Antkind

by Charlie Kaufman

Rocks tell time. Everything. The only thing that does not tell time is nothing. Nothing cannot change—this might at first glance sound like a double negative, some sort of streetish parlance, but of course it is not. Nothing exists outside of time. Therefore, to say that before time there was nothing is a paradox because it puts nothing within the context of time. Nothing exists outside of time, therefore, yes, before time, there was nothing, but also during time, wherein nothing exists but does so without interacting with time. This reminds me of a movie I saw in an abandoned wine bar as a student. The rectangle of screen contained nothing. Not black, not white. Nothing. And since nothing is nothing, it cannot be contained in time or space. Therefore there is no beginning or end to it and I was not witness to it because one cannot witness nothing. If I were able to observe it, it would have been something. Then it was gone. No time, of course, had passed.”