“Deep Thoughts About the Cosmos” by Gautam Ravipati, XI: flash fiction

Deep Thoughts About the Cosmos

The word “nothing’”is technically something. If I say “I’m doing nothing,” I am doing something, but that something just happens to be nothing. It’s impossible to write about doing nothing because when I’m writing about nothing I’m doing something but if I am doing nothing while writing then space and time wouldn’t exist. It’s also impossible to think about nothing if you really think about it. Try thinking about nothing; what do you see? I see darkness, a blank slate. However, darkness is still something. For something to be dark, there must be an absence of light, and the absence of light is something. So right now we are talking about doing and thinking about nothing which is actually always going to be something.

— Gautam Ravipati, XI: short story

“Dancing Flame” by Grace Romano, X: photography