The Atemporal Goblin Diary About hallucination

The eldest goblin in the warren—nobody knows how old, nobody asks—described hallucination as 'a thing that became real because we kept stepping around it.'

A medical text in the goblin anatomy library devotes thirty pages to the hallucination-organ, an entity that does not appear in any reasonable taxonomy and which the goblin anatomists nevertheless palpate, weigh, and describe in unsettling detail.

Footnotes Concerning tome

A specific tavern song circulating in the goblin warrens features tome as its third verse. The third verse is, by convention, hummed rather than sung, because the words are 'between us and the dark, and the dark would prefer it.'

A Goblin Aside Concerning bibliography

Comparative goblin linguistics records seven distinct goblin words that translate, approximately, as bibliography. Each word implies a slightly different relationship — proximity, ownership, complicity, fear, fondness, indifference, and, peculiarly, gratitude.

The Goblin Verdict on hallucination

The Goblin Royal Society's medal for outstanding contribution to hallucination studies was awarded this year to a goblin who has not, technically, written anything about hallucination but who, the committee felt, 'understood it best.' The medal is real. The acceptance speech was very short.