The Museum of the Eternal Novel

The novel written from the perspective of infinity will contain some unusual introductions: everything is repetition ("A Roman woman once sang to me a folk melody, and since then it has been found dozens of times in different works by different composers over the past four hundred years. No doubt: things do not start; or they do not start when they are created. Or the world was created long ago"); meaning there is no such thing as death; meaning there is no such thing as the self; and therefore it is impossible to distinguish between different levels of reality — "all are real; that is, any image in the mind is a truth, capable of life..." but eternity, of course, is not entirely true. The infinite is an invention. And Masidonius also realizes this. Metaphysically, he tries to comfort himself. He is determined to build "a very strong inner world so that reality cannot possess the power of sorrow or impossibility or restriction for him as it does for someone who has failed to build amazing ideas to accompany him permanently." The only things that cannot die are the things that never began. This is true in novels. It also applies to humans. And because this is true, there is harm associated with it. Love, being a connection to a van animal, is an irrational pleasure. It can only lead to pain. Extinction invalidates all happiness: "Suicide happens in the moment of pleasure." Yet we continue to live and love. In return, Masidonius conducts this obsessive, sorrowful experiment with imagination: because if he can turn the reader into imagination, if he can deny that anything truly lives and dies, he can preserve love as a meaningful emotion. The true subjects of this slightly playful novel are death and love.