Trafika Europe 5 - Slovenian Interlude

Above the red button it says

Above the red button it says poussez ici . You press and two old women, who sit inside a small box on the wall and drink tea, shake their mandibles. Automatons. Automatons. Some mechanism propels the visitors of Musée des automates et de la magie deeper through the catacombs. As if they stepped beneath the arches of some incessantly dividing question. And there is the master of magic Houdini with his mustache, body floating above his hands, unclasped chains around a hypnotized beauty and a magic hat. Less and less oxygen and more and more staring eyes, although only the effects of language are visible, sometimes levers and cogs, never a finger, which presses a button for you to speak. At one in the morning, he leans over and says res publica academia to the dark-skinned porter at École normale supérieure . His father always blamed himself for not speaking to the German teacher he met near the bridge from which he intended to commit suicide. Mao always blamed himself for the Cultural Revolution not having sufficiently purged the French Maoists. The French Maoists blamed themselves for not abolishing the Latin lectures of their father. The son blamed himself for enduring the theft by the Maoist philosophers, who stole Prometheus’ lighter from the French poet’s pocket. Res publica academia . The tireless babble of a fountain on an August night. The busts of the members of this strange society on the four walls

36