The Brooke-Rose Omnibus (63 page)

— Only a little one.

— But mein Liebes whatever for? In Paris!

— No, for holidays. And even here we get free parking at H.Q.

— But you always arrange your holidays between congresses, so as to benefit from the free fares.

— Yes, but one gets so tired of flying.

— One does?

— It’ll make a change.

— Well, gut-gut. The result of speculation in property no doubt. I mean selling for four thousand a piccolo chalet that cost five hundred.

— Just time Siegfried, splendid thing time, it enriches. Care to drive to Istanbul?

— Istanbul!

— Gonna make a senni-mennal journey. To renoo ole me-e-mo-ries.

— Du lieber Gott, have you regressed that far?

Siegfried grown mellow in the joys of late fatherhood has no enriching time to travel in electronics as others travel in ole memories. Why don’t you go with the antiquated French lover?

— Oh, that. Nothing came of it.

— No? Do you mean he gave up or—

— Oh, he goes on. Aber man achtet nicht darauf.

— Man doesn’t?

— Well, what can one do except throw the letters away unread or return one or two as a sign meaning STOP?

The vital lie has turned into a fragile truth both coinciding exactly or on the contrary spilling over each other between Siegfried’s belief and disbelief which makes no difference to an Abwesenheit die bedeutet merely a desire to see those splendid notices at the Turkish frontier, remember when we all went by bus from Sofia? Please declare if you have plants or parts of plants with you. Bitte Pflanzen oder Pflanzenteiler zu deklarieren.

— No Liebes, I didn’t go that time. Some other man, your husband perhaps.

The actions all postponed while erst die Dinge und die Personen kommen. Aber woaus und voein kommen die Personen?

— Oh yes. The mosques. Witness le complexe de Jonas.

— What?

— Walking in stockinged feet on the innumerable
prayer-rugs
, six thousand rugs the muezzin said for six thousand people not, however there. And the huge white columns covered with dark calligraphy so much easier to worship than plaster images because totally devoid of any sense proper or improper, at least to the neutralised transmitter in the brain except in a particular context of perfect proportion between matter and space, presence and absence that signifies nothing at all, no love, no lust, no ambition, no disappointment, no personal messages in any code to any god of love or power or anger, revenge humiliation eternal torment repentance absolution or even death.

— Have you taken a pep pill or something?

— The stones contain the temple, cavern, sepulchre which contains one alleinstehende Frau sitting cross-legged on a prayer-rug, a miniature temple you know, prêt-à-porter, with her fingers forming a squat diamond space through which the pattern on the prayer-rug, say, blue, red, green, has no significance beyond itself. The stones contain the space and the space contains the presence of no more than centuries of mankind’s need to love even eine Abwesenheit die nur eine Abwesenheit bedeutet.

— Yes, well. Or as uncle Siegfried said, I told you so. Do you feel all right? You look absolutely washed out.

— I always did look pale, even as a little girl.

— You did? Gut-gut. Well. Little girls must go to bed early. And I must fly. Wiedersehen Liebes. And do take a sensible holiday. Till next time.

Till next time perhaps or perhaps not in the joys of late fatherhood Grüss Gott and gone.

Aber voaus und woein kommen die Personen? Out of the nervous tissue which makes protein cells available to those who desperately need them, spinning to yield products which when properly flavoured with ingredients historical social and philosophical closely simulate common foods contra bona indissolubilitatis et prolis in the under-developed areas such as la Francia, la Germania e soprattutto not after all the land of infidels who say please declare if you have any plants or parts of plants, no nothing at all, just personal effects.

Just personal effects in the small Renault with the Paris numero di codice that ends with 75 on its bottom and
for Feind in la Germania which makes no difference to an Abwesenheit die bedeutet merely an absence of belief in anyone or whether any god of love has blind eyes or twenty breasts and plus like Diana of Ephesus or a beard, androgynous and indifferent to the death of the feminoid son and transcendental father up or down the agro-lunar dramma del agnosticismo with all ingredients social historical touristic in the freedom of the road and through the simple instructions of the code de la route so poor in parole uninteresting to semiologists but nevertheless understood immediately as the arrows eat their own tails point left go up go down inside white discs, red discs, blue discs crossed with white bars black bars no parking no entry no overtaking end of no overtaking Umleitung Parkplatz Bitte sauber verlassen hooting twinkling left or right in orange brake-lighting in red ahead or flooding dipping swerving stopping to wave someone across with a courteous gesture unless to shake the fist in a smooth swift silent language understood by everyone each protected in a glass and metal box so that no-one can get at you.

