Where one may perceive the trouble stirring Félix’s otherwise calm and well-developed brain before a page that is very clearly unreadable, which is never pleasant when one has long made it one’s profession to understand what others do not.
He therefore begins by subjecting it to everything a reasonably well-trained intelligence can inflict upon a recalcitrant sheet of paper... he turns it every which way, flips it elegantly, imagines a mirror for it, searches for some learned permutation, while the page, which has received no particular training whatsoever, calmly continues to resist him.
Where we learn that Félix says he received this letter from Lucian... who says he got it from Igniatius... who attributes it to the Moon Child... The lineage is impeccable; only the reading is missing, a detail to which Félix, out of old habit, still attaches a certain importance.
Then matters take a turn for the worse, or become clearer, which sometimes amounts to the same thing: the last letter is the first. There was therefore nothing to turn around except the path by which one thought one had to reach the text, and Félix discovers that he must begin at the end in order to recover the beginning, a sufficiently unseemly experience for someone who had always assumed that time, at least, would respect the filing order.
But better still... while he is trying to discover how the page was made, something in him remembers the doing before it remembers what was done, so that the gesture seems to find Félix before Félix finds his memory. This is becoming troublesome, for the text itself speaks of a beginning, of what was already there, of a door that is an entrance in one direction and an exit in the other, “or the reverse”, before finally leading our reader towards a mirror and a Chamber of Reflection where a bridge is thrown between self and self.
Félix is careful not to draw any conclusion from this... he still holds firmly to his principles... Only, his principles have begun to take side roads... It occurs to him that the past might sometimes be recovered from what comes after it, that a thought might be born from a gesture instead of preceding it, and that an outline may perhaps become visible to someone who accepts following it before demanding that it be drawn.
Félix knows that the Moon Child never explains anything, which, all things considered, may be his most effective way of teaching... Félix, for his part, wants to decipher this page... And so he finds himself suspecting that it is his way of reading that had been written backwards.
« .tnenamrepmi ylerus ,tnenitrepmi netfo ,shtrof-dna-kcab ,fles dna fles neewteb egdirb a sworht ,eldnac eht fo ssenthgirb erucsbo eht ni ,hcihw noitcelfeR fo rebmahC eht fo rorrim eht gnicaf ,sekal dnuorgrednu eht ot gnirps raelc eht morf ,smsahc tsepeed eht ot sniatnuom eht fo timmus eht morf ;yks dna htrae neewteb ,syawretaw sti dna erutcetihcra sti ,sevorg sti dniheb ,hcihw ni eno eht ,tnatsni feirb a gnitnuocer htiw flesym tnetnoc dluow I .ynomerec noitaitini elohw eht ot nruter ton dluow I ,em ot dlot neeb gnivah emiT
.noitseuq suoidisni siht ...rewsna ot yrt tsuj ...yrt ...yrt nac enO
?reve dna reverof dehsilbatse ,redrO tcefreP dna tsuJ a fo ,noitisoppus erup ,esohT .stceffe emas eht evah syawla sesuac fo sniahc eseht rehtehw dnA ?retfa eno eht neppah ot gniog si tahW ?erofeb tnatsni eht deneppah tahW ?daeh nwo s’eno ni gnineppah si tahw wonk nac ohw ,efil s’eno fo tnemom yreve ta ,ecalp yreve ni ,tnatsni yreve tA ...trap ni ,tsael ta ,ro ...elpicnirp ni ...nesohc evah ew esoht fo eno ylesicerp si tnemom siht ta su gninrecnoc eno ehT .og ew taht sneppah ti hcihw drawot dna su ot neppah taht stneve eht lla fo snoitaterpretni elbissop fo rebmun etinifni eht enigami eno naC
.timsnart tonnac ro hsiw ton seod eh tahw ,edis esrever eht morf semitemos ,yaw elbissop yreve ni ,meht morf snrael dlihc eht ,ti gniwonk tuohtiW .ton od seirots taht noitcerid a sah yrotsiH ...esrever eht ro ...rehtona ni tixe na dna noitcerid eno ni ecnartne na si rood a hguorht gnissap ,swonk enoyreve sa ,dna dessorc saw rood ehT .gniyas tuohtiw og ton seod tI .ssap ot emac tI .saw tI .deneppah evah dluoc tahw ylpmis ton si ,yad taht ,deneppah tahW
...secnenamrep niatrec ni seveileb yltsenoh eno taht ,eurt si ti ,sneppah tI
.seye ym erofeb ereht saw ,ydaerla ,htaeD .yaw sih sesol dna sklaw ,gnitirw fo htap eht no ,ohw eh eb desselB .rotaerC devoleB dna retsaM sti fo esoht ot gnihtaerb sti dna spets sti secap taht ytilibon A .struoc rieht esuoh ot sdog gnidnamed yb yleritne tliub ...secalap eht htaeneb enots tuc eht fo serussif dliw eht ni sevalcne teercsid rieht htiw ,sdlrow fo ytinifni na sniatnoc dna nihtiw morf ti sees taht dlrow a ,ti sees hcihw taht otno snepo eye deltrats eht ,gninnigeb a nI »
