized, had to make against civilization, and he too talked a great deal about honor, but we know now what Hitler was and what honor meant to him. In the Odyssey—to put it briefly—Penelope represents barbarism and Ulysses civilization. Do you know, Molteni, that you, whom I thought to be civilized like Ulysses, argue just like the barbarian Penelope?”
These last words were uttered with a broad and brilliant smile: obviously Rheingold was extremely well pleased with his bright idea of comparing me to Penelope. But I felt this comparison, for some unknown reason, to be quite particularly distasteful. In fact I believe I turned pale with anger, and I said, in a voice that trembled: “If by civilization you mean that a husband should give a helping hand to the man who is courting his wife, well, my dear Rheingold, in that case I am, and I feel, a barbarian.”
This time, however, much to my surprise, Rheingold did not lose his temper. “One moment,” he said, raising his hand; “you’re not being reasonable this morning, Molteni, just like Penelope. Now let’s do this. You go off and have a swim now, and think it over. Then, tomorrow morning, come back here and tell me the result of your reflections—is that all right?”
Disconcerted, I answered: “Yes, that’s all right...but I doubt if I shall change my mind.”
“You go and think it over,” repeated Rheingold, rising and holding out his hand.
I, too, rose to my feet. Rheingold added serenely: “I’m sure that tomorrow, when you’ve thought it over, you’ll agree with me.”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. And I walked away, down the path towards the hotel.
18
I HAD NOT been with Rheingold for more than an hour: the discussion about the Odyssey had lasted about that length of time. I had, therefore, the whole day in front of me to “think it over,” as he had expressed it, to make up my mind, in fact, as to whether I accepted his interpretation or not. To tell the truth, as soon as I came out of the hotel, my first thought was by no means to meditate over Rheingold’s ideas but rather to chase away even the very memory of them and enjoy the beauty of the day. On the other hand I felt that there was something in Rheingold’s ideas that went right outside the limits