Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-10

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Segment 1

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Segment 2

[1890] He hears, that's all about it, he who is alone, and dumb,
lost in the smoke, it is not real smoke, there is no fire, no
matter, strange hell that has no heating, no inhabitants, perhaps
it's paradise, perhaps it's the light of paradise, and the solitude,
and this voice the voice of the blest interceding, invisible, for
the living, for the dead, all is possible.

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Segment 3

[1891] It isn't the earth,
that's all that counts, it can't be the earth, it can't be a hole
in the earth, inhavbited by Worm alone, or by others if you like,
huddled in a heap like him, dumb, immovable, and this voice the
voice of those who mourn them, envy them, call them and forget them,
that would account for its incoherence, all is possible.

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Segment 4

[1892] Yes, so
much the worse, jhe knows it is a voice, how is not known, nothing
is known, he understands nothing it says, just a little, almost
nothing, it's incomprehensible, but necessary, opreferable, that he
should understand just a little, almost nothing, like a dog that
always gets the same fliilth flung to it, the same orders, the same
threats, the same cajoleries.
[1893] That settles that.[1894] The conclusion end is
in sight.

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Segment 5

[1895] But the eye, let's leave him his eye too, this great wild
black and white eye,
it's to see with, this great wild black and whi
white eye, moist, it's to weep with, it's to practise with, before
he goes to Killarney.
[1896] What does he do with it, he does nothing with
it, he holds it open, the eye stays open, it's an eye without lids,
no need for lids here, where nothing happens, or so little, if he
could blink he might miss the infrequent sights, if he could close
it, the kind he is, he'd never opnen it again.

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Segment 6

[1897] Tears gush from it
practically without ceasing, whhy is not known, nothing is known,
whether it's with rage, or whether it's with grief, the fact is
there, perhaps it's the voice that makes him weep, with rage, or
some other passion, or having to see, from time to time, some sight
or other, perhaps that's it, perhaps he weeps in order not to see,

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