Havelock Hopes, Bonner Thinks

Novelists rarely capture the chaos of many real-life conversations: interruptions, self-interruptions, repetitions, cross-purposes, simultaneous monologues, incoherence. I could quote several examples but they would become tedious. In The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell devoted a paragraph to describing the verbal noise generated by a group of building workers during their lunch break - but usually one of his characters clearly analyzed economic interactions, refuting his work mates' prejudices.

Novelists can at least acknowledge that sometimes someone starts to speak but is unable to complete a sentence.

"'Very good, sir,' Havelock said. 'I hope -'

"Assault burst forth."

-The Rebel Worlds, XII, p. 103.

What did Havelock hope?

"'I think -' Gifford Bonner said.

"And with those words, it ended."

-James Blish, The Triumph Of Time IN Blish, Cities In Flight (London, 1981), pp. 466-596 AT CHAPTER EIGHT, p. 595.

A philosopher begins to say what he thinks, then the universe ends!

Life will still be going on even when it is ending.