scruta

In a world where machines grow minds,

Serendipity is the saving grace of humanity,

Bodies trundling into situations

Without a thought to what is known.

Happiness in life often comes down to one thing:

The ability to reconcile the desire to be what one is not.

Ducklings, no matter how ugly, become ducks.

An acorn planted in the ground becomes an oak.

Ceteris paribus, all things being equal

The world is regular, regular to a fault.

And you will give outliers and extraordinary examples,

Swans, trees of life, mundus miraculorum, worlds of wonder

Applying them to yourself with such self-service

Knowing that the easiest person in the world to fool

Is yourself in this desire to be what is not.

Anserous

Aposiopesis

[It’s the afternoon. Li is working away alone in his office. Zhou walks in. He has a white bandage across the bridge of his nose. His left eye is swollen a bit, and it looks as if he will have a black eye. Li stands up immediately in shock.]

Li

Zhou! What happened?

Zhou

I don’t want to talk about it.

Li

Okay. Well, do you need anything?

Zhou

No.

Li

Okay.

[Li watches Zhou as he walks to his desk and sits down. He pauses for a moment, sighs and then speaks:]

Zhou

I was buying perfume for my wife.

Li

Okay.

Zhou

There’s this shop she likes near Wangfujing. I thought I’d go after lunch.

Li

RIght.

Zhou

I bought the one that she likes and I started walking back towards work and I had to walk by all of those goddamned policemen standing there.

Li

There are a lot of them. I mean, you know-

Zhou

Of course, I know! It’s just hard to get around it all. So I was walking, and then somebody jostled me pretty hard and I dropped the bag of perfume.

Li

And then?

Zhou

The damn thing shattered, and I told the guy that I was sorry. The guy was pissed, but he eventually said it was his fault. The next thing I know though, this perfume starts wafting through the air. Somebody next to me says it smells like jasmine, and all these people start pointing at me. Next thing I know three big guys are beating the shit out of me and dragging me away.

Li

Zhou, I’m sorry.

Zhou

I kept trying to tell them that I was just picking up some perfume.

Li

Didn’t you know it was jasmine?

Zhou

The damn thing is called “Essence of Sensuality.” How the hell do I know what it smells like?!

Li

You never noticed that your wife smells like jasmine?

Zhou

My wife always just smelled like my wife. I never thought about it.

Li

Well, what happened after that?

Zhou

After that I had to convince them that I was just buying perfume for my wife. They called her and confirmed it and my party membership and my employment with the propaganda bureau. Plus, I had to call Wang to vouch for me.

Li

You called Wang?!

Zhou

I wanted to call you, but it made more sense to call him. He’s not in my department, and although he’s a twat, he could at the least vouch for me.

Li

That’s awful, Zhou.

Zhou

Stupid sons of bitches.

How does one escape feelings of inadequacy? Self-loathing? Terrible, grinding guilt? That blackness, so black it erases even the ability to perceive it?

When a dim light fights its way through, you’ll see mazes within mazes. The only way out of them is to learn the way they are structured. Lay a line in the dim light so you learn the passages, the traps.

Those who do not know these mazes see them only as the absurd amusements of a soul not yet grown. They laugh to themselves, but wonder how a mind could be so rich with distraction.

Those who know them well, curse their mention. Their eyes scream as they blink, suddenly aware of the darkness. Grasping as you do, they offer you consolation that asks for consolation.

[Ferret is having drinks with friends in a super-chic bar, full of Chinese antiques. A woman plays the erhu behind them, weaving her ethereal tunes together with a pumping house beat. Beatnik, Witch, and Ferret are talking.]

Beatnik

Man, I think you’re ready. You’re really ready man.

Ferret

What’s that?

Beatnik

To know about the real shit in China, man. It really all comes down to three things：

天下乌鸦一般黑

天下没有免费午餐

天下没有不散的筵席

Witch

Haha, yeah.

Ferret

Wait. What was that? I got something about a free lunch.

Witch

No, that’s the second one.

Ferret

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Witch

Yeah, but the first one is about 乌鸦 (wūyā). A crow, you know?

Ferret

So there are only black crows?

Beatnik

Yeah, like all crows are black, man. Shit is just shit everywhere. Evil people are everywhere. You know, man?

Ferret

I get it. A black crow is a black crow no matter how you look at it.

Witch

Yeah.

Ferret

Yeah, and what’s the last one? Can you write it for me?

Witch

[speaking as she writes the characters in his notebook]

天下没有不散的筵席.

Ferret

[pointing to the end of the phrase written in his book]

Those last two…

Witch

筵席 (yánxí), it’s like a big dinner.

Ferret

Like a feast?

Beatnik

Yeah, man. It’s like – it’s like you can’t just have feast that never ends, man. It’s got to end sometime. Now you know about China, man. That’s what it is: All the crows are black; there’s no such thing as a free lunch-

Ferret

And the feast always comes to an end.