Metropolitan - Debate on Authenticity and Friendship
Charlie Black:
I don't see how you can stand him. You're always complaining about people being frauds and phoneys. This guy is the phoney of the decade, yet you act as he were your long-lost best friend.
Nick Smith:
Tom's hardly a phoney. Just mildly deluded. He's a perfectly nice guy.
Charlie Black:
That's just another aspect of his phoniness. He's a terrible phoney, and when he's not being a phoney, he's a bastard.
Nick Smith:
Oh, come on.
Charlie Black:
You saw how he treated Audrey last night.
Nick Smith:
Well, Audrey seems to have forgotten it.
Charlie Black:
She has to act that way. Otherwise it would be even more humiliating. But I don't have to pretend Tom Townsend is a nice guy.
Nick Smith:
You're really gaga about Audrey, aren't you?
Charlie Black:
If by "gaga" you mean, do I like her? Yes, I do.
Nick Smith:
Well, why don't you do something about it, instead of just going on and on about what a bastard Tom Townsend is.
Charlie Black:
What do I do? Declare myself? That would be an absolute disaster. I don't think I haven't thought about these things. But I think if the situation could just continue as it has been, they gradually, over time, it'd grow into something more. That, at least, is what I've been hoping for.
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Metropolitan - Misunderstandings and Accountability in Relationships
Charlie Black:
Where do you get off, "you're surprised"? At what? You were Audrey's escort, yet you blithely left her stranded in the middle of the dance so you can try to work things out with Serena! And then you try to shirk the whole thing off on Fred.
Tom Townsend:
I'm not trying to shirk it off on Fred. And I was not Audrey's escort. We were all there as a group. In any case, I'm very sorry there was a mixup.
Charlie Black:
There was no mixup.
Tom Townsend:
I'm sorry I left. But it wasn't intentional.
Charlie Black:
When you're an egoist, none of the harm you do is intentional!
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Metropolitan - The Complex Legacy of the Bourgeoisie
Charlie Black: [[w:The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie|The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie]
The term bourgeois has almost always been - been one of contempt. Yet it is precisely the - the bourgeoisie which is responsible for - well, for nearly everything good that has happened in our civilization over the past four centuries. You know the French film, ]? When I first heard that title I thought, "Finally, someone's gonna tell the truth about the bourgeoisie." What a disappointment. It would be hard to imagine a less fair or accurate portrait.
Sally Fowler: [[w:Luis Buñuel|Buñuel; [Surrealism|surrealist]
Well, of course. ]'s a ]. Despising the bourgeoisie is part of their credo.
Nick Smith:
Where do they get off?
Charlie Black:
But the truth is, the bourgeoisie does have a lot of charm.
Nick Smith:
Of course it does. The surrealists were just a lot of social climbers.
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Metropolitan - Debate on Socialism and Its Historical Failures
Tom Townsend: [[Charles Fourier|Fourier]
I'm a committed socialist, not a Marxist. I favor the socialist model developed by the 19th-century French social critic ].
Charlie Black:
You're a Fourierist?
Tom Townsend:
Yes.
Charlie Black: [[w:Fourierism|Fourierism]
] was tried in the late nineteenth century... and it failed. Wasn't Brook Farm Fourierist? It failed.
Tom Townsend:
That's debatable.
Charlie Black:
Whether Brook Farm failed?
Tom Townsend:
That it ceased to exist, I'll grant you, but whether or not it failed cannot be definitively said.
Charlie Black:
Well, for me, ceasing to exist is — is failure. I mean, that's pretty definitive.
Tom Townsend:
Well, everyone ceases to exist. Doesn't mean everyone's a failure.
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Metropolitan - The Nature of Belief and Loneliness
Charlie Black:
Of course there is a God. We all basically know there is.
Cynthia McLean:
I know no such thing.
Charlie Black:
Of course you do. When you think to yourself, and most of our waking life is taken up thinking to ourselves, you must have that feeling that your thoughts aren't entirely wasted, that in some sense they are being heard. Rationally, they aren't. You're entirely alone. Even the people to whom we are closest can have no real idea of what is going on in our minds. We aren't devastated by loneliness because, at a hardly conscious level, we don't accept that we're entirely alone. I think this sensation of being silently listened to with total comprehension... something you never find in real life... represents our innate belief in a supreme being, some all-comprehending intelligence.
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Metropolitan - The Complexity of Social Labels and Language
Charlie Black:
Well, I don't think "preppy" is a very useful term. I mean, it might be descriptive for someone who is still in school or college; but, it's ridiculous to refer to a man in his 70s, like Averell Harriman, as a "preppy". And none of the other terms people use - WASP, P.L.U., et cetera - are of much use either. And that's why I prefer the term "U.H.B.
Nick Smith:
What?
Charlie Black:
U.H.B. It's an acronym for Urban Haute Bourgeoisie.
Cynthia McLean:
Is our language so impoverished that we have to use acronyms or French phrases to make ourselves understood?
Charlie Black:
Yes.
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Metropolitan - Concerns of Downward Social Mobility
Charlie Black:
I think that - that - that we are all, in a sense, doomed.
Nick Smith:
What are you talking about?
Charlie Black:
Downward social mobility. We hear a lot about the great social mobility in America with the focus usually on the comparative ease of moving upwards. What's less discussed is how easy it is to - to go down. I think that's the - the direction that we're all heading in. And I think that the downward fall is gonna be very fast. Not just for us as individuals, but the whole preppy class.
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Barcelona - The Dynamics of Sales and Identity
Ted Boynton:
Have you ever heard of Maneuver X? When you get deeply into sales, you realize that every major transaction involves a mini identity crisis for the buyer. You think, "Green carpet. Am I really a green carpet person?" In romance, the same thing applies but on a humongous scale. But what is Maneuver X? It's removing all pressure, creating a space that the customer has to affirmatively cross. Only by disappearing more thoroughly and inexplicably than Montserrat can I change the current dynamic. Will it? I don't know. I think it will. If not, I'm dead.
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Barcelona - The Limits of Positive Thinking
Ted Boynton:
Positive thinking is fine in theory. But whenever I try it on a systematic basis... I end up really depressed.
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