And if you would like to
ask for asylum, don't ask, don't even try, don't even want to.
What could you get if you asked? Let's assume you told your
story. Let's assume you wrote your story quite nicely and it's
a good, witty story. Or let's assume somebody else transformed
your story into a tale, or into a novel, or a play, or a poem
...... or maybe it's just a thread, one thread in a huge
carpet made of thousands of such threads, one strand in a huge
novel composed of thousands of such strands and titled Refugees
– your name could be changed, you face could be changed,
your biography could be changed so thoroughly you would hardly
recognize yourself, you would not even suspect you had been
somebody else, you would be surprised you could have been
somebody like this very character, you would found it a fable
about former incarnations ...... Of course, we could change
nothing – nothing in you, but everything around you – you
would live long and happily: And finally he asked for
asylum in Liberland. He got it and he was living there very
long and very happily. Well, it means, in such case you
would live but one short sentence. With no doubt you would
prefer an epic much longer than Mahabharata. Yes.
Surely. And with no doubt as well, behind the notion happily
would stand your idea of happiness, how you imagine it, how
you think it is to be happy. That is why I asked you not to
ask, not to try to ask, because your life would be transformed
into one short phrase and you would be disappointed, you would
cry, swear, get furious, and could do nothing against it
...... But maybe the past tense could be replaced with the
present tense? He asked for asylum in Liberland. He got
it. Now he lives there and is very happy. Well, sounds
better, no doubt, because it doesn't indicate an end. He lives
and lives and lives. He keeps on living, will be living nobody
knows how long. Somebody will read the text in two hundred
years and you will be still alive. In the case of the past
tense it sounds quite mournfully – somebody is reading it now,
and you are already dead. Happily dead. Or happy dead.
So, has it any sense to ask, when you can ask for nothing?
Isn't reading enough? Just think about it – you are reading
these phrases, so you are already in here. You are a Reader.
You can't get better status.
But maybe it is possible? It can happen I'm just running away
from a second-rate crime story. Or I am persecuted by a poor
style, tasteless phrases, lack of reflection . . . . . . . and
I'd like to be in a beautiful stanza . . . . . .
And even if you got the asylum here, just think: have you
found a right place for yourself? This is something absolutely
boring – zigzags, windings, labyrinths, ceaseless and constant
what-is-the-point? what-is-this-mess-about?
this-can't-be-a-novel-can-it? so-what-is-it? . . . . . . . Is
this really what you were thinking and dreaming about?
Remember, you are a Reader. You will never get the right to
write anything in. However you will keep for ever your right
to read and interpret. What can simple things be complicated
for? Simple things are complex enough, is there any good
reason to make them more complex?