Dead Storms and Literature's New Horizon

Walking back to their countries, in the solitude of the road, their minds reconstructed events in such a way that they would be most interesting to listeners. [...]along the way, dialogues emerged, events became more exciting, colors grew brighter, and something was emphasized while something else erased. [...]we say such things in a lighthearted fashion, without considering what terror there would be in this world if we were irrevocably separated from the night, if our calendars merely reflected an endless day. [...]no one has bothered to carry out a research study on the role that the night plays in softening humanity. Some contemporary expressions that are connected to this, such as "this literary work can burn you" or "let's hope this work doesn't land on your head like a misfortune," become surprisingly clear when we think about the clay tablets on which Sumerians recorded their thoughts. Or a literary work, let's say a long narrative, could have been placed in the writer's studio so as to cover an entire wall, and one day, either because it had been placed poorly, or because it had not been baked properly, or due to an earthquake, the tablet would fall on the writer and trap him underneath.