Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

through history41 the way back, in fact, to the original protozoa.(We can also follow the scenario in the opposite direction and seethat the act of throwing a cigar out the window, which leads to abeggar's death, can change the course of history and lead to the endof the world.)The perfect example of this historical accident is Roger Caillois'sPonce Pilate, a gorgeous book which is really the quintessence of acertain kind of French culture. In it, Pilate has every reason in theworld to wash his hands and let Christ be crucified. That's the opinionof his political adviser, who's worried about trouble in Judea. It'salso what Judas wants, so that God's intentions can be realized. EvenMarduk, the Chaldean prophet who knows what's going to happenafter the Messiah's death, wants Pilate to leave Christ where he is.But Pilate is honest and committed to justice, and so after a sleeplessnight he rejects all this advice and decides to give Christ his freedom.His disciples embrace him joyfully, Christ continues his teaching,and he dies at a ripe old age, in everyone's opinion a saintly man.For a couple of centuries, pilgrims visit his tomb, but then he'sforgotten. Had this happened, just think how different the historyof the world would have been.This book fueled my fantasies for a very long time; and despitewhat people say about historical determinism and about the will ofan omnipotent God who wanted Pilate to wash his hands, I still feelhe might not have done so. By refusing the basin and water, hewould have changed the world; it was pure chance that he acceptedthem.Of course, this is risky reasoning. If our birth is totally a matterof chance, the accidental meeting of an egg and a sperm (but why,in fact, that particular egg and sperm among all the millions ofpossibilities?), chance nonetheless disappears when societies are formed,when the fetus~and then the child-finds himself subjected to itslaws. And yet these laws and customs, these historical and socialconditions at any given period41 these things, in other words,that claim to contribute to the forward march of the civilization to