La cât de analitică este Lydia Davis, ar trebui ca sintagma a-şi veni în simţiri să aibă şi reversul: a-şi ieşi din simţiri, dar în sensul nevoii de distanţă, de detaşare pe care o implica inteligenţa autoironică. Alienarea eului de corporalitate ca ansamblu de funcţii fiziologice nu are nimic tragic, se dizolva în derizoriul obiectivării printr-un dialog dus la absurd. Eul foloseşte persoana I si se dezice de organe şi simţuri, care activează la persoana a III-a: rana se vindecă, nasul doare, inima bate. În celebrul poem Head. Heart, utopia unităţii eului este cu atât mai vizibilă prin transferul esuat al sensului din zona cerebrală in cea emotională si invers. Scriitura este o demonstraţie sclipitoare de deconstruire lucidă a unui fals ideal identitar şi lingvistic, un refuz de autoiluzionare ideologică.

The Senses

 

Many people treat their five senses with a certain

respect and consideration. They take their eyes to a

museum, their nose to a flower show, their hands to

a fabric store for the velvet and silk; they surprise

their ears with a concert, and excite their mouth

with a restaurant meal.

But most people make their senses work hard

for them day after day: Read me this newspaper!

Pay attention, nose, in case the food is burning!

Ears!—get together now and listen for a knock at

the door!

Their senses have jobs to do and they do them,

mostly—the ears of the deaf won’t, and the eyes of

the blind won’t.

The senses get tired. Sometimes, long before

the end, they say, I’m quitting—I’m getting out of

this now.

And then the person is less prepared to meet the

world, and stays at home more, without some of

what he needs if he is to go on.

If it all quits on him, he is really alone: in the

dark, in silence, numb hands, nothing in his mouth,

nothing in his nostrils. He asks himself, Did I treat

them wrong? Didn’t I show them a good time?

Varieties of disturbance, 2007

Self-Portrait as a Businessman 2002, with additions 2004 Pawel Althamer