Ulysses
obey the summons of recall. Whence, disappearing from
the constellation of the Northern Crown he would some-
how reappear reborn above delta in the constellation of
Cassiopeia and after incalculable eons of peregrination
return an estranged avenger, a wreaker of justice on male-
factors, a dark crusader, a sleeper awakened, with financial
resources (by supposition) surpassing those of Rothschild
or the silver king.
What would render such return irrational?
An unsatisfactory equation between an exodus and re-
turn in time through reversible space and an exodus and
return in space through irreversible time.
What play of forces, inducing inertia, rendered depar-
ture undesirable?
The lateness of the hour, rendering procrastinatory: the
obscurity of the night, rendering invisible: the uncertainty
of thoroughfares, rendering perilous: the necessity for re-
pose, obviating movement: the proximity of an occupied
bed, obviating research: the anticipation of warmth (hu-
man) tempered with coolness (linen), obviating desire and
rendering desirable: the statue of Narcissus, sound without
echo, desired desire.
What advantages were possessed by an occupied, as dis-
tinct from an unoccupied bed?
The removal of nocturnal solitude, the superior quality
of human (mature female) to inhuman (hotwaterjar) cal-
efaction, the stimulation of matutinal contact, the economy
of mangling done on the premises in the case of trousers
accurately folded and placed lengthwise between the spring