Sounds great. I don't personally want to go, though. Could you just get me some heaps of books and drop them off at the lab?

Don't you want me to bring them to your house? I'll be right nearby.

No, I have no interest in reading them.

Am I missing something?

Reading is so twentieth century. Welcome to the digital age. Just drop them off with my entourage of dedicated graduate students. They'll feed them into the computer. It'll spit out all the data I need.

You make me feel old-fashioned.

You are.

So there. In fact, we have a lot to cover on the agenda.

Just give me the highlights.

We need to disabuse people of their ridiculous faith in the superiority of content over form. Does the story itself really reveal anything? It's about form—so we may read a few select passages from your book Morphology of the Folktale (1927). Your discussion of villains is unrivaled.

I like what I hear. Hope you plan to include my formula about villainy: Β1γ2ζ1η3δ2θ3A1{C↑[D1E1 neg.]3 [D1E1neg.]3 F contr / B4C↑[D1E1pos.]3 [D1E1pos.]3}H1-I1K4↓

We need to talk about that one. I personally love applying that science-math stuff, but other people—well, they're a little put off. It induces flashbacks to high school chemistry and trig. We don't want to scare people.

Okay, well, promise that you will talk about the egg of death.

Deal.

Maybe it's the specialty cheeses, quinoa, and super foods? Who knows. It's so bourgeois.

We don't really believe un the bourgeoisie anymore, do we?

I guess not, but I can't come up with anything better. Capitalism is here to stay, so what do we call all of those people caught up in the ambition-leisure machine?

I'm sure you can come up with something…