For to perform is to know, and those who know are performing. The desire for knowledge, stripped down, is simply the desire to be barred from the act of performing knowing. We connect, ultimately, to the power of unknowing. Maybe this is the secret: we start in the fallen state of apple-derived Knowing, then gradually shed ourselves of the nasty need to pin down and nail. 2 Friends have seen me tote around a tome of her collected columns, but this means nothing, for the more I read Clarice, the less I know her. May I always be an amateur, like the painter in Água Viva who writes, “This is the word of someone who cannot.” 1 I write this as a humble someone, an “It”-being who fell inevitably into the orbit of Clarice. I wish I could read her in the original Portuguese, though as far as I can tell the English-language New Directions translations of all her texts are comprehensive.
Or have I? Since I’m reporting back to you right here. I just haven’t found anyone to report back to.
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