...of a decree

She took off her clothes. Her body was covered in long black tights. She went over to get the book and then tore out some pages. She handed me a few of them; we sat down side by side, each wrapped in a blanket.
"This is an excerpt from the discourse on the third State," I said to her, after looking at the pages. "Listen to what it says. 'There was a time when language no longer linked words according to simple relationships. It became such a delicate instrument that most people were forbidden to use it. But men naturally lack wisdom. The desire to be united through outlawed bonds never left them in peace, and they mocked this decree. In the face of such folly, reasonable people decided to stop speaking. Those who had not been forbidden to speak, who knew how to express themselves, resolved to stay silent from then on. They seemed to have learned words only to forget them. Associating them with what was most secret, they turned away from their natural course."


[Vicious Circles: The Last Word, Blanchot, M.]