"The Princess Bride"
by William Goldman.
Count Rugen explains his fascination with pain to Westley.
I'm very interested in pain....In an intellectual way, actually. I've written, of course, for the more learned journals on the subject. Articles mostly. At the present I'm engaged in writing a book. My book. The book, I hope. The definitive work on pain, at least as we know it now....I think pain is the most underrated emotion available to us....The Serpent, to my interpretation, was pain. Pain has been with us always, and it always irritates me when people say 'as important as life and death' because the proper phrase, to my mind, should be, 'as important as pain and death.'....One of my theories....is that pain involves anticipation. Nothing original, I admit, but I'm going to demonstrate to you what I mean: I will not, underline, not, use the Machine on you this evening. I could. It's ready and tested. But instead I will simply erect it and leave it beside you, for you to stare at the next twenty-four hours, wondering just what it is and how it works and can it really be as dreadful as all that....I'll leave you to your imagination, then. But I want you to know one thing before tomorrow night happens to you, and I mean it: you are the strongest, the most brilliant and brave, the most altogether worthy creature it has ever been my privilege to meet, and I feel almost sad that, for the purposes of my book and future pain scholars, I must destroy you....Good night now. Try and sleep. I doubt you'll be able to. Anticipation, remember?
One day, a fool wandered into the castle and found the king alone. Being simple-minded, he didn't see a king, he saw a man alone and in pain. "What ails you, friend?" he asked the king. The king replied, "I'm thirsty. I need a sip of water to cool my throat." So the fool took a cup from the bedside table, filled it with water, handed it to the king. As the king began to drink he realized that his wound was healed. He looked at his hands, and there in them was the Holy Grail. And he turned to the fool and asked, "How could you find what my brightest and bravest could not?" And the fool replied, "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty."
Very beautiful, isn't it? I think I heard it at a lecture once...I don't know...a professor...at Hunter.
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