Just as I have been asked by so many people what my feelings were when the door of the Asteradio was finally closed, and my journey lay ahead, so any number of others have wanted to know my first sensations on waking in Moribundia, and knowing that the farthest journey ever taken by man was at an end. Did I know where I was?--did I know who I was?--did I remember what had happened to me?--was I afraid?--and so on and so forth.
The answer is that I felt nothing more than the ordinary sensation of waking from sleeping--combined with the knowledge that I was rather cold, and that this in fact was what was waking me. I remembered what had happened to me, who I was, and what I was doing, with the utmost clarity and incisiveness. I was not afraid, but I wanted to do some more thinking before I opened my eyes and faced facts.
I like this. A lot.
ReplyDeleteYou made my day. Patrick Hamilton's Impromptu In Moribundia can be purchased in the mail, if you're interested. I'd suggest going to abe.com. As I recall (I'm not home; I've just finished a long car journey through wildest New Jersey), it was republished about 10 years ago by one of the English academic presses. It is unusual among his works and just plain unusual and is an early example (a very simple and radical one, I think) of the now sort of fashionable "graphic novel". It's also a political work (Marxist) that transcends the stridency and ordinariness that can imply. It's very entertaining, very moving and very surprising. As I said, knowing you like this makes me very happy. Curtis
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