WE GENERALLY GIVE TO OUR IDEAS ABOUT THE
UNKNOWN THE COLOR OF OUR NOTIONS ABOUT WHAT WE DO KNOW: IF WE CALL DEATH A
SLEEP IT'S BECAUSE IT HAS THE APPEARANCE OF SLEEP; IF WE CALL DEATH A NEW
LIFE, IT'S BECAUSE IT SEEMS DIFFERENT FROM LIFE. WE BUILD OUR BELIEFS AND
HOPES OUT OF THESE SMALL MISUNDERSTANDINGS WITH REALITY AND LIVE OFF HUSKS
OF BREAD WE CALL CAKES, THE WAY POOR CHILDREN PLAY AT BEING HAPPY.
BUT THAT'S HOW ALL LIFE IS; AT LEAST THAT'S
HOW THE PARTICULAR WAY OF LIFE GENERALLY KNOWN AS CIVILIZATION IS.
CIVILIZATION CONSISTS IN GIVING AN INAPPROPRIATE NAME TO SOMETHING AND
THEN DREAMING WHAT RESULTS FROM THAT. AND IN FACT THE FALSE NAME AND THE
TRUE DREAM DO CREATE A NEW REALITY. THE OBJECT REALLY DOES BECOME OTHER,
BECAUSE WE HAVE MADE IT SO. WE MANUFACTURE REALITIES. WE USE THE RAW
MATERIALS WE ALWAYS USED BUT THE FORM LENT IT BY ART EFFECTIVELY PREVENTS
IT FROM REMAINING THE SAME. A TABLE MADE OUT OF PINEWOOD IS A PINE TREE
BUT IT IS ALSO A TABLE. WE SIT DOWN AT THE TABLE NOT AT THE PINE TREE...
an excerpt from "The Book of Disquiet,"
written in the 1920's first published in 1982 by Atica in Lisbon
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