Saturday, February 11, 2006

Death Sentence: opening paragraph

These things happened to me in 1938. I feel the greatest uneasiness in speaking of them. I have already tried to put them into writing many times. If I have written books, it has been in the hope that they would put an end to it all. If I have written novels, they have come into being just as the words began to shrink back from the truth. I am not frightened of the truth. I am not afraid to tell a secret. But until now, words have been frailer and more cunning than I would have liked. I know this guile is a warning: it would be nobler to leave the truth in peace. It would be in the best interests of the truth to keep it hidden. But now I hope to be done with it soon. To be done with it is also noble and important. [written by Maurice Blanchot, trans Lydia Davis]

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous9:44 pm

    Ooooh, sounds very Poe-ish to me and terribly inviting. Thanks for the link--I'll be reading it.

    susan @ spinning

    ReplyDelete

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