Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

Alithea: My name is Alithea. My story is true. You're more likely to believe me, however, if I tell it as a fairy tale...

Alithea: So, once upon a time, when humans hurtled across the sky on metal wings, when they wore webbed feet and walked on the bottom of the sea, when they held in their hands glass tiles that could coax love songs from the air... there was a woman, adequately happy and alone. Alone by choice. Happy because she was independent, living off the exercise of her scholarly mind...

Amina: So, Professor, you saying you believe in djinn?
Alithea: I believe there are those who need to believe in them.
Prof. Günhan: Including me?
Alithea: Djinn, ghosts, aliens, whatever helps.

Alithea: Mythology is what we knew back then. Science is what we know so far. Sooner or later, our creation stories are replaced by the narratives of science. Painstaking science. And all gods and monsters outlive their original purpose and are reduced to metaphor.

Alithea: I'm going to close my eyes and count to three, after which I would be grateful if you would be gone. One, two, three... Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten... I don't suppose you speak English?

The Djinn: So, what will you wish for? What is your heart's desire?
Alithea: Now, let's, uh, not get ahead of ourselves. I need to take this slow.
The Djinn: I have all the time in the world.

Alithea: How come you found your way into my bottle?
The Djinn: Ah, it's quite a story. That was my third incarceration.
Alithea: You've been trapped in a bottle three times?
The Djinn: I may be a djinn, but I'm also a fool with too great a fondness for the conversation of women. I need to be more careful in the future.

Alithea: How were you caught in the first place?
The Djinn: By desire. How else?

Alithea: King Solomon?
The Djinn: Blessed be his memory. He came from across the deserts to woo her.
Alithea: Didn't she go to him?
The Djinn: No. Never.
Alithea: But it's in all the holy books. All the stories and the paintings. And Handel wrote music about it.
The Djinn: Madam, I was there. Solomon came to her. He began with music...

The Djinn: ... And so, I was cast into the Red Sea and languished for 2,500 years.
Alithea: Apart from sleep, what does one do in a bottle for 2,500 years?
The Djinn: Djinn don't sleep.....

Alithea: There's no story about wishing that is not a cautionary tale. None end happily. Not even the ones that are supposed to be jokes.

The Djinn: Hope is a monster, Alithea, and I am its plaything.

The Djinn: ... And there I am, left to my own oblivion, with no one to hear my voice, no one to know me, nor feel me, nor sense me. You can't imagine.
Alithea: Well, actually, I can.
The Djinn: Can you imagine the loneliness? How it might overwhelm?
Alithea: I can. We exist only if we are real to others.

Alithea: The thing is this, I cannot for the life of me summon up one eligible wish. And you're asking me for three.
The Djinn: Is there any life in you? Are you even alive?
Alithea: You know, in some cultures, absence of desire means enlightenment.
The Djinn: Then you are a pious fool.
Alithea: If I'm content, why tempt fate?
The Djinn: And you're a coward.

The Djinn: There is no human, no angel, nor djinn that wouldn't grasp at the chance to fulfill their deepest longings, and I am saddled with the one who claims to want nothing at all.

Alithea: You're electromagnetic?
The Djinn: As you are dust, I am made of subtle fire.

The Djinn: Alithea, how can it be... a mistake to love someone entirely?

The Djinn: All these astonishments, in less than 200 years...
Alithea: Yes, but, I mean, that's just engineering and technology. Despite all the whiz-bang, we remain bewildered. When we can't contain the chaos, we are filled with dread and panic, and we turn on each other.
The Djinn: But of course, you are human. That is your nature.
Alithea: Yeah. So, the story never changes. Hate prevails. It metastasizes and outlives love.

The Djinn: Such a mess of contradictions, all of you... Humankind, what a conundrum. You fumble around in the dark, and yet, you herd your intelligence to great effect. It is quite a story. Cannot wait to see where it goes.
Alithea: Or how it might end.
The Djinn: That too.

Alithea: Love is a gift. It's a gift of oneself given freely. It's not something one can ever ask for.

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