The Day After Groundhog Day in ‘Short Film’
Tell me nothing.
An excerpt from the novel Most Famous Short Film of All Time.
On February 3, 2015, Lev reflects:
It’s stopped snowing, and the TV in the breakroom is off. Finally. The newspaper put smiling children on the front page and a short article about the results of what the groundhog saw or didn’t. Yesterday was Groundhog Day.
It occurs to me: Nothing happened. Apart from a snowstorm, nothing.
Talking to Noon made a difference. To interact with the ghost is to eat the ghost. I ate his violent fantasies.
And then:
The emergence of nothing can eat you up: your knowledge, the world itself, and all recurring worlds. Alternatively: It may spawn a new world. Alternatively: Nothing may follow nothing.
Tell me nothing.
What do the poor have, the rich need, and if you eat it you’ll die?
What does the dead canary say?
What is the problem after…