"Could I be a Punch? The Punch of my childhood you know - his spine broken in two, his nose on the floor between his feet, his legs and arms rigidly spread in that attitude of profound despair, so pathetically droll, of toys tossed in a corner ... This evening I seem to be within a corner, spine cracked, nose in the dust. Would you kindly scrape together the poor devil, put him tenderly in your apron, introduce him to your dolls, let him play at dinners with the others. I see myself at this banquet, nose besmeared with jam, the others watching me, with that air of cold astonishment natural to well-made dolls."
Joseph Conrad - from a letter he wrote to his aunt, with whom he carried on a lengthy flirtation.
Thank you to David McBride for finding this text.
The Image is from the astonishing MIRRORWORLD
(http://www.thelastwonderoftheworld.com/MIRRORWORLD.html)