And if you look up the word happiness in the dictionary you will find that the apparent definition contains words which themselves need defining and so on ad infinitum which makes one very merry. Il n’y a jamais de sens propre au dictionnaire, the proper sense living only in an expressive and particular context like menus for example where the sound does not disintegrate into one inert element and a confusional sliding from active to passive, from swallower to swallowed which we find in all the myths of depth descent and femininity. Witness le complexe de Jonas in the totally rebuilt Alte Peter of München where the frail skeletal nun lies in a glass case. Heilige Munditia. Patronin der alleinstehenden Frauen. Corpus Sanctae Munditiae Martyris. She looks a bit like Mutti, net? Sehr grauenhaft. But French girls never stand alone, du nie except I hope till I come back and marry you when I grow up and if you have a child just contact my parents, net? Ich hab noch nie ein französisches Mädchen geküsst under the cherry-tree which has vanished, the moat filled up no drawbridge only a dilapidated drive with a cement-mixer and two workmen eating sandwiches outside the shrunken Schloss its square peeling façade so much more peeling than the emptiness inside it. Eine Schule? Ja, seit vielen Jahren. Und was geschah mit der Familie, mit dem jungen Baron? Weiss nicht. Sie müssen es verkauft haben.

— Der junge Herr Baron?

The woman in the village shop looks young and stresses junge. Well, der Baron. They haven’t lived there for ages, not since I was a little girl. They sold it. I think he lives in Nürnberg. An architect or something. Dankeschön.
Bitteschön
. Aufwiedersehen.

Why wiedersehen her? Or anyone or anything except mere stones to test the résistivité électrique to all ole memories battericamente pura in the rebuilt unrecognisable cities of Nürnberg or Berlin with visa complications through the zone of democratic Lebenslügen like any others among fragile truths and a French car? British passport? Born in France with German maiden-name und das? A Turkish phrase-book do you mind? Sie fahren in die Türkei? No, not now. You must excuse these questions Fräulein but in view of your desiccated look as an alleinstehende Frau we must make sure of your undivided reintegration into totality after all these years we do our job simply as instruments had you thought of that? How long have you stayed away lost touch a little forgotten how to understand immediately because the thing understood slips away together with the need to understand? Let’s face it you destroy. What methods did you use? Ask her what happened to the statistics of destruction per citadel per night which her department looked after. Do you believe her? Or would you rather test by means of engagement? Why don’t you joke a little instead of acting like a Geheime Reichssache? Zukunft, du lieber Gott es gibt keine we live from day to day and what about the war meaning what about me and my desires in the Pommernstrasse which looks completely different from the enemy point of view.

The visitor’s attention turns immediately to higher things such as the arrows eating their own tails and pointing left or right up or down with a mere finger twinkling flooding dipping immer geradeaus dann links in the freedom of the road and through the simple instructions poor in parole whether twelfth or nineteenth century but understood immediately by everyone each protected in a glass and metal structure so that no one can get at you through Köln and down across the Saarland into Lorraine Alsace the numbers on the cars ending in 67, 68 and on to Lyon through which two rivers flow as well as a third river la Belle Jolaise.

La Belle Jolaise and desiccated alleinstehende Frau flows on like a Geheime Reichssache so self-contained so secretive in such devil-may-care freedom from loyalty to anyone through rectangles of agriculture vital lies that turn into great curves of roads in dark real forests sweeping vineyards piccoli chalets grey façades so much taller than the non-existent past behind them. PRISUNIC. Tearoom. Coktailes, Le plus fort contre la saleté. Calorifères—Frigidaires, Ici on parle anglais. Ici on regarde la télévision behind the dark façades so much blacker than the blue eye behind them. Do you aspire to anything? A change of zone for example or the domestication of Chronos? I want it double-breasted. With two buttons, one for going up and one for going down with a lilt of the heart into the mouthpiece and the same confusional sliding from active to passive which we find in all myths of depth despite this our masculine-dominated civilisation which has turned vital lies into fragile truths such as Madam, I have just received the notification of the Nullity decision in your favour at the Last Judgment and enclose it with great joy and felicitation at the happy outcome just in time for the menopause.

