Sunday 9 June 2013

...of dubiety

...The two persons say nothing, each seeming to think it the other's obligation to speak first: the Chinese because he is the one being disturbed, the girl because she hopes to have nothing to ask, from the moment that she is expected and that the man with whom she has an appointment obviously knows why she has come. Unfortunately she sees the latter shows no intention of speaking, nor of letting her in without an explanation, nor even of encouraging her by a word or a gesture to indicate the purpose of her visit, which would however have facilitated her speaking. She therefore finally decides to say something on her own initiative. Very rapidly, she stammers a quite incoherent phrase, asking if this is where the agent lives, if the gentleman to whom she is speaking is the one she is supposed to meet here, if the merchandise is ready for her to take away, as planned... But no sound can have come from her mouth, for the little man in the empty suit continues staring at her exactly as before, still waiting for her to make up her mind to speak. It was, as a matter of fact, impossible for her to have broached so many questions in so few words (moreover she does not even know what words were involved). Everything has begun all over again.

[La Maison de Rendez-vous, Robbe-Grillet, A.]

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