IJ study archive

the figurant made flesh: audible, present, unseen · S2

quote

Poor Tony closed his eyes against the ants formicating up and down his arms’ skinny length and screamed a soundless interior scream of utter and soul-scalded woe.

Context

The figurant condition rendered from the inside: a man whose only true broadcast is the involuntary one, and whose one involuntary broadcast is received as a reason to look away. His deliberate scream is soundless, sealed inside; the whimper he doesn't know he's making is the only signal that reaches the car, and it lands as a cue for a carful of respectables to study the floor. Presence, sound, and total non-reception occupy the same body at once — he is loudest exactly where no one will meet his eye.

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