«On the Calculation of Volume I» kitabından alıntılar, sayfa 3

a moon on the wane, moving in the right direction, a time that had begun to pass. I went on standing there in the cold air as yet another cloud drifted over the moon, but when it had passed the moon that appeared looked exactly as it always did and my hope evaporated. It hadn’t changed

That is where I am going, to an end full of chinks and cracks. I am on my way.

. It had nothing to do with me, it had been clattering about there all on its own, so why should it stop? I’m sure I’ve picked up that pot once before and put it away in the shed, when I was with Thomas, during the days of our investigations, and I’m sure that it was back on its spot the next day. But now it had consented to being moved, it had allowed me to stop it from rolling around on the 126 cobbles and it was quite clear that a sound was now missing.

. All of a sudden I felt like sitting out there.

Then I woke Thomas. I told him what had happened. I sensed his disquiet. He hesitated. I insisted, and we investigated the day

. I chew and chew. There is munching and crunching and foaming at the 118 mouth. Drool running from the corners of my mouth. Down my chin. The rubbish piles up. Shelves grow barer and barer. The monster lurches on, day after day. Munching, crunching. When I chew my crispbread I hear the noise of it in my head

Sometimes things returned to their starting point. We had bought the last jar of olives on the supermarket shelf, we had put it in the kitchen cabinet and the next day it had disappeared from the house but was once more to be found in the shop. I think we bought it again, opened it and had some olives with lunch and I think the half-empty jar was still in the fridge the following day, but I’m not sure, because during our foggy days this was not something we checked.

And suddenly I felt a twinge of doubt: I was walking away.

I have exchanged my hope for a mood and a frying pan

All I can say is that I woke up in the room overlooking the garden and a woodpile and I have woken up in a very different mood. I have actually woken in a mood. I have a mood. That is new.