What was that saying, "There are 8 million stories in the naked city"? I think the number is off by an order of magnitude. If you think of it, I'm sure you can come up with at least 10 stories of interest in your life. I think everyone can do that, which would make the naked city teeming with 80, not 8, million stories — so many stories, I wonder if there is a six degrees of separation of them. You know, where an element of one story is contained in another story, and within six stories connected, each has something to do with all the stories in the world. I wonder. Maybe, then, there is only one story, after all, if all of them are connected: one grand, sweeping tale that the world will tell on the last day of time.
Stories and dreams. Strip everything from a man, leave him naked in the city street, and you still cannot take from him these. If there is only one epic that carries in its tide the currents of all stories anywhere and anywhen, imagine that the unfolding of this powerful prose strives after its own dream, the world dream. But this is the most mysterious thing of all: in rarest times, one man's dream is greater than the world dream, one man's story — his part in the grand tale of all — is greater than the sum of all stories. It may only happen once in a hundred generations, but I believe it does happen, has happened, and will happen again. I wonder what that kind of dream is like, what kind of story is told so true?
anon.x
3:02pm saturday, 19th april
i always think about that. say the world began with just adam and eve, thus meaning we are all related and have one massive story to tell about our family tree.
anon.x