Excerpt F

[After jousting about being interrogated on tape about a tape, then laughing about Dave's spilling honey on the rug, Laura picks up the earlier discussion.]

Laura: Frank, what's your conclusion? Do you think it was unethical for you to do that?

Frank: I was explaining...that...because the only parties whom I imagined would ever hear this were the parties who made the tape, that it was merely a record and not a means of exposure. It was not at all meant for public consumption.

Laura: There are...there are other issues to be considered.

Frank: What's the big deal?

Laura: Namely that, namely that I was deceived...and it was a conversation that required trust, and (voice trails off).

Frank: But how are you deceived?

[Laura and Frank together]

Laura: Because I was being...because

Frank: When we converse are you deceived?

Laura: Because I was being vulnerable and really sort of...

Frank: So you would be the only one to hear it besides me.

Laura: Wait a minute? Amin..amin..aminnnnn...Wait!...And really reaching in and pulling out things which were very difficult for me to say because I thought and was under the impression that we were resolving something between us, things that potentially were....

Frank: We were, for all times.

Laura: But you were doing that but at the same time you were performing for the tape which kind of removed you.

Frank: But performing for the tape was...ahem...performing...

Laura: Frank...

Frank: ...only for you.

Laura: [laughs] Frank, that's completely turning around what I'm trying to say, which is...No, that's not good enough. You're performing for yourself and you're performing for the tape and you want your....It's a performance. And the outcome is not how you would have sounded under the circumstances...and not...under...

Frank: But I do that anyway.

Laura: Under the circumstances you're less willing to be vulnerable and to stumble and to face up to things difficult.

Frank: Well, you're assuming that I'm somehow...

Laura: Your intentions were totally different than mine.

Frank: ...totally natural when I'm speaking without a tape recorder, or anyone is totally natural.

[Jean and Laura together]: Except that....Except that...[Ed. the tape here is indecipherable.]

Frank: [to Jean] If Laura lets you.

Laura: I will let her, just one minute. Except that it imposes another level of being unnatural when the tape is on. If it's just the character of what we're talking about, that makes us both unnatural; then we're equal.

Dave: You're absolutely right.

Laura: But then the tape is on and then it's more unequal.

Jean: Right! It's knowing something that the other person doesn't know. It gives you a sense of power, or...

Dave: Suppose you wanted to prove to Laura that she was stupid or...

Jean: It doesn't matter if you're going to use it or not, you know, or if no one else hears it.