GIL
I wanted to escape my present just like you wanted to escape yours. To a golden age.

DRIANA
Surely you don’t think the twenties are a golden age?

GIL
To me they are.

ADRIANA
But I’m from the twenties and I’m telling you the golden age is the Belle Époque.

GIL
Yes but don’t you see - to these guys the golden age was the Renaissance. They’d all trade the Belle Époque to paint alongside Michelangelo or Titian. And those guys probably imagine life was better when Kubla Khan was around. I’m having an insight. A minor one but that accounts for the anxiety of my dream.

ADRIANA
What dream?

GIL
Last night I dreamed I ran out of Zithromax - and then I went to the dentist and there was no novacaine - these people have no antibiotics -

ADRIANA
What are you talking about?

GIL
And even in the twenties - no dishwashers - no 911 if your appendix bursts - no “movies on demand”.

ADRIANA
But if we love each other what does it matter when we live?

GIL
Because if you stay here and this becomes your present, sooner or later you’ll imagine another time was really the golden time. And so will I - I’m beginning to see why it can’t work, Adriana. The present has a hold on you because it’s your present and while there’s never any progress in the most important things, you get to appreciate - what little progress is made - the internet - PeptoBismol. The present is always going to seem unsatisfying because life itself is unsatisfying - that’s why Gauguin goes back and forth between Paris and Tahiti, searching - it’s my job as a writer to try and come up with reasons why despite life being tragic and unsatisfying, it’s still worth it.

ADRIANA
That’s the problem with writers - you’re all so full of words - but I’m more emotional. I’m going to stay and live in Paris’ most glorious time. You made a choice to leave Paris once and you regretted it.

GIL
Yes, that one I regretted but it was a real choice and I made the wrong one. This is a choice between accepting reality or surreal insanity.