116 ‘People like you . . . a word to come.’
C. G. Jung’s Letters, vol 1, Routledge & Kegan Paul, quoted in Michael Tippett, Moving into Aquarius, p. 167, Paladin.
211 ‘The eye . . . sees me.’
Angelus Silesius.
214 ‘Now I know . . . hurt so much any more.’
Nina in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, Act 4, quoted in Chekhov The Dramatist by David Magarshack, p. 191, Methuen.
227 ‘The mystery of the Cross . . . in spite of ourselves.’ Siân Miles, Editor, Simone Weil: An Anthology, p. 263, Virago, from which come the other quotations from Simone Well, to whom Julie’s meditation on affliction also owes a debt.
228 ‘Hold to the now . . . plunges to the past.’
James Joyce, Ulysses, The Corrected Text, p. 153, Bodley Head.
Mother Julian’s words are quoted from Revelations of Divine Love translated by Clifton Wolters, Penguin Books.
Two pages of Nik’s book to Julie owe their inspiration to the work of Tom Phillips, especially his book A Humument, Thames & Hudson.
Footnotes
Reports
* SHOCK: otherwise known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe. This states that one day God was playing about with a lot of nothing in his-her-its laboratory in the middle of nowhere, when he-she-it had a nasty accident. Bang! And a few God-minutes later, there everything was, evolving like crazy before his-her-its very eyes. And God thought: Hello, this looks a bit dodgy, and quickly dictated a few commandments to put things back in order, but nobody would obey them. So God tried threatening horrible consequences if they didn’t do as they were told but that didn’t work because nobody cared less until the consequences actually happened. So God let a few really large-scale calamities occur, but that didn’t put a stop to the nonsense either. So finally God decided he-she-it had better pile in as himself and do something about it before the whole business went to pot. But that didn’t go too well either, as any fool would know it wouldn’t, because, as any fool knows, only nothing can come of nothing, and nothing did. And that’s why adherents of the Big Bang theory believe we’re all nothing but a load of old rubbish floating around in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and nowhere to go and do it. Which also explains why Big Bangers are always saying to each other: What the hell, who cares, let’s have another big bang.
This is also known as the Cock-up theory of creation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aidan Chambers lives in Gloucestershire with his American wife, Nancy, who is the editor of Signal magazine. He divides his time between his own writing and lecturing which he does extensively in Australia, the USA and Europe. His provocative and challenging novels for teenagers and young adults have won him international acclaim.
By the same author
BREAKTIME
DANCE ON MY GRAVE
THE TOLL BRIDGE
POSTCARDS FROM NO MAN’S LAND
NOW I KNOW
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 409 01337 2
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
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Copyright © Aidan Chambers, 1987
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Red Fox 9780099503019 1995
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Nik: Now I Know Page 25
