pafib #2
.possible attitudes found in books 1) I don't know what's happening to me 2) what does it mean? 3) seized with the deepest sadness, I know not why 4) I am lost, my head whirls, I know not where I am 5) I lose myself 6) I ask you, what have I come to? 7) I no longer know where I am, what is this country? 8) had I fallen from the skies, I could not be more giddy 9) a mixture of pleasure and confusion, that is my state 10) where am I, and when will this end? 11) what shall I do? I do not know where I am
—from 'Alice', in Sixty Stories, Donald Barthelme, Penguin, New York 1993
This is the second in a series of eleven.
“What does it mean?” “I don’t know, I’m not sure it means anything.” We stared down at it. It didn’t appear to be moving, although the night was dark and I wasn’t certain. Most likely it was just shadows playing as the clouds moved across the moon. The slight noises were probably the wind, but… it was hard to say.
I thought it might mean that the West would fall, only to rise again. My friend dismissed this, saying that if it had any meaning at all it was connected with the discovery of new physical laws at the quantum level. We kept staring but no answers came, even after the sun rose and set and rose and set again.