from Chapter One
Mundane things, pitiful in their mundane assertiveness, their sad isolation. Kraft French dressing, glowing weirdly orange through its glass bottle, a green glass bowl of green salad, a bottle of Worcestershire sauce, its paper wrapper still on. All are in repose, in their absolute thingness, under the overhead alarming bright light of the kitchen. They may or they should, they must, really, reveal the meaning of this silent room, this silent house, save that they won't. There is no meaning. These things will evoke nothing.
From The Abyss of Human Illusion by Gilbert Sorrentino. Copyright © 2010 by the estate of Gilbert Sorrentino. Published by Coffee House Press. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.