:17:02
A physicist rather.
:17:04
That must be boring, too.
Searching for the truth.
:17:09
It's hiding and you keep searching
for it.
:17:13
You dig in one place -- eureka!
The nucleus is made of protons.
:17:17
You dig in another -- great!
:17:19
Triangle ABC equals
Triangle A-prim, B-prim, C-prim.
:17:24
With me it's quite different.
:17:27
While I am digging for the truth,
so much happens to it
:17:33
that instead of discovering the truth
:17:35
I dig up a heap of, pardon...
I'd better not name it.
:17:45
You're lucky!
:17:47
But imagine some antique pot
displayed in a museum.
:17:50
It was used at its time
as a receptacle of food leftovers,
:17:53
but now it's an object of
universal admiration
:17:57
for its laconic pattern
and unique form.
:18:00
Everyone goes oh! and ah!
:18:03
And suddenly it turns out
that it's not antique at all,
:18:08
that some joker has palmed it off
on the archeologists
:18:12
just for fun.
:18:14
Strange as it may seem, the admiration
dies off. Those connoisseurs...
:18:18
Is it what you think about
all the time?
:18:23
God forbid!
:18:25
In fact, I don't think much.
It's not good for me.
:18:28
It's impossible to write, thinking
all the time of success or failure.
:18:33
Naturlich! But if no one is going
to read me in one hundred years,
:18:38
why the hell should I write at all?
:18:42
Tell me, Professor, why did you let
yourself be mixed up in all this?
:18:47
What do you need the Zone for?
:18:50
I'm a scientist in some sense.
:18:56
But what do you need it for?
:18:59
You're an "in" writer.