You could viddy it all right, all of it, very clear-tables, the stereo, the lights, the sharps and the malchicks-but it was like some veshch that used to be there but was not there not no more. And you were sort of hypnotized by your boot or shoe or a finger-nail as it might be, and at the same time you were sort of picked up by the old scruff and shook like it might be a cat. You got shook and shook till there was nothing left. You lost your name and your body and your self and you just didn't care, and you waited till your boot or your finger-nail got yellow, then yellower and yellower all the time.

📖 Anthony Burgess

🌍 English  |  👨‍💼 Novelist

🎂 February 25, 1917  –  ⚰️ November 22, 1993
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In the passage, the narrator describes a vivid but disorienting experience, where familiar objects like tables and lights become almost ghostly, as if they once existed but no longer do. This sense of loss is accompanied by a hypnotic fixation on a part of oneself, such as a shoe or fingernail, creating a feeling of detachment from reality. The individual feels as if they are being roughly shaken, leading to a profound disconnection from their own identity.

The imagery conveys a journey into oblivion, where the loss of self becomes overwhelming. While the external world remains clearly visible, the inner experience is one of dissolution, where familiar sensations fade away. The process of being shaken strips away the essence of the individual, leaving them indifferent to their own condition as they become lost in the relentless passage of time, signified by the color changes in their fingers or shoes.

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February 02, 2025

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