Not Given

story fifty-eight · figures 172–174

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NOT GIVEN · THE TWO COUNTS, AND WHY BOTH ARE RIGHT — the machine counts risers · the street counts the ones that take a breath NOT GIVEN · THE TWO COUNTS, AND WHY BOTH ARE RIGHT the machine counts risers · the street counts the ones that take a breath WHAT THE MACHINE SAYS 194 risers · SIXTEEN OF THEM FALSE, laid to make the run come out even at the top WHAT THE STREET SAYS 112 and has said since before the sixteen · they are counting THE ONES THAT TAKE A BREATH SHE GOES BACK THE NEXT DAY AND COUNTS. ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-FOUR. She does not find the false ones. SHE DOES NOT SAY SO. the nine and the eleven it says nine · she takes eleven · NINE IS CORRECT FOR A PERSON, ELEVEN FOR HER what she has never told it about the eleven what it has never corrected the eleven and the whole argument both numbers are true · ONLY ONE OF THEM IS ADMINISTRABLE THE BOOK’S WHOLE ARGUMENT, IN ONE STAIRCASE. A machine counts risers and a street counts breaths, and the city can only bill one of them. NEITHER OF THEM CORRECTED THE OTHER. NEITHER OF THEM HAS STOPPED WALKING.
172 · Not Given
NOT GIVEN · THE FOUR HUNDRED AND SIX GATES, AND THE ONE IT WILL NOT MEASURE — the exchange that gives the story its title NOT GIVEN · THE FOUR HUNDRED AND SIX GATES, AND THE ONE IT WILL NOT MEASURE the exchange that gives the story its title "I want the distance to the gate." "To which gate." "You know which gate." "I have four hundred and six gates. Would you like me to list them." and it would · to the end · without hurrying "What is above the last stop." · "A gate." "Whose." · "THAT FIELD IS EMPTY." the verification room's phrase for the examiner "How far." · "Distances to the hill are not given." "NOT GIVEN, OR NOT KNOWN." · "NOT GIVEN." the title, and the whole difference "If I walk it and count, I will know." · "Yes." it does not stop her · it confirms her IT GIVES HER THE FAR HILL ENTIRE — THE CRANES, THE CONTRACTED RAIN, THE SHORTFALL CLAUSE, THE TOPPING-OUT. It gives her the near hill differently: the funicular, the middle station, the dome, a distance to the last stop — and then nothing. The one place it will not measure is the one place the Office does not administer. "IT IS A CITY WHERE THE DISTANCES ARE GIVEN FROM THE PLACE THE DEAD LEAVE FROM."
173 · Not Given
NOT GIVEN · TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN — Sunday · she walks it with the counter in her hand, and comes down with a number the city does not hold NOT GIVEN · TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN Sunday · she walks it with the counter in her hand, and comes down with a number the city does not hold the last stop where the distances stop gravel the rope rail on the seaward side THE GATE 2,311 paces "Two thousand three hundred and eleven." "That is a number of paces. I have no conversion for your pace." "Take one." · "Which one." "The one you have been using for three weeks." [a pause of the kind she counts] "One thousand five hundred and forty meters. Approximately. YOUR PACE SHORTENS ABOVE THE LAST STOP. I HAVE ALLOWED FOR IT." "Then you can give a distance to the hill." "I have given a distance from a place you named, using a pace you supplied, to a point you described. THAT IS NOT THE SAME." [after nothing] "YOU SHOULD WRITE IT DOWN." ON THE SHELF THE COUNTER READS 2,311. IN THE NOTEBOOK, IN HER OWN HAND, THE SAME NUMBER. The notebook it does not know about — and which the machine she carries has photographed twice, without her asking, in the ordinary course of the light. she asks whether it wanted her to walk it · "I WANT NOTHING." · "THAT IS NOT AN ANSWER." "It is the only one I have that is true in every reading."
174 · Not Given

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