Literature as unbuilt architecture -- courtesy Cesar Aira

‎"She dreamed of the building on top of which she was sleeping... as it was now, that is, under construction.

"The difference (between dreams and reality) in this case was reflected in the architecture, which is, in itself, a reciprocal mirroring of what has already been built and what will be built eventually. The all-important bridge between the two reflections was provided by a third term: the unbuilt.

"The architectural key to the built / unbuilt opposition, which analogies fail to capture, is the flight of time toward space. And dreaming is that flight....

Except in fables, people sleep in houses. Even if the houses haven't yet been built. And therein, perhaps lies the origin, the original cell, of the sedentary life. While habits, whether sedentary or nomadic, are made of time, dreams are time-free. Dreams are pure space, the species arrayed in eternity. That exclusivity is what makes architecture an art.

‎"The Australians...postulate a primal builder, whose work they presume only to interpret... beyond verification.. A time of sleeping.

"These intellectual dandies, these spinsters, these curious Aborigines make sure their eyes are closed while events take place, which allows them to see places as records of events.

"...geography as simple as it is effective: the point and the line... represented by the halt and the journey."

-Cesar Aira, from Ghosts