Last day of class today and, in my “War” course, we finished with a reading of Tony Kushner’s terrifying play “Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy.” These are the playwright’s stage directions: “Three children in pajamas and bathrobes sit in small chairs in a neat row. Behind them, an angel is standing. Before them, facing them, a large comfortable armchair, unoccupied. Beautiful light. The angel is, and remains throughout the play, unfailingly kind and polite.” The children are Iraqi and they are all dead. This is the first time that the First Lady is reading to dead children. She is excited by the prospect and genuinely curious about them, even though they cannot speak and only make sounds resembling bird music. Here’s an excerpt from the play which must rate as one of the contemporary classics of our unfortunate, fucked-up world–a reminder, if one were needed, that literature, just like religion, doesn’t save you from your complicity in the murder of children:

LAURA BUSH: It’s my favorite passage from my favorite book, children. The book is a Russian novel of the nineteenth century, and it’s called The Brothers Karamazov, and the section I love most from this wonderful book is called “The Grand Inquisitor.” Well, it’s a little strong for live children, so I usually read them, oh, you know, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but I figured, being dead, you all command a broader view, and I hope you’re going to like it. I think you will!

ANGEL: Who is the author?

LAURA BUSH: A reactionary Christian mystic epileptic compulsive gambler anti-Semitic Russian nationalist genius genius genius named Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky! Some people say he was the greatest novelist ever, and I agree with those people, he was! I love him, I really sort of am in love with him. I think he and I would have had a real understanding. He wasn’t so nice, apparently, but he would have gotten me, I think, you know? What I go through, daily, in my heart. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky was I think…sometimes I think the only man who could really understand me, and many, many women feel this way. At least in Texas we do. They broke a sword over his head, Dostoyevsky, then they tied him to a post and over and over they were going to shoot him for treason but they didn’t, it was a sick joke, can you imagine children, how ghastly, knowing, just knowing you were going to die and then, and then…you open your eyes and you are still alive! Still alive! How horrible! To be still alive! If my husband had been in charge back then Dostoyevsky would’ve been dead for sure–my husband, he executed everyone they told him to, everyone they let him, I should say, my God, a hundred-and-something people and he never even missed his early, early bedtime, nor for that matter, from what I could see as I sat up reading and rereading Dostoyevsky, ever even stirred in his sleep! Notes From the Underground, The Possessed, The Idiot and he’d be all, like (she imitates a hideous bass snore:) KKKKKKKZZZZZZNNNNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxx.

Photo by Paul Morse from the White House website.

tony-kushner-laura-bush