Short Distance Champ Wins both Fast and Slow Competion

Tillvaratagna eftermiddagar was originally written in English, in London in the autumn of 1984. The title was “Reasonable Afternoons” and it was printed in 65 copies. The author’s Swedish translation is of later date. The original English features below.

DRÖMBOKEN Den som drömmer att han äter böcker, har inte lång tid kvar att leva.

THE TABLE
The table is a thin sheet of paper.

THE DREAM BOOK He who eats books in a dream will die soon.

A MIRAGE IN FACT
As a matter of fact, the oculist did not shake his glasses.

MODERATION
Too much labor deadens the soul.

SVART MÖRKER: Mörkret är svart till färgen för att lättare kunna urskiljas.

BUSINESS
Business is natural, says the monkey.

FACTS
The people of facts stumble on amid smoke and noise.

UMBRELLAS
I have seen the umbrellas brush each other in passing.

BLACK DARKNESS
In order that you may see the darkness, it is coloured black.

Tillvaratagna eftermiddagar was originally written in English, in London in the autumn of 1984. The title was “Reasonable Afternoons” and it was printed in 65 copies. The author’s Swedish translation is of later date.

Claes Tellvid
Tillvaratagna eftermiddagar, 28 pages
Chateaux [Supplement 3], 2018

In the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise, Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. Achilles allows the tortoise a head start of 100 meters, for example. If we suppose that each racer starts running at some constant speed (one very fast and one very slow), then after some finite time, Achilles will have run 100 meters, bringing him to the tortoise’s starting point. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, say, 10 meters. It will then take Achilles some further time to run that distance, by which time the tortoise will have advanced farther; and then more time still to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever Achilles arrives somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has some distance to go before he can even reach the tortoise.