Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-SB-5-9-3

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Segment 1

[2190] trying to dull me to sleep, at long range,
for fear I might defend myself, they want
to capture me alive, so as to be able to kill
me, thus I shall have lived, they think
I'm alive, what a business, it would smack
of exhumation if only there were a cadaver,
not in a womb either, the bitch has not yet
menstruated that will ever litter me,

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Segment 2

[2190] that should singular restrict the field of
research, a sperm dying, of cold, in the
sheets, wagging feebly its little tail, perhaps
I'm a sperm drying, in the sheets of an
innocent boy, even that takes time, [] [ADDITION]Addition on page 08vno stone must be left unturned, [] one mustn't
be afraid of making a howler, how can
you tell it is one, before it's made, and
one it certainly is, now that it's irrevocable,

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Segment 3

[2190] for the good reason, here's another, here
comes another, unless it escapes them in time,
what a hope, the bright boy is there, for the
excellent reason that that counts as living,
counts as murder, it's been laid down,
oh you can't deny it, some people are
lucky, born of a wet dream and dead
before morning, I must say I'm tempted,

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Segment 4

[2190] no, the testis has not down [ADDITION]Addition on page 08vdescended that
would ever put up with me, it's
mutual, another gleam down the drain.

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Segment 5

[2191] And now one last look at Mahood,
at Worm, it's one last chance, ah will they
never learn sense, there's nothing more, there
was never anything, to be got from those
stories, I have mine, let them tell it to me,
they'll see there's nothing to be got from
it either, nothing to be got from me, it will
be the end, of this hell of stories, you'd think

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Segment 6

[2191] it was I was abusing them, still the same
old dodge, ah you'd be sorry for them, perhaps
I'll abuse them before I'm finished, they'll
know what it is to be a subject of conversation,
I'll ascribe to them words you wouldn't
throw to a dog, an ear, a mouth, and
a few rags of mind in the middle, I'll get my own
back, a few flitters of mind, they'll what it's

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Segment 7

[2191] like, I'll clap an eye at random in the
middle of the mess, on the off chance some-
thing might stray in front of it, then I'll let
down my trousers and shit on them, stories,
photographs, records, sites, lights, gods and

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Segment 8

[2191] fellow creatures, the daily round
and common task, observing, Be born, dear
friends, be born, enter my arse, you'll just
love my colic pains, it won't take long,
I've the gripes.

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Segment 9

[2192] They'll see what it's
like, that it's not as easy as it looks, you
must have a taste for it, that it's not within
reach of everybody, that you must be born
alive, that it's not a thing you can acquire,

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