from Roberto Bolano - 2666
"One day fortune smiled on me and I attended one of these
parties. To say I met the
philosopher would be an exaggeration.
I saw him. In a corner of
the room, talking to another poet and another philosopher. He appeared to be giving a
lecture. Then everything seemed
slightly off. The guests were
waiting for the poet to make his entrance. They were waiting for him to pick a fight. Or to defecate in the middle of the living
room, on a Turkish carpet like the threadbare carpet from the Thousand and One Nights, a battered
carpet that sometimes functioned as a mirror, reflecting all of us from
below. I mean: it turned into a mirror at the command
of our spasms. Neurochemical
spasms."
p 168 (translation by Natasha Wimmer - Picador)
