Memories of Paris (English version)

(This is a rush translation. The version may not be in its final form.)

Philos Adelphos, 1840

I heard about him from the French friends who watched him wandering the street in thoughts until late at night. He was a strange young man, fascinated by books, libraries, and bookstores.
It was said that he loved enigmas and always wanted to enter the souls of others to guess their intentions. Thus, he worshiped creativity on the one hand and research on the other. In the United States, he liked cards and studied mathematics, but in Paris, he seems to have isolated himself in an abandoned mansion of an illustrious family, with haunted fame. He spent his days with the curtains closed and only walked down the street at night.
His company was the books, he did not receive visits and he hid his new location.
But what I have to tell you is that, to better observers than myself, this young man has developed what perhaps the mind scientists call a double personality.
This was all confirmed by the manuscript that left us. In it, he speaks of a friend, who in reality can never be found. This tale came out in a local magazine.
But what intrigued me most was his reflection left in another yellowed paper.
Here is what he thought, noted, certainly in artificial darkness made by curtains and illuminated by candles.

"The kind of plot that I want to create has never been seen by humans, except perhaps in the case of Oedipus, it has to do with imaginative ability, it does not mean that by observing things very closely we will understand them. Imagine the most absurd things. That's why artists are scientists of some quality, but I digress.
I think the ambiguity of perception is part of our judgments. A person may look at us one way, and then his exact opposite. We live surrounded by appearances.
The type of plot I want to create is based on hypotheses (creations of non-visible). Because this is life as well, the facts, as I said, are little to organize things.
The third element of this fable would be curiosity. It would reveal what drives us to action, the search for meaning in things that seem absurd. Although it is essential to the stories, here the past is ahead.
So this plot would not be something to draw attention to, but about the choice of questions, when facts passed in front of your eyes may not be seen.
I want to be the first modern to value analytical intuition, in this new world in which scientific observation rots between creams, machines, and armies. As already stated, the cryptic questions about the siren song and what name Achilles had while hidden among the princesses are beyond all conjecture. "

Afonso Jr. Ferreira de Lima
2017
https://afonsojunior.blogspot.com/2017/02/memorias-de-paris.html