Digital Manuscript ProjectL'Innommable / The Unnamable

[2319] was reasoning, that's all right with me, they must have taught
me reasoning, they must have begun teaching me, before they
abandoned me, I don't remember that period, but it must have mark-
ed me, I don't remember having been abandoned, perhaps I received
a shock.
[2320] Strange, these phrases that die for no reason, strange,
what's strange about it, here all is strange, all is strange
when you come to think of it, no, it's coming to think of it that
is strange, am I to suppose I am inhabited, I can't suppose
anything, I have to go on, that's what I'm doing, let others
suppose, there must be others in other elsewheres, each one in
[2320] his little elsewhere, this word that keeps coming back, each
one saying to himself, when the moment comes, the moment to say
it, Let others suppose, and so on, so on, let others do this,
others do that, if there are any, that helps you on, you can
say what you like, that helps you on, that helps you forward, I
believe in progress, I know how to believe too, they must have
taught me believing too,
[2321] Nno, no one ever taught me anything,
I never learnt anything, I've always been here, here there was
never anyone but me, never, always, me, no one, old slush to be
churned eternally, now it's slush, a minute ago it was dust,
it must have rained.
[2322.1] [| ]He must have travelled, he whose voice it
is, he must have seen, with his eyes, a man or two, a thing or
two, he must have been aloft, in the light, or else he has
heard tales, travellers found him out and told him tales, that
proves my innocence, who says, That proves my innocence,
he, it's he who says it, or it's they who say it, yes, they,
they who reason, they who believe, no, a single one, he who
lived, or saw some who had, it's he who speaks of me, as if I
[2322.1] were he, as if I were not he, both, and as if I were others, one
after the other, he is the afflicted, [2322.2] I am afar, do you hear him,
he says I'm afar, as if I were he, no, as if I were not he, for
he is not afar, he is here, it's he who speaks, he says it's I,
then he says it's not, I am afar, do you hear him, he seeks me,
I don't know why, he doesn't know why, he calls me, he wants me
to come out, he thinks I can come out, he wants me to be he, or
another, let us be fair, he wants me to rise up, up into him,
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L'Innommable / The Unnamable © 2013 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
Editors: Dirk Van Hulle, Shane Weller and Vincent Neyt