Kruttårnet Quotes

“There just isn’t any earth to talk about. This brittle green crust, this indescribably thin shell between the [...] fiery porridge beneath us and the [...] minus 459.7 degrees above us—in God’s name you can’t call this an earth! So I want to protest loudly against this word, and to propose that the designation “the earth” shall be stricken from all vocabularies in all countries and in all languages.

Instead we shall introduce the term the Crust.

We live on the Crust.

And we’re waiting for it to crack.”
― Jens Bjørneboe, Kruttårnet

“I no longer thought about the fire under us and the endless cold above us, nor about how thin this crust is which divides the fiery porridge from outer space. I only felt that the night was dark and full of life, of snails and moths, of growing plants, and I knew that there were trout and frogs in the brook. Sometimes the frogs here croak all night long, in a great chorus.
There are bats and owls, and deer roam the neighboring forests.
The flowers have closed. From the hospital there was not a sound. All was silence.
Then a great golden tone rose through the night, and it was followed by new tones. The nightingale had begun, and now filled the world with its abnormal voice.”
― Jens Bjørneboe, Kruttårnet