Jen G’s Reviews > Small Boat > Status Update

“…when there are no more eyes to see than there are arms to reach out, there are still spectators and the shore from which they are watching is never far away, even if, at the same time, it is infinitely distant. Even with their eyes shut, people are still watching, and I can't think of a single one who could say: I wasn't there.

“There is no shipwreck without spectators.
Even when there's no one, when it's far out at sea, at night, without witnesses, even when there's no living soul in sight for thousands of nautical miles, only waves and the viscous night, covering everything, swallowing everything….”

“And yet that night I saw not one of them jump into the water to help, not one offering to reinflate the rubber dinghy with his own feeble lungs. But when it comes to protesting and calling other people monsters, then everyone has enough breath.”

“Down, down, he went to the sandy bed of the sea. And gently he placed one foot on the sand, then the other, inert, weightless, like an astronaut on the Moon, at the bottom of the sea. For a while he stayed still, looking about him, then began to walk, to move forward through the tall seaweed and sleepy fish.”

“…that one person has to drown in order for another one to breathe properly, and that the air we breathe in is another's dying breath. That one has to be driven out so another can move in, and any place we occupy is stolen from someone we have thrown into the sea.”