On the Calculation of Volume, Book I

by Solvej Balle

The sudden feeling of sharing something inexplicable, a sense of wonder at the existence of the other—the one person who makes everything simple—a feeling of being calmed down and thrown into turmoil at one and the same time.

Often, we would simply come to the conclusion that you cannot know everything, that you have to accept some displacement in life, that you have to expect inconsistencies, and that was what we encountered: patterns and inconsistencies, two worlds trying to merge.

I do not take much from this world, I think to myself, not when you consider its size, and I feel as though I have become lighter, more nimble. I can change direction. That’s how little the monster is. That’s how little difference I make to the world. That’s how little the activities of one person matter on the eighteenth of November.