The Memory of Babel

I have spent my whole life being neutral, as my education dictated, and if there’s one lesson I retained, it’s that ‘neutrality’ is a nice way of saying ‘cowardice.’ There comes a time when one has to choose which camp one is in, and, personally, I refuse any longer to belong to that of the puppets.”

I have spent my whole life being neutral, as my education dictated, and if there’s one lesson I retained, it’s that ‘neutrality’ is a nice way of saying ‘cowardice.’ There comes a time when one has to choose which camp one is in, and, personally, I refuse any longer to belong to that of the puppets.”

“It took me more than two years to set up qualified reading groups in order to examine all the collections closely. The first book you inadvertently take is the right one. Your propensity to distort statistics is alarming.”

I love you,” she repeated, firmly. “That’s what I should have replied to you every time you wanted to know what I really wanted to say to you. Of course, I do want to unlock God’s mysteries and regain control of my life, but . . . you’re actually part of my life, actually. I called you an egoist, and at no time did I ever put myself in your shoes. Please forgive me.”

“I warn you. The words you said to me, I won’t let you go back on them.”

on the floor, his back against a bookcase, he was watching her with extreme tension, as if expecting her to trigger a catastrophe.

This space was the very reflection of her inner state. Neither child nor adult, neither girl nor woman, she had remained stuck on the cusp of her life. She had expected words and gestures from Thorn that she had never offered him. At no time had she said “we.” At no time had she reached out to him. At no time had she laid herself bare.

The truth, the only truth, was that she had been cowardly.

. Ophelia felt drier than the dust stinging her eyes. She missed him. She’d never stopped missing him, even when beside him. She’d not managed to keep her position of collaborator; she’d not understood at all what he really expected of her. She had hoped to get from him what he could no longer give her. Even now, she was clinging to her inquiry and delving into Babel’s hidden corners, when, in fact, it was still Thorn she was looking for.

“Once upon a tomorrow, before too long, there will be a world that will finally live in peace.”

“Do you never feel alone?”

“We are always alone.”