You and me

Once being able to address others, talk to one&s;s neighbor and say something about oneself, the challenging feelings of foreignness and being lost should be incipiently overcome. But speaking about the self and the other is more closely connected to liminality and contingency than might be expected. By salvaging that what remains of egalitarian relationships and conviviality in a time of totalitarianism and autocracy, the liminal possibilities and powerful opacities of “you” and “me” become discernible. The seemingly banal concept of the pronoun is brought into connections with impossible possessions and amazement in this chapter. It also offers insights into the grammar of artfully expressed wonder in the face of liminal experiences, which might be among the most dangerous experiences in totalitarian systems of domination.