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[Alexandr Korol]

Chapter 37. Paradise Lost

So, yesterday, November 14th, I received a message from a friend. Let me
find it. It’s from a female friend in Stockholm. I had shared the latest parts
of what I’m working on in my book, she wrote her comments, and then she
added: “It seems to me that on some metaphysical level, being free is your
internal characteristic. And this can be very irritating to a disciplined society,
because you have what they don’t. That very same Lost Paradise — freedom.”
When I read this message, I was in shock because not even twenty-four
hours had passed since I watched the 2025 movie Frankenstein. And right
as that creature enters the farm and talks with the blind old man, the old
man begins to teach him language and recommends various books. There is
one final book left, and he tells the creature that this book is Paradise Lost.
And then, you see, my friend writes to me about “lost paradise.” But
then, something else. I give someone a T-shirt, and on it is a song lyric in
English. Well, I didn’t give it to him just now, I gave it to him a while ago,
but I see him wearing it and I ask him:

— Listen, do you even know... have you translated the text? Do you know
what’s written there?
— No, I don’t know.
— Well, ask Grok or ChatGPT, what is the song about?

And you know what Grok writes at the end? It says: “The man has burned
his future, his dreams, and even his shadow, and is left on the edge of the
present with a broken heart. It is a cry for the lost paradise within oneself.”
Just imagine — within twenty-four hours, from different directions, the
phrase — or rather, the work — Paradise Lost is highlighted to me again.
Earlier this year, the system had already been highlighting Paradise Lost
to me. But I don’t know what the system is trying to hint at with this.
I don’t know. One could speculate on many things here. Maybe the system
is hinting that what I’m doing now — and I am removing a lot of old things
from my life, putting everything in order — maybe I’m overdoing it. Maybe
I am in danger of losing the paradise I was in. Perhaps that is the hint.