The Tallest Man on Earth

RAJ, BOHEMIAN

The New Yorker Fiction & Poetry
RAJ, BOHEMIAN by Hari Kunzru

Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle

Upon Kaspar's gaze of the structure before him to which he has so far been residing,

Oh, how it is! A very big man must have built it. I would like to meet him.

A man doesn't have to be as tall as the tower he builds. He can use a scaffold! I'll take you to see a new building. You lived in this tower, where that little window is.

That cannot be!
Because the room is only a few steps big.

I don't understand.

Wherever I look in the room... to the right, to the left... front-wards and backwards-- there's only room. But when I look on the tower...

At the tower!

Kasper shifts his head away from the structure,
...and I turn around the tower is gone. So, the room is bigger than the tower.

No, Kaspar, that's not right. Think about it a little more. I still don't understand.

EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF AND GOD AGAINST ALL
Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle