Leaves of Grass
(Bill)
The scene is Athens,
A bunch
of the local brainiacs
have gotten together.
The wine is being passed
and the ideas are flowing
fast and furious.
The debate's in full force.
And Socrates has the floor.
Who enters?
Alcibiades. Drunk.
A beautiful man.
Hopelessly in love
with his mentor, Socrates.
And uniquely,
in all of these dialogs,
Socrates doesn't
get the last word.
Alcibiades does. Why?
(Bill)
Because passion,
Plato seems to be saying,
is essentially
and mercilessly human.
And the best
that we can hope
to do is to quell it
through relentless discipline.
To Socrates,
the healthy life is
comprised of constant focus
by the individual
that weaken or
confuse his understanding
He implores us
to devote our lives
to this kind of control.
Meaning, our every
waking moment.
Socrates recognized
what every philosopher
and religion, for that matter
in the history of the world,
from Plato to Aristotle
from Epicurus to the Stoics
from the Judeo-Christians
to the Buddhists
have all observed
which is that
the balance needed
for a happy life is illusory.
And as soon as
in our gorgeously
flawed human way
we think
that we've attained it
we're pretending divinity
and we're gonna crash.
Like Icarus,
flaming into the sea.
this weekend when you think
you're on top of the world
and then you pour
a pitcher of beer
down your throat
and chase
that upper classmen
who's out of your league.
Aristotle is next week.
Don't just look
at it as words.
Imagine the scene.
These were people. They
were alive like you and me.
They thought things.
Breath them into life.
[Bells toll]
(Anne)
So, I was thinking
about doing this contrast
between dialog
and chorus in Sophocles.
You should
read Nietzsche's
Birth of Tragedy.
He says that tragedy
emerges from the clash
between Apollo God
of reason and harmony
and Dionysus,
God of intoxication.
And that their struggle
within our human condition
is inevitable
and that that
is what has produced
the most
salient form of art
the world's ever known.
Tragedy?
What, you don't think so?
I like comedies.
You wanna see a movie?
No, Miss Greenstein.
I'm sorry.
Did you get my note?
I did.
And?
It was very clever
to write it in Latin.
With the repeated use
of the passive periphrastic?
That's quite profligate.
And how I was
sending Cicero
with alliterative adjectives
thrusting themselves
into the verbs?
None of this
was lost on me.
So?
Miss Greenstein.
You are very, very bright
and very fetching
in your way.
But there
are certain rules
mores if you will,
lines that we don't cross.
I'm not joking, actually
and I'm gonna ask you
in the future to refrain...
No. No!
Please don't do that.
I'm going to ask you
to open that door,
Miss Greenstein.
(in Latin)
Lingua sed torpet,
tenuis sub artis.
Catullus 51,
the Lesbia cycle, yes.
However...
Oh, no-no-no!
Absolutely not.
(in Latin)
Tintinant aures
gemina et teguntur.
This is, don't,
this is not good
for either of us. No!
Oh!
Excuse me!
Uh, I'll, I'll...
Uh, Maggie.
Maggie!
Please don't go.
Miss Greenstein
was just leaving.
Maggie.
Absolutely nothing.
You don't
have to say anything.
I would never.
She, she, she
went and just wah.
They're all
in love with you.
Just like Harvard.
Who told you that?
This is the Classics
Department. No one is more
gossipy than you people.
Okay. I am going
to Cambridge in the morning.
It's just a lunch.
I don't want to know.
[Rock music]
[Heavy twangy accent]
We don't deal
in crystal meth.
We don't deal in cocaine
Not your rock stuff
or your powder.
We don't deal in nothin'
you gotta cook up in a spoon
and shoot in through your arm.
Pills? Pharmaceuticals?
Hell no, by and large.
Maybe, well, maybe
the Black Molly's gonna
on its way
to somewheres else, just
on the account of the fact
in high school. They helped
me get my homework done.
But that's generally
where we draw the line.
No, sir.
We're dealing 100
percent pure Oklahoma grown.
Exclusive. Why?
'Cause I ain't gonna
blow my house up
mixing antihistamine
into dynamite.
And spiritually, I don't
cotton to something that's
gotta pass through a needle.
Chemicals, well,
I just don't like 'em.
Our people was
bootleggers 'fore all this.
It was
a backyard operation.
They did it natural.
A little bit more
of a science nowadays.
I will grant you that.
(Shaver)
He say you change
your mind, get you up north.
(Bolger)
He said Texas?
Texas ain't
gonna happen.
(Waddell)
Think we don't
wanna sell in Texas?
Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri.
[Snorts and spits]
I ain't interested.
He say
you better
get interested.
Meanin' what?
Meanin' your choice
is to expand your business
or we shut
you down entire.
Then how you gonna
pay your debt?
Well, what happened
to Fatback?
Arrested last week.
And the Rawls feller?
Blowed his house up.
(Brady)
That's what
I'm talking about.
Well, it's
tough times.
Ain't it
the truth.
Used to get
a good set of dogs, pay
off your constable and just
lived out on the property.
Get your little
and be like growin' soy beans.
Even the War on Drugs
passed us by.
Now they have
the War on Terror.
Not that I ain't
interested in the travails
of a small-time dealer.
You calling me
small time?
We gotta
make it to Tulsa.
I was the first
grower to use hydroponics.
What's that?
Germinating the seed
in water, you shithead.
You know how many generations
of hybridization I did
to get top varietals?
There is a goddamn
reason I grow the best.
Enough, Brady.
What's it gonna be?
Pug wants his money.
Well, if I'd've known
about a time table, we'd...
Shut your face
about a time table.
He's offering you
a way out. You sure
as sh*t better take it.
Or he'll bust
open your glory hole
like nobody's business.
[Suspense music
builds up to
soft rock]
We should turn these.
I ain't gonna
manufacture or purvey
anything that
I won't ingest
into my own sweet self.
Look you, here.
How you gonna call
that a controlled substance?
Well, the government do.
Look at the bud
structure on it.
The crystal density?
The smell of them turpins.
You can't
synthesize that.
That is nature's delivery
system for goodness.
Distilled into
a pure form.
It glides down
into your belly and blooms
into a feeling of peace.
That world is gonna
be there, no matter
how much grass you smoke.
Now look here. You
wanted to build the f***in'
Taj Mahal to hydroponics.
Well?
And you done it.
But you know what you
was getting into.
And he sure as sh*t
ain't going away.
Brady,
My mind's working on it.
[Soft country music]
Hey ya, Sharon.
Where she at?
Oh, she's
in her usual spot.
Hi, Joe.
Brady.
Hey, Momma.
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"Leaves of Grass" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/leaves_of_grass_12372>.
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