ROMANA seu VESTMONASTERIEN. Nullitatis
Matrimonii
. SENTENTIA DEFINITIVA. In nomine Domini—Amen. FACTI SPECIES. Hodie onus nobis incumbit respondendi dubio, sub sueta formula concordato: AN CONSTET DE MATRIMONII NULLITATE IN CASU. IN IURE. Cum exclusa dicantur, Quoad, Quibus, Merito igitur, Verum quidem, Quare, Quoad exclusionem boni prolis, Quacumque as the paragraphs succeed one another for thirty printed pages of undoubted thoroughness and even Gründlichkeit in your eyes or those of any father transcendant speaking the language of the sixth, the twelfth the nineteenth century beneath the temple of Apollo where the oracle uttered its prophecies in riddles to all who came and consulted it on serious matters such as war, marriages and births with the gorgeous calligraphy so much easier to contemplate because totally devoid of any sense proper or improper, at least to the neutralised transmitter in the brain except in an expressive and particular context of perfect proportion between presence and absence that signifies eine Abwesenheit die bedeutet that tomorrow and today we shall continue to honour our obligations to the domestication of Chronos. No body occupies the empty bed nor will use l’essuie-main not für Rasierklingen. No one comes in offering anything not ordered.

No one does anything at all. Assemblies meet and talk and even this Council can do no more than pass a resolution pressing governments to initiate urgent measures to close the protein gap. If we wish to avert famine in the developing countries the affluent nations must concentrate on the words that flow through the serene transmitter in the brain and down into the mouthpiece to provide more technical aid towards developing these cheap sources of protein.

Between the dawn and the unrounding night the fingers fondle the symbole d’intimité dans le voyage protector and talisman against the death of love and the catastrophe that could provoke nothing at all just personal effects within the body stretching out its hundred and forty years and plus towards the yellow curtain that divides the starving from the affluent in suspended animation as a new technique for living. The biggest difficulty however lies not so much in obtaining the additional protein as in making it palatable to those who desperately need it.

Sandra manages smoothly in un amour de soutien-gorge that points up her white blouse. Structures of love, even when they appear to depend on physical, financial and technological resources and consumer goods requirements for the economic development of the under-developed areas (fuel, energy, iron ore), in fact depend on the co-operation of millions of molecules which play a key-role in protein synthesis encoding the ideas and the remembered facts. If the stimuli of environment, in other words, events, transformed into electrical impulses, modified the sequence of events this would permanently alter the physical features of such a seductive hypothesis.

The brief applause of the delegates in the amphitheatre cracks the eardrums through the earphones which have to be stretched outwards from the ears while the voice announces continuous flight and gate numbers over an abstract study in glass galleries, coffee-bars hot air and teak stairways with space between the steps over queues of plastic luggage by the gleaming weight-machines. Mesdames messieurs, nous avons entendu ce matin une belle fiction. We have no evidence at all that live human beings, let alone the skirted figurine or high-heeled shoe on the door can so embody the divine principle descending into matter in a behaviour sufficiently organised to prevent the illiterate women of an Indian village taught the natural method with an abacus from pushing all the red balls to the left like a magic spell and all coming back pregnant. From taking all their pills on the one day and coming back sick or dead. The populations multiply almost by geometrical progression like two times two und so weiter ad infinitum which makes one very sad. We shall however continue to honour our obligations and appoint a subcommittee to enquire into the way we can best meet the crisis. And if you look up the word crisis in the dictionary you will find that it means decision, which itself needs defining and so on ad infinitum so that nothing gets done at all at the Commission on Fundamental Education in scrap supply and demand of Narcotic Drugs and Division of Narcotic Drugs including pilot projects and associated fringe activities like the Napoleon Bicentenary Congress with special emphasis laid on an International Charter for Youth and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. America must learn, Russia must learn la verité, l’humanité, la justice, et la tutungerie.