The Meaning of Manuel
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The Meaning of Manuel - By Ben Kearvell
'Reason requires etiquette, here there is none.'
The Meaning of Manuel is a novel of surrealty and eccentricism. Its delivery challenges the very notion of literature itself, whilst streaming an astoundingly bizarre narrative through the lives and minds of two existentially challenged artists, a psychologist, a proficiently minded hobo, and the professionals that draw upon their work.
Ben Kearvell's first novel requires 40 pledges of $25 dollars for printing costs. Each supporter will receive a personalised copy of the book, printed as a high quality colour paperback, and a mention as a contributor in the book itself.
'Reason requires etiquette, here there is none.'
The Meaning of Manuel is a novel of surrealty and eccentricism. Its delivery challenges the very notion of literature itself, whilst streaming an astoundingly bizarre narrative through the lives and minds of two existentially challenged artists, a psychologist, a proficiently minded hobo, and the professionals that draw upon their work.
Ben Kearvell's first novel requires 40 pledges of $25 dollars for printing costs. Each supporter will receive a personalised copy of the book, printed as a high quality colour paperback, and a mention as a contributor in the book itself.
Ask me a question… Make it good… See what I say…
What good will it do?
I’ll take that as your first enquiry… Find out what is around… What has captured us… This nexus of implausibility that has dawned, constellated by distraction and anxiety… Write it down!
What has dawned?
Vagary, the curator deposits. Unsettled inheritance…
What should we inherit?
Intention, Manuel—by rights!
What rights?
Providence owes us connection…
God?
No theological questions! I mean to say, there is no framework that abides… No circumstance that inures…
Perhaps you don’t see it…
Don’t personalise, Manuel! I must engage the unconscious…
What is the unconscious?
Personification of mystery… A refuge for the unanswerable… The great panacea of psychology!
What’s that?
The thing that explains what is inexplicable…
How?
I don’t know!
How don’t you know, Curator?
The unconscious knows… Of course it does…
Why of course?
True, Manuel… It might not know what it is… That’s why it’s unconscious…
Why is it necessary?
Why is anything necessary?
What?
I apologise… Ask me again.
Why is it necessary?
Density, intensity—width of being… Causes being to expand, to protract, to recognise itself by way of polarity…
What sort of polarity?
Opposites…
How can it be opposite?
Other than…
What?
The opposite of me… The thing that arranges what I think I am by not being it… That’s enough, Manuel… It’s too hard to do more…
Try me…
You can’t just say what you think I want to hear…
What do you suppose I think you want to hear?
Don’t do that! Don’t make fun…
I’m not, Curator. Ask me!
What for?
Ask me about the other… It might be important…
What, then, Manuel, is the other?
He looks about him—not looking, wrinkles his face, cranes.
What, then?
Not yet!
You’re not being serious!
Shut up!
What?
Mother, Father… Sea-side town… Cobbler, Madame Bovary… Poetry…
Useless!
Why?
You’re making it up!
I’m not!
It means nothing!
More than nothing, Curator!
You’re ruining it… You must go deeper…
It doesn’t matter…
Why?
It’s happening anyway… You don’t understand…
How could I not understand?
Each donator will receive a personalised copy of the book, printed as a high quality colour paperback, and a mention as a contributor in the book itself.
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Est. delivery is Jun 25