““I guess there was always some ‘’me’’ inside that small and, later, somewhat bigger shell around which ‘’everything’’ was happening. Inside that shell the entity which one calls ‘’I’’ never changed and never stopped watching what was going on outside. I am not saying to hint at pearls inside. What I am saying is that the passage of time does not much affect that entity. To get a low grade, to operate a milling machine, to be beaten up at an interrogation, or to lecture on Callimachus in a classroom is essentially the same. This is what makes one feel astonished when one grows up and finds oneself tackling the tasks that are supposed to be handled by grownups. The dissatisfaction of a child with his parents control over him and the panic of an adult confronting a responsibility are of the same nature. One is neither of these figures ; one is perhaps less than ‘’one’’.””
