or Talk to the Sea
An Imaginary Conversation translated and adapted by David Paul from
L'ldee fixe by Paul Valery with an introduction by the translator
Frank Duncan as Paul Valery Carleton Hobbs os The Doctor A point of worry, grievance, obsession, a line of thought that repeats and repeats itself in the mind to the exclusion of all else, even of what we are looking at or (supposedly) doing; this is an experience we aU know to our cost. Many a play gives us the comic or tragic results of an obsession, but not the process itself, the inner compulsion that acts like a drug, or the need for it. This explains the second-and more topical-meaning of the English title of Valéry's work.
Produced by TERENCE TILLER
Second broadcast