Topical Malady

Wallace Shawn has called a secret meeting of the bourgeoisie. Not for the vulgar elites but the cultivated kind. These are people Shawn abhors, adores, and recognizes as his own: intellectuals and aesthetes, artists with expendable incomes. These are people who keep up to date on global politics and furnish their homes with tasteful objects from around the world. But don’t think for a moment they don’t care about the plight of the less fortunate! They give generously to charity, acknowledge life’s injustices and empathize with those who suffer. Behind these closed doors, one member addresses the bunch. He’s not quite Shawn, but he’s not not Shawn. He’s traveled to a series of poor, unnamed countries in Latin America and returned with stories of leftist insurgency and its sweeping counterrevolutionary repression. But something is not right. This traveler is afflicted—not by germs or disease but a psychic malady. He’s trying to get away from something. Away with something. They all are. You’re in attendance, so it would appear that you’re one of them. You’re getting away with something too.