Samuel Beckett
Digital Manuscript Project
L'Innommable / The Unnamable

MS-HRC-TQ-2-18-2

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Segment 1

[2307.1] Help, help,[] if I could only describe this place, I who am so good
at describing places, walls, ceilings, floors, they are my speciality,
doors, windows, what haven't I imagined in the way of windows in the
course of my career, some opened on the sea, all you see was sea
and sky, if I could put myself in a room, that would be the end of the
wordy-gurdy, even doorless, even windowless, nothing but the four surfaces,

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Segment 2

[2307.1] the six surfaces, if I could shut myself up, it would be a mine, it could
be black dark, I could be motionless and fixed, I'd find a way to explore
it, I'd listen to the echo, I'd get to know it, I'd get to remember it,
I'd get to imagine it, I'd be home, I'd say what it's like, in my home,
instead of any old thing, this place, if I could describe this place,
portray it, I've tried, I feel no place, no place round me,

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Segment 3

[2307.2] there's no
end to me, I don't know what it is, it isn't flesh, it doesn't end, it's
like air, now I have it, this time it's I, you say that, you won't say
it long, like gas, balls, balls, the place, then we'll see, first the
place, then I'll find me in it, I'll put me in it, a solid lump, in the
middle, or in a corner, well propped up on three sides, the place, if only

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Segment 4

[2307.2] I could feel a place for me, I've tried, I'll try again, none was ever
mine, that sea under my window, higher than my window, and the rowboat,
do you remember, and the river, and the bay, I knew I had memories, pity
they are not of me, and the stars, and the beacons, and the lights of the
buoys, and the mountain burning, it was the time nothing was too good for
me,

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Segment 5

[2307.3] the others benefited by it, they died like flies, or the forest, a roof
is not indispensable, an interior, if I could be in a forest, caught in a
thicket, or wandering round in circles, that would be the end of this
blither, I'd describe the leaves, one by one, at the moment of their growing,
at the moment of their giving shade, at the moment of their falling, at
the moment of their rotting, those are good moments, for one who has not

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Metamark 1
Metamark: 12 pt. Vogue 38 picas
Leaded 4 pts
Note: There is a metamark in blue crayon: \'12 pt. Vogue 38 picas / Leaded 4 pts\'.
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Metamark 2
Metamark: Flush left |← Note: There is an arrow pointing to the left in blue crayon plus the message: \'Flush left\', indicating there should be no indentation.
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Metamark 3
Metamark: Note: There is an instruction by an unknown editor in blue crayon, which has been erased and is hardly legible. It has to do with the indentation of the first word, the size of the capital \'H\' and the underlining of the first two words.
Transcription
  • Segments
  • Metamarks