Eugene Ostashevsky

1968 / Leningrad, USSR

Remember the Cogito

Now the Lord God said to DJ Spinoza,
Baruch, are you there?

And DJ Spinoza replied to the Lord God,
Here I am!

God: Baruch, how about you be my mirror?

DJ: Mirror? But God spelled backwards reads dog!

God: Don't be so literal.
Tell me something nice
about myself, tell me I exist.

DJ: You exist.

God: No, say it like you mean it.

DJ: Why are you so needy today? Is everything alright?

God: I was just thinking: If I really am Absolutely Transcendent, then I don't exist at all, do I?

DJ: But, Lord, remember the cogito: If you think you don't exist, you
exist!

God: Yeah, I guess so.

(Silence.)

Now the Lord God said to DJ Spinoza,
Baruch!

And DJ Spinoza replied to the Lord God,
Here I am!

God: Are you sure? I mean, your argument, it's not just verbal, is it? Does it really apply?

DJ: Inasmuch as anything applies.

God: But nothing really applies. Does the word dog apply to dogs? Ask yourself that.

DJ: Does the word dog apply to dogs?

God: Nu?

DJ: I can't tell. Shall we test it? (DJ Spinoza walks over to Yasha.) Yasha! Yasha! (Yasha wakes up.) Yasha, dog! Dog, Yasha! Dog, Yasha, dog! (Yasha stares incomprehendingly.)

God: You see?
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