Under the Volcano

by Malcolm Lowry

Darkness had fallen like the House of Usher.

Love is the only thing which gives meaning to our poor ways on earth: not precisely a discovery, I am afraid.

I love you, he murmured, gripping the bottle with both hands as he replaced it on the tray.

“You can’t see them, but it’s chock full of defunct newspapermen, still spying through keyholes and persuading themselves they’re acting in the best interests of democracy.

“If they’d stayed out of it the war would have been over long ago!”

The world was always within the binoculars of the police.

The system is working for you, as you will shortly discover, when the next war comes, bringing jobs for all.

Not all were in pairs however, the Consul noted. A few lone females on the upgrade were sheltered by angels only. It seemed to him these females were casting half-jealous glances downward after their plummeting husbands, some of whose faces betrayed the most unmistakable relief.

the Consul, sucking a lemon, felt the fire of the tequila run down his spine like lightning striking a tree which thereupon, miraculously, blossoms.

the horse, which, with its cord reins, empty bucket saddle, and jangling heavy iron sheaths for stirrups, was calmly chewing the convolvulus in the hedge, looking innocent as only one of its species can when under mortal suspicion.

how sensible were these old women, who at least knew their own mind, who had made a silent communal decision to have nothing to do with the whole affair. No hesitation, no fluster, no fuss.

poor Cliff!—one seldom thought of him now and one tried not to think of the self-righteous girl whose pride had been so outraged by his infidelities—“business-like, inept and unintelligent, strong and infantile, like most American men,

why was it, richly endowed in a capacity for living as she was, she had never found a faith merely in “life” sufficient? If that were all! . . . In unselfish love—in the stars! Perhaps it should be enough.

thinking of this Yvonne’s heart felt suddenly light as that of a boy on his summer holidays, who rises in the morning and disappears into the sun.

Why was it though, that right in the centre of her brain, there should be a figure of a woman having hysterics, jerking like a puppet and banging her fists upon the ground?

Can’t you see there’s a sort of determinism about the fate of nations? They all seem to get what they deserve in the long run.”

with calamity at the end of it! There must be calamity because otherwise the people who did the interfering would have to come back and cope with their responsibilities for a change—”

“Isn’t your desire to fight for Spain, for fiddledee, for Timbuctoo, for China, for hypocrisy, for bugger all, for any hokery pokery that a few moose-headed idiot sons choose to call freedom—of course there is nothing of the sort, really—”

the jungle returned, its damp earthy leguminous smell rising about them with the night.

Yvonne waited in nervous apprehension: the lights came on and Hugh—how like a man, oh God! but perhaps it was her own fault for refusing to come in—was having a quick drink with the Mexicans.

the whip-poor-will, like love and wisdom, had no home;

Scorpio, setting . . . Sagittarius, Capricornus; ah, there, here they were, after all, in their right places, their configurations all at once right, recognised, their pure geometry scintillating, flawless. And to-night as five thousand years ago they would rise and set: Capricorn, Aquarius, with, beneath, lonely Fomalhaut; Pisces; and the Ram; Taurus, with Aldebaran and the Pleiades.

“How’s the mescal?” Hugh said again. “Like ten yards of barbed wire fence. It nearly took the top of my head off. Here, this is yours, Hugh, what’s left of it.”

Then this beggar with one leg leaned forward: he dropped a coin into the legless man’s outstretched hand. There were tears in the first beggar’s eyes.

What is there in life besides the person whom one adores and the life one can build with that person? For the first time I understand the meaning of suicide . . . God, how pointless and empty the world is!

“I learn that the world goes round so I am waiting here for my house to pass by.”