In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

322 CODES
converges with the victims' Silence in the moments preceding a bloody
assault by the police on a gypsy town-and these Silences form a "tunnel
of Silence" when the police leave the scene of the massacre:
Hunchbacked creatures of the night,
Whenever they appear they impose
A silence like dark rubber
And a fear like fine sand.
They enter wherever they wish,
Concealing in their heads a vague astronomy
Of insubstantial pistols .
. . . Oh, town of the gypsies!
The Civil Guard leaves
Through a tunnel of silence
While the flames flare up around you."
(453, 457)
Only bodies that survive in a mutilated state break the spell of Silence.
But in breaking this spell, they do not speak-they sigh. For when words
are not addressed to a subject, one cannot respond to them as a subject
(Lyotard, 13 Off. ).
Rosa of the Camborios
sits before her house sighing­
Her two breasts cut off
and lying on a platter.
(456-457)
In contrast, whenever Silence is a refusal of speech on the part of a
subject who was addressed as a subject, it becomes a weapon and a sign
of strength. This type of Silence is the opposite of the unrestraint with
which, giving up its boundary with the environment, a subject surrenders
itself. As Greta Garbo recalls, Silence as a subject-constituting device can
be obtained only at a high price: "Whatever I achieved came from my
talent and hard work. To the last day of my life, I will defend this
achievement against those who try to minimize my efforts and destroy
me. To defend my achievement, I choose as a weapon complete silence.
You can use this weapon very successfully if you have enough money to