ITALO CALVINO
233
farther than in my previous exercises of making the world around me
disappear.
"But tell me something: weren't you the ones who were always
talking of increment, of implementing, of expansion.... "
"Well? There's no contradiction.... Everything is contemplated
in the logic of projections .. . . The line of development starts again
from zero.... You had also realized that the situation had come to a
dead end ... was deteriorating.... The only thing was to help the
process along.... Tendentially, something which might seem nega–
tive in the short run, in the long run can prove an incentive.... "
"But I didn ' t mean it the way you did.... I had something else in
mind ... I erase in a different way ... " I protest, and I think: if they
believe they can fit me into their plans, they're wrongl
I can't wait to go into reverse,
to
make the things of the world exist
again, one by one or all together, to set their variegated and tangible
substance, like a compact wall, against the men's plans of general
vacancy. I close my eyes and reopen them, sure of finding myself on the
Prospect again, teeming with traffic, the street lamps lighted at this
hour, and the final edition of the papers in the kiosks. But instead:
nothing. The void all around us is more and more void, Franziska's
form on the horizon comes forward slowly, as ifshe had to climb the
curve of the ear th's globe. Are we the only survivors? With mounting
terror I begin to realize the truth: the world which I believe erased by a
decision of my mind that I could revoke at any moment is truly
finished.
"You have to be realistic," the officials of Section D are saying.
"Just take a look round. The whole universe is ... let's say it's in a
transitional phase.... " And .they point to the sky, where the constella–
tions have become unrecognizable, here clotted, there rarefied, the
celestial map in upheaval, stars exploding one after the other, while
more stars emit a final flicker and die. 'The important thing is that
now, when the new ones arrive, they must find Section D in perfect
working order, its cadres complete, its functional structures in opera–
tion ... "
"But who are the new ones? What do they do? What do they
want?" I ask, and on the frozen surface that separates me from
Franziska I see a fine .crack, spreading like a mysterious trap.
"It's too early to say. For us to say it in our terms. At present we
can't even see them. But we can be sure they're there, and for that
matter, we had been informed, even before, that they were about to
