That night, it dawned on Pelletier and Espinoza that they were generous, so generous that if they had been together when they made the discovery, they would have gone out to celebrate it. Each was dazzled by the splendor of his own virtue, a glow that certainly does not last very long—since virtue, except in the brevity of the recognition, lacks radiance and lives in a dark cavern surrounded by other residents, some very dangerous. In the absence of celebration and revelry, they topped their epiphany off with an implicit promise of eternal friendship and, after hanging up their respective telephones in their apartments replete with books, sealed it by drinking whiskey with supreme slowness and looking at the night behind their windows.
From “2666” by Roberto Bolaños
I translated this snippet from the original Spanish version of the book. Bolaños is one of the most important contemporary Spanish writers. He died at the age of 50 in 2003. This Chilean author wrote this novel well aware that he might not live to see its publication, crafting it with the determination of someone who needed to express his remaining crucial thoughts before departing from this world.
In this paragraph, Bolaños addresses the value of virtue in our society. Virtue is not fashionable. And for every aspect of it, we find quite a few vices trying to devour it. As the author puts it: “virtue, a glow that certainly does not last very long—since virtue, except in the brevity of the recognition, lacks radiance and lives in a dark cavern surrounded by other residents, some very dangerous.”
We live in a society that, among other things, confuses fame with notoriety, integrity with hypocrisy, and kindness with weakness.
