The West that wasn’t
On a world without Western civilization.
As for the West, it is a land of sleep; darkness weighs on the place where the dead dwell.
—Taimhotep, funerary stela, ca. 45 B.C.
Un homme qui dort tient en cercle autour de lui le fil des heures, l’ordre des années et des mondes.
—Marcel Proust, À la recherche du temps perdu
Last night, I awoke in a feverish state. Looking around, I was quickly put right. The books on my nightstand were as I had left them; the armoire hadn’t moved....
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