How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"It's always complicated, this harassment business, David, complicated as well as unfortunate, but we believe our procedures are good and fair, so we'll just take it step by step, play it by the book. My one suggestion is, acquaint yourself with the procedures and perhaps get legal advice." (5.50)
Hakim paints a pretty fair picture of the University's system of judging harassment cases. Do you think it turns out that way?
Quote #2
"We want to give you an opportunity to state your position."
"I have stated my position. I am guilty."
"Guilty of what?"
"Of all that I am charged with."
"You are taking us in circles, Professor Lurie."
"Of everything Ms. Isaacs avers, and of keeping false records."
Now Farodia Rassool intervenes. "You say you accept Ms. Isaacs's statement, Professor Lurie, but have you actually read it?"
"I do not wish to read Ms. Isaacs's statement. I accept it. I know of no reason why Ms. Isaacs should lie." (6.19-26)
We don't know about you, but this exchange really makes us groan. David doesn't seem to care at all about what his fate at the University will be; he's willing to take whatever judgment is doled out to him. Why do you think that is?
Quote #3
"Then we should recommend the severest penalty. That Professor Lurie be dismissed with immediate effect and forfeit all benefits and privileges." (6.51)
The committee can't actually punish David – they can only make recommendations. Why do you think Farodia Rasool is so adamant that David to lose his job?
Quote #4
"All eyes are on the university to see how we handle it. I get the impression, listening to you, David, that you believe you are being treated unfairly. That is quite mistaken. We on this committee see ourselves as trying to work out a compromise which will allow you to keep your job. That is why I ask whether there is not a form of public statement that you could live with and that would allow us to recommend something less than the most severe sanction, namely, dismissal with censure." (6.74)
Here, we see that justice at Cape Technical University isn't cut and dry. For David, getting off the hook doesn't just entail winning over the committee and convincing them that he didn't misbehave; it also involves swaying the whole community in a very public, self-effacing way.
Quote #5
"David, I can't go on protecting you from yourself. I am tired of it, and so is the rest of the committee. Do you want time to rethink?"
"No."
"Very well. Then I can only say, you will be hearing from the Rector." (6.140-142)
Why do you think David is so averse to making a public statement of guilt? Here, watching David is like watching a car wreck in slow motion. We know what he's getting himself into – he's definitely going to lose his job – but he doesn't do anything to stop it.
Quote #6
"It reminds me too much of Mao's China. Recantation, self-criticism, public apology. I'm old-fashioned, I would prefer simply to be put against a wall and shot. Have done with it."
"Shot? For having an affair with a student? A bit extreme, don't you think, David? It must go on all the time. It certainly went on when I was a student. If they prosecuted every case the profession would be decimated."
He shrugs. "These are puritanical times. Private life is public business. Prurience is respectable, prurience and sentiment. They wanted a spectacle: breast-beating, remorse, tears if possible. A TV show, in fact. I wouldn't oblige." (7.85-87)
In this instance, David seems to feel like he was judged without justice. He sees his punishment as being part of a public relations circus that had nothing to do with what was right and what was wrong.
Quote #7
As gently as he can, he offers his question again. "Lucy, my dearest, why don't you want to tell? It was a crime. There is no shame in being the object of a crime. You did not choose to be the object. You are an innocent party." (13.51)
From David's point of view, the disgrace that Lucy feels is getting in the way of her right to seek justice. This is an interesting moment for David, who was once on the receiving end of such a search for justice.
Quote #8
"It was not simply theft, Petrus," he persists. "They did not come just to steal. They did not come just to do this to me." He touches the bandages, touches the eye-shield. "They came to do something else as well. You know what I mean, or if you don't know you can surely guess. After they did what they did, you cannot expect Lucy calmly to go on with her life as before. I am Lucy's father. I want those men to be caught and brought before the law and punished. Am I wrong? Am I wrong to want justice?"
He does not care how he gets the words out of Petrus now, he just wants to hear them. (14.42-43)
When David says he wants justice, he means he wants Petrus to admit that Lucy was raped and to help move the case forward by giving David and the police any information he might have on the intruders. Sorry, David, you're not getting it.
Quote #9
"I have no intention of involving you in the case, Petrus. Tell me the boy's name and whereabouts and I will pass on the information to the police. Then we can leave it to the police to investigate and bring him and his friends to justice. You will not be involved, I will not be involved, it will be a matter for the law." (16.10)
David paints a rather sterilized, emotionless vision of the law here. Nevertheless, as we learned from his experience being tried before the committee, it's never this black and white. Petrus must know this too, because he refuses to cooperate.
Quote #10
"No, no, he is not eighteen."
"How do you know? He looks eighteen to me, he looks more than eighteen."
"I know, I know! He is just a youth, he cannot go to jail, that is the law, you cannot put a youth in jail, you must let him go!"
For Petrus that seems to clinch the argument. (16.17-20)
For Petrus, judgment is out of the question, because the law says that Pollux is too young to be tried. For David, this means that there is no justice, because a terrible crime will go unpunished and unrecognized.