Artwork by Joe Hoyt.

The following is an excerpt from Grace Nissan’s The Utopians , out now from Ugly Duckling Presse.

The first world was suffering, suffering. The second world was liberation. Liberation!

But why, said the first world, does it look so much like suffering?

Like suffering only once, the second world said—like suffering plus change.

Is that not the first world? No, said the second world, the first world is

suffering plus nature, the second world is suffering plus change. How come,

someone said, and we can’t know what world they said it from, how come

you can’t get rid of suffering. The second world answered, well then where

would the world be. We don’t want to free ourselves from the world.

THE WORLD

The first world was a world, the second invention. The first world was

a world, the second critique. The first world was a world, the second

the survival of the first in other terms. We had started saying phrases like

Bad Utopia.…