Nathalie Quintane--from Shoes, p.11
If, having set some wet shoes to dry on my window sill, one of them should fall, and if, in falling, it strikes a passerby below my windows, then who, or what, will the incensed and wounded person have the right to accuse?
Might she accuse the wind, if there was any?
Or might she accuse chance?
or the desire which incited me, just the other day, to set my shoes on the window sill?
or Fate?
It is best to accuse the shoe.
We must devise a punishment for it.
A stern talking to wouldn't have, of course, any effect, and yet the wounded person needs to be heard, and have their physical and moral hardships sufficiently eased.
But how punish a shoe without its owner, standing by, becoming implicated, then and there?
Might she accuse the wind, if there was any?
Or might she accuse chance?
or the desire which incited me, just the other day, to set my shoes on the window sill?
or Fate?
It is best to accuse the shoe.
We must devise a punishment for it.
A stern talking to wouldn't have, of course, any effect, and yet the wounded person needs to be heard, and have their physical and moral hardships sufficiently eased.
But how punish a shoe without its owner, standing by, becoming implicated, then and there?