D I A R Y

"Then Boris Yeltsin looked at Amalfitano with curiosity, as if it were Amalfitano who had invaded his dream, not the other way around. And he said: listen carefully to what I have to say, comrade. I’m going to explain what the third leg of the human table is. I’m going to tell you. And then leave me alone. Life is demand and supply, or supply and demand, that’s what it all boils down to, but that’s no way to live. A third leg is needed to keep the table from collapsing into the garbage pit of history, which in turn is permanently collapsing into the garbage pit of the void. So take note.
This is the equation: supply + demand + magic.
And what is magic? Magic is epic and it’s also sex and Dionysian mists and play. And then Yeltsin sat on the crater or the latrine and showed Amalfitano the fingers he was missing and talked about his childhood and about the Urals and Siberia and about a white tiger that roamed around the infinite snowy spaces. And then he took a flask of vodka out of his suit pocket and said: I think it’s time for a little drink.
And after he had drunk and given the poor Chilean professor the sly squint of a hunter, he began to sing again, if possible with even more brio. And then he disappeared, swallowed up by the crater streaked with red or the latrine streaked with red, and Amalfitano was left alone and he didn’t dare look down the hole, which meant he had no choice but to wake."

Roberto Bolano, 2666

Everybody should read 2666.

(Source: wordsfordreaming)