This morning in The Greenery Café in Ogunquit I was seated next to three young women. One of them was talking relentlessly. She had been to Europe and was telling the other women about her trip: ‘In Hungary they speak Hungarian. In Austria they speak German. In Switzerland they speak mainly Swiss-German. Switzerland is ridiculously expensive. Seven dollars for a cup of coffee.’ There was a moment of silence. The lady was drinking coffee, this time slightly less expensive.
Then she continued about plans for the evening in Ogunquit, the piano bar, before or after dinner? I dislike all snobbery about tourism. But this morning in The Greenery Café I thought: tourism is the illusion of sex with a real human being instead of having sex with a robot.
And then you can say: ‘The human being spoke Hungarian.’ After all, how many robots speak Hungarian?