Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-10

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Segment 1

[1815] is not so short, and the mind more composed.[1816] Resolution number
twenty-three.
[1817] And in the meantime the conclusion to be drawn?
[1818] That the only noises Worm has had till now are those of mouths, words,
belches, laughs, suckings, bubblings and splutterings?
[1819] Correct.
[1820] Not forgetting the groaning of the air beneath the burden.[1821] He's
coming, that's the main thing.

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Segment 2

[1822] When on earth later on the storms
rage, drowning momentarily the free expression of opinion, he will
know what is afoot, that the end of the world has not come.
[1823] No, in
the place where he is he cannot learn, the head cannot work, he
knows no more than the first day, he merely hears, and suffers,
uncomprehending, that must be possible.

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Segment 3

[1824] A head has grown out of
his ear, the better to enrage him, that must be it.
[1825] The head is
there, glued to the ear, and in it nothing but rage, that's all
that matters, for the moment.
[1826] It's a transformer in which sound is
turned, without the help of reason, to rage and terror.
[1827] That is
all that is required, for the time being.

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Segment 4

[1828] The circumvolutionisation
will be seen to later, when they get him out.
[1829] Why then
the human voice,
[1830] rather than a hyena's howls or the clanging of a
hammer?
[1831] Answer, so that the shock may not be too great, when
the writhings of true lips meet his gaze.
[1832] They have an answer to
everything, they are among themselves.
[1833] And they enjoy talking, they
know there is no worse torment, for one not in the know.

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Segment 5

[1834] They are
numerous, all around, holding hands perhaps, an endless chain,
links, taking turns to talk.
[1835] They wheel, in jerks, so that the
voice comes always from the same quarter.
[1836] But ofetn they all speak
at once, they all say simultaneously the same thing exactly, but
so perfectly together that one would take it for a single voice, a
single mouth, if one did not know that God alone can
fill the rose of the winds, without moving from his place.

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Segment 6

[1837] One,
but not Worm, who says nothing, knows nothing, yet.
[1838] Similarly turn
about they benefit by the peephole, those who care to.
While
one speaks another spies, the one no doubt whose voice is next due
and whose remarks possibly will not be without
refernece to what he may possibly have seen, this depending on

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Segment 7

[1839] While
one speaks another spies, the one no doubt whose voice is next due
and whose remarks possibly will not be without
refernece to what he may possibly have seen, this depending on

Transcription
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