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SCENE II. On Battles, Wars, and Meaning

1 CHRISTIANUS. So what takes you to London, Katherine?

2 KATHERINE. British Airways, as usual.

3 CHRISTIANUS. Of course! I certainly do remember that you have some affinity for their evening flights and their comfy-cosy little six-feet-plus beds. But I mean, what are you doing here? Isn’t the suing market better on the other side of the Atlantic? [9] [10]

4 KATHERINE. Sure it’s better. I am swamped!

5 CHRISTIANUS. Sounds very Floridian, indeed.

6 KATHERINE. Yes. So, I’m not here on business.

7 CHRISTIANUS. But it’s not pleasure either, is it?

8 KATHERINE. No, it’s more an attempt to get away, to stay sane.

9 CHRISTIANUS. Time out?

10 KATHERINE. Definitely.

11 CHRISTIANUS. Running out of steam?

12 KATHERINE. Sort of.

13 CHRISTIANUS. Anything you want to share?

14 KATHERINE. Well, there are so many things that are worrisome.

15 CHRISTIANUS. Like what?

16 KATHERINE. Well, just take all that fighting that is still going on in Iraq. Just yesterday they hanged Saddam’s old VP, on the anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. [11]

17 CHRISTIANUS. Yes, I heard about that. And it’s four years now since it all started, isn’t it?

18 KATHERINE. Yes — and one day. And Bush is still pursuing that war, even though he doesn’t have the full support of the American people. [12]

19 CHRISTIANUS. But that’s hardly any news, is it?

20 KATHERINE. No. But it’s still problematic. And the problem is not just that it fits badly with democratic principles.

21 CHRISTIANUS. How do you mean?

22 KATHERINE. Well, the bigger issue is that we don’t know what the war is for anymore. What’s the goal of all this fighting, now that both Saddam and his VP are permanently done away with?

23 CHRISTIANUS. But isn’t the official story that the troops are there to stabilize the Iraqi region, until it cools down? Or at least until the Iraqis are able to handle their security issues themselves?

24 KATHERINE. Sure. But how can we truly believe that story? Anyone with an IQ of 20 or more must realize that it is more or less impossible to achieve any stability in that region under the present circumstances. It’s a civil war, and the citizens are practically willing to do just about anything, including blowing themselves up, to demonstrate their discontent and determination.

25 CHRISTIANUS. So it’s a war that cannot be won by either the U.S.-led troops or by the Iraqi government, you say?

26 KATHERINE. Yes, that’s approximately my position. They may of course win an individual battle or two; but not the war itself.

27 CHRISTIANUS. Yes, civil wars are always difficult — even according to some American scholars. [13]

28 KATHERINE. Yes, especially for governments: for they are no longer in control!

29 CHRISTIANUS. Indeed! But I don’t understand what all of this has to do with you, personally? Where’s the connection?

30 KATHERINE. Well, I am in the midst of an ongoing war myself, a war that also cannot be won.

31 CHRISTIANUS. A war?

32 KATHERINE. Well, I am a lawyer, right? And I am drawn into new battles, all the time.

33 CHRISTIANUS. Yes, but isn’t that what lawyers like yourself are supposed to be doing?

34 KATHERINE. Sure. And that’s my problem: I am not satisfied with what I am doing all day long.

35 CHRISTIANUS. How come?

36 KATHERINE. Well, even though I actually do manage to win many of those individual cases that I take on, I don’t feel that I am accomplishing anything in the big picture by winning them.

37 CHRISTIANUS. But doesn’t it feel good to fight all that Miami vice?

38 KATHERINE. Sure, sometimes. But that feeling is not enough. My point is that vice is always going to be there, with or without me. In other words, whatever I do, I can never permanently put an end to it anyway. So it feels meaningless to continue. It’s a war that I cannot win, regardless of how hard I try. It’s meaningless.

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Notes (SCENE II)

[9] II:3, comfy-cosy: Christianus presumably uses this construction here not just to be more concise and economical (a less concise way of expressing himself might have been, for example, ‘comfy and cosy’). One reason could be that he wants to add a certain rhythm to the sentence that otherwise would not have been there; and maybe he feels that a hendiadys construction would not create, in the present case, the desired ‘phonaesthetic effect’ that it is sometimes used for (McArthur 1992, p. 468). Another reason could be that he wants to avoid hendiadys-related interpretation issues, such as the one in which Hahn claims that hendiadys is a ‘misnomer’ in regards to Virgil, and that when Virgil wrote as if his ideas were two, ‘he really did have two’ (Preminger, Warnke, and Hardison, Jr. 1965, p. 344; my emphasis).

TOM MCARTHUR, ed. (1992), The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

ALEX PREMINGER, FRANK J. WARNKE, and O. B. HARDISON, JR. (1965), Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

[10] II:3, six-feet-plus beds: British Airways [http://www.britishairways.com] has offered, and may still offer, their First Class customers ‘ergonomically designed 6ft 6" beds’ for ‘[u]nparalleled comfort and privacy’ on their Boeing 747 jets flying from Miami to London. BA seemingly offered this service both on their late afternoon flights (BA0206) and on their evening flights (BA0208).

[11] II:16, hanged: Mariam Karouny reports: ‘Saddam Hussein's former vice president was hanged for crimes against humanity early on Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein from power’ (2007).

MARIAM KAROUNY (2007), ‘Saddam VP hanged on 4th anniversary of invasion’. Reuters [http://www.reuters.com], Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 4:38 EDT.

[12] II:18, full support: Adam Tanner writes: ‘Polls show most Americans now oppose the war in Iraq’ (2007).

ADAM TANNER (2007), ‘More than 100 arrested in Iraq protests’. Reuters [http://www.reuters.com], Tuesday, 20 March 2007, 9:06 EDT.

[13] II:27, American scholars: Christianus may here refer to scholars such as Ghobarah, Huth, and Russett who in one paper conclude that it is ‘not very surprising’ that civil wars kill and maim people (2003, p. 189). Some of their other brilliant observations are: ‘[c]ivil wars continue to kill people indirectly, well after the shooting stops’ (p. 189), and ‘civil wars greatly raise the subsequent risk of death and disability from many infectious diseases, including malaria, tuberculosis, and other infectious respiratory diseases’ (p. 200).

HAZEM ADAM GHOBARAH, PAUL HUTH, BRUCE RUSSETT (2003), ‘Civil Wars Kill and Maim People—Long After the Shooting Stops’ in American Political Science Review, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 189–202.

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HOW TO CITE: Bo C. Klintberg (2008), ‘On Battles, Wars, and Meaning’ in Katherine’s Questionable Quest for Love and Happiness. Online edition of Philosophical Plays, 1 Jan. 2008. Retrieved [today’s date] from http://philosophicalplays.googlepages.com/pgKQQv1sc02.htm.

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