The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira Read Online Free PDF Page B

digression. It was assumed that one could end up with an exhaustive
illustration of an idea through the strength of examples. But for the idea to
have any value, other examples would have to be able to illustrate it, so how
could one achieve anything exhaustive? Even worse, the method of using examples
in itself imposed a hierarchy between the particular and the general, a
situation that could not stand more wholly in opposition to the very essence of
his system of cures.
    In spite of this, he had to think of a form of exposition
that would be attractive to the general public, and the tradition of using
examples was too deeply rooted to avoid altogether. After mulling the issue over
and over he had come up with a compromise solution: to put into effect a
do-it-yourself-examples mechanism the reader would be in charge of. He would
confine himself to one example, only one “case,” with which he would open the
first installment (or rather number zero) and to which all the arguments would
refer, thereby inverting the malevolent order of the general and the
particular.
    This passe-partout example had given him many headaches. Not its invention, which was easy, perhaps
too easy, but rather the conviction that he would need to employ it. In order to
avoid that ease, he stuck with the first one that popped into his head, and in
the long run he had to admit that he had done the right thing. It was not a case
in the strict sense of the word but rather a little fable, inspired by a pair of
stretchy woolen gloves that were sold as “magic gloves”; he had a pair, which he
wore when he went on strolls in the winter; their “magic” consisted of both of
them being exactly the same, so either could be worn on the right or the left
hand indistinguishably. In turn, all the pairs of gloves were the same, all one
size, and they fit all hands, from a little girl’s to a truck driver’s; their
adaptability, just like their trick of bilateral symmetry, was due to the
elasticity of their knit, and therein lay all the magic. What he imagined was
the existence of a unique pair of truly “magic gloves,” made out of thick red
leather with angora fur lining — hence very thick — that would have the property
of giving the hands that wore them (but only while they were wearing them) the
sublime piano-playing virtuosity of an Arrau or an Argerich . . . but they would
be useless because one obviously cannot play the piano wearing gloves, and less
so with such uncomfortable polar gloves. Hence, their miraculous charm would
never coincide with any proof, and the underlying theory would be left
untouched. Only by dint of useless miracles could one prevent a theory from
degenerating into a dogma.
    Choosing the “installment” format was a result of this
kind of reasoning. He had come to it by retreating from more radical formats;
for months he had played around with the idea of creating an album of
collectible figurines, the figurines of the Miracle Cures, which would be sold
in kiosks in sealed envelopes . . . But the operational aspect created too many
complications, and there were even some impracticalities on the conceptual side.
So he rejected the idea of the album, as he had rejected many other
possibilities that were as daring or more so. From these grand escalations of
fantasies he would return to “degree zero”: the book. And he would take off
again from there, because the format of the book, with its classic simplicity
that nobody respected more than he, limited him excessively. All that to-ing and
fro-ing had converged at a point in the middle, which was the collectible
installment, published weekly. The frequency would dictate his work rhythm, and
the advantage of this over a book was that he would not have to finish the
entire oeuvre before beginning to publish; that last part was the most
important, because he had not considered a definite end to his labors; he saw
it, instead, as an open oeuvre, which could incorporate into a