The Infinite Matrix | Michael Swanwick & Francisco Goya | The Sleep Of

Reason 78

09.19.03

the sleep of reason

by Michael Swanwick

with illustrations by

Francisco JosÉ de Goya y Lucientes

Click image to enlarge

Digital image © copyright

Davison Art Center,

Wesleyan University

DAC permission required

for any other use.

78. [Plate 64]

The Dark Night of the Soul

Someone wakes up in the middle of the night. A man, or possibly a woman.

It hardly matters which. Perhaps it's three a.m. It could as easily be

four. The waker doesn't know because the clock has stopped. In any case,

it's a long way to dawn.

Perhaps the dawn will never come.

The insomniac may try to dismiss the thought. But it won't go, though

it's commanded to do so. It wants to be listened to. It needs to be

heard. Perhaps the dawn will never come.

And if it doesn't? What does that mean?

Why, that she - or possibly he - is the only being in all the universe.

All those others? Dreams. Phantasms. The delusions of a diseased

imagination. The night is still, and though the insomniac strains to hear

the least human noise, there is none. Nor would such a noise prove

anything. One thinks, and therefore one knows one is. Anything beyond

that is a blind leap of faith into infinite darkness.

like swanwick?

like goya?

so do we.

keep 'em sparring!

send money.

More options on the Contributions page.

T H A N K S !

There is no way of proving that those schoolyard bullies, that abusive

teacher, that first and faithless love, that despised in-law, those

hideous politicians, those bores and tyrants and hypocrites one despises

so heartily have any external reality at all. The insomniac could have

made them all up an infinity ago, and still be carrying them about

because he - maybe she - is simply incapable of imagining anything better.

This would mean that the insomniac is God. But it would also mean that,

contrary to all reasonable expectations, God doesn't amount to very much.

Oh, it's a terrible, terrible world, all right, filled with cruelty and

greed and despair. But suppose it doesn't exist. Would that really be an

improvement?

[ Previous ] [ Next ]

This is the 78th of 80 stories by Michael Swanwick written to accompany

Francisco Goya's Los Caprichos. For a listing of the most recently

available stories, go to The Sleep of Reason.

home | stories | columns | archive | faq | talk

Stories and articles © copyright 2001, 2002, 2003 by the original authors.

Illlustrations © copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, by the original illustrators.

Site graphics, logo, and html coding © copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, by

Eileen K. Gunn.

All other material © copyright 2001, 2002, 2003, by Eileen K. Gunn.

All rights reserved.

Founding sponsor: Matrix.Net

Hosted by SFF.Net.

-->