The tragic inferno that destroyed five high-rise apartment blocks in Hong Kong last month brought this story by László Krasznahorkai to mind. Unable to get images of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center collapse out of his mind, a narrator struggles to find adequate language to come to terms with the event. He argues that the root cause was an “immeasurably vast” destructive power that arrived on earth simultaneously with mankind and releases itself in cycles of destruction and new beginnings Themes include the limitations of language in dealing with apocalyptic events, the cyclical nature of destruction and renewal. More…