From the immensity of phenomena taking place around me, I draw one thing.
I notice, for example, a cigarette butt on the floor (the rest of the
objects on the floor slip into non-being).
If I can justify why I noticed the butt in particular (‘I am looking for
an ashtray to drop my cigarette ash’), everything is all right.
If I noticed the cigarette accidentally, without any intention, and I
never return to this observation, everything is still as it should be.
If, however, having noticed this phenomenon without significance, you
return to it for a second time ... woe! Why did you notice it again if it
is without significance? Ah, so it means something to you after all, if you
returned. ... Oh yes, by dint of the fact that you concentrated unjustifiably
on this phenomenon one second longer, this thing already begins to stand out,
becomes remarkable ...
—No, no (you deny), this is an ordinary cigarette!
—Ordinary? Why are you denying it if it is ordinary?
From the one hundred and sixty-three words, written down by Witold Gombrowicz
in his diary in 1963, nine were changed and five were added by gerlach en koop
in 2010, which is a bureaucratic way of saying: an ashtray was removed.
thanks to Stroom Den Haag
