The Past Ahead by Gilbert Gatore

Author:Gilbert Gatore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2012-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

114. As he grew older, Niko felt less and less like playing, and his daydreams were no longer an entertaining escape but rather the disconcerting echo of his loneliness. Being alone is one thing, but being aware of it is a problem, and being alone and aware of it is torture, he concluded. Niko had gone unnoticed for years since everyone was always too busy looking elsewhere. He only found company within himself.

115. The sole gaze under which Niko didn’t feel he was transparent was Gaspard’s. Without it ever being a conscious decision, Niko had become his son, his assistant, and his apprentice at the pottery-forge. He’d even been given tongs and a hammer so that he could replace his uncle should it be needed, a situation that occurred more and more frequently as the months went by, until the day when Niko realized he’d dropped out of school. Implicitly, it was understood that Gaspard would soon leave the forge in his hands to await death in a place that would suit his weakened body.

116. Everyone in the village took a stand for or against Niko as Gaspard’s successor in the workshop. The rare ones who accepted it did so primarily out of loyalty to Gaspard, whose appreciation demanded their own. Besides, they’d add as an excuse, it would be better for Niko to inherit a responsibility that was at one and the same time by far the most taxing and harmless, too. Deep inside his workshop by day, and exhausted in his bed the rest of the time, Niko would no longer bother anyone. But far more numerous were those who were offended that Niko should occupy such an important function. They found him much too eccentric and too much of a dilettante to be a reliable blacksmith and potter. But above all, how were they going to buy new tools and utensils from someone who couldn’t talk and thus couldn’t give them any of the recommendations that Gaspard offered? Wasn’t it outlandish to use hoes, sickles, pots, or machetes engraved with the idiotic designs or phrases with which Niko had begun to embellish every piece that passed through his hands?

117. Unaware of any of this, Gaspard was proud of Niko, and the latter applied himself to his work in the forge, happy to be able to display his imagination elsewhere. He didn’t just create functional objects. He wanted them to be as beautiful and interesting as possible. A pot that came from his workshop should be functional and beautiful, as well as interesting. To this end, and in addition to an impeccable finish, he engraved the objects with phrases. For example, on the blade of a machete: “The owner of this machete is the one who holds its handle.” He’d place the phrase in such a way that it was impossible to read it while holding the hilt. On hoes he liked to state that the master of the method is inferior to the master of the thing. He inscribed sickles with the saying that the blade isn’t fragile because it is thin.

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