This part of the Ishmael Gradsdovic papers is reconstructed from a strange letter he sent containing three pieces of paper, unnumbered, and with insufficient context clues to give an idea of order. They are reproduced side-by-side below. The letter was postmarked 30 January 1995.
A bird wil simulate | Much of our thinking and| A 13-year-old takes an injury, dragging its wings|reasoning is unconscious, |overdose of pills. Her and chirping to lure a |that is to say that we |unique genetic makeup predator away from chicks |think or reason without |rots in a coffin, in its nest. A bee, |being aware of it. |generations of natural unable to reproduce as an | Consciousness may be the|selection since the ooze individual, will lay down |act of translating the |culminating in this its life without |natural organic thought- |ultimate sabotage of hesitation for the hive, |processes of the brain |reproductive success. for the Queen. A white |into a more-or-less time- | Three weeks later, two blood cell will sacrifice |linear, symbolic format |other students at the itself to smother an |which is inadequate for |same junior high end invader seen as harmful to|representing the totality |their lives and worried the body. |of the situation, but |members of the community A marine is proud to |despite this information |start a hotline and serve, proud to die, even,|loss is important input- |triple the counselling for his country, for the |date massaging for the |staff. Special class values he holds dear. A |conscious mind. |periods are set aside in monk will take a vow of | New research seems to |all junior and senior silence, serving the faith|show that in some cases |high schools in the he believes in. |this is just a formality |district to discuss My brain, my mind were |-- that our mind reasons |suicide and depression. created to serve the body |or decides before trans- | Reproductive success of and the genes. My |lating this process into |what? Poor girl had immortal soul knows no |a format recognizable by |something reproduce damn such loyalty and will |the conscious mind. That |well. Virus infects the serve the common cold as |you consciously deliberate|cell, takes over its eagerly as the testicles |on a course of action |capacity for reproduction and the church as readily |after you have uncon- |the cell walls explode, as the heretic. |sciously made a decision. |releasing new copies of Why should I feel epic | Are you conscious of |the virus to infect new trauma at the inevitable |other parts of the world |cells. conquering of my body by |in this way, too? Do you | "She was very upset, parasites -- they are only|see things and then trans-|but seemed to have calmed like me, there is no epic |late your vision into |down a lot -- was very beyond the temporal and |symbols so that you are |happen even -- just unremarkable suffering of |conscious of seeing them? |before she killed the body or mind. Nothing|Is the world you are con- |herself," one classmate is wrong, nothing needs |scious of only an after- |reports. fixing, no crime is un- |thought-like symbolic ap- | punished. |proximation of the world | |you are actually living | |in? |
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