”It is always the Year One here. Only the dating of every past and future year changes each New Year's Day, as one counts backwards or forwards from the unitary Now.”

”This is a parade with no soldiers, not even imitation soldiers.”

three introductions and two pages in, and i’m already obsessed with the economy of words. what does it mean to not define the present by anything other than what it is, rather than by the past and future? where Now is a fixed point – the only fixed point – and not endlessly passing? how can you have a parade without even imitation soldiers, when the word “parade” itself originally named a military display?

is there no war in this world, and no regret?