Precious clues

July 18th, 2026

The most important question is: why isn't Marcel Schwob more popular? And I don't mean at the level of Kafka or Musil or Borges, but more than the level of a forgotten influencer of other writers, destined to a bottomless bin of high-school curricula in France, where he has been before being completely dismissed. There is a clue in his writings, a clue that hasn't completely formed yet, but the fact that I am aware of a clue means that there is one, and a significant one at that. I am hopeless at finding and reading clues, even when they are presented to me on a table with a detailed explanation. So when one appears to me, I take notice. And there is another clue of something even more important, something that connects two different lives. There is a connection between the last few years of Schwob’s life and his disastrous and pointless trip to Samoa, and the last chapters of Modiano’s “Missing Person,” where the protagonist embarks on a disastrous and pointless trip to Bora Bora. I know I am not the first one to make this connection. Still, that is another clue to something I cannot yet name, but I already know is fundamental for me to know eventually. I have two clues then, and I have no idea what to do with them, or even where those clues might lead me. I guess finding out is the point of having clues, but as I said, I don't work with clues very well. Of course, it would be easier to know what I want to find out before embarking on a finding mission, but that is another nature of clues I am not familiar with. The answer is for me to find out based on the clues, not adjust clues to a presumed answer. Something new for me again to dive into.