Free Trio by Robert Pinget Page A

architecture is of the greatest austerity, are the characteristic feature of the landscape. No more is needed to divert the thoughts of a layman from their habitual course and fill him with doubt. The match solution, which is only a last resort, even for the nationals—which they don’t deny nevertheless provides some opportunities for certainty. How many times have I not burned my last twig to convince myself of this! The moment it has burned out, others spring up between my fingers—irrefutable proof of the mystery.
    Let anyone try to tell me, after that, that they don’t believe in God! The pseudo-street lamps are the childish symbol of the temptation.
    July 30
    The redhibitory songs which the malcontents hum in the mornings tend to help them recover their desire, or return to a less precarious mental state. This matutinal drone expresses great candor. But we should be on the alert for rapid metamorphoses: these are due to the ferryboat “noyou.” Contrary to appearances—the suavity of the refrain—the tremolo is not in order. Watchword: not to employ any reflexive verbs in the threnodies you hum. “Noyou” is the pleonastic reflexive pronoun which means: “we to ourselves ”—“nous nous à nous-même ,” in their language. It has been stigmatized by popular imagery, which represents it in the form of a small modern replica of Charon’s ferryboat.
    July 31
    Wobbly knees are immobilized on bail. The bail money is paid when children are born. It is collected by the register offices. Earth taken from molehills, with the addition of pulverized Molasse and water has proved to be an excellent “barbotine,” or potter’s clay. Provided that a supply depot can be found not far from the place where the sick person collapses—for he cannot be moved—they immediately immobilize his knees. They coat them with barbotine and leave it to dry. The patient stays on the ground, wherever he happens to be, until a decision has been taken by the coater on duty at the supply depot. The latter declares the fall to the register office himself. The bail money is then reimbursed to the parents, or, if they are dead, to the victim. It is irreclaimable in cases where they haven’t managed to master the wobbling. It’s a barbotine-insurance.
    September 1
    Their dwarfs are sold at auction a few days after their first bout of jaundice. They are much sought-after by religious communities who destine them for the vocation of candelabra. When they come of age, a paraliturgical service is celebrated for their benefit: this is reputed to endow them with petrifying grace, and it invests them in their sacred charge. A bogus priest places them on the altars while a mixed choir intones the “Nanum neutrum Deo.” A poignant ceremony, on condition that grace descends. Unfortunately, I have seen some burlesque ones in which the dwarfs, not in the least petrified, bawled their heads off and had to be tied to the tabernacle. You could no longer hear the canticle, the deacons and sub-deacons broke out in a sweat, and the faithful lost their faith.
    September 5
    The relative importance of their acts bothers them. And when you think of the intentions some of us impute to what they do! They do not have this amour-propre : they counter you with an uncontrolled gesture, phrase, or absence. That they are not creators—in the sense in which this function demands a permanent watch on oneself—that I will grant, but what is serious is that their attitude leads us to doubt the validity of the work of art. “Even so,” I used to say to myself when I was in their company, “if that is the truth, just one more second’s obstinacy in my researches and I shall become a clown, a liar.” I had to reflect at length before finally justifying my dissimilarity. As I am incapable of being a gentleman who walks, who smokes, who sees his friends, my natural reaction is to invent, in clay or on canvas or on paper, a walk, a taste for smoke, or a visit which