Rewriting Noipap: A Fresh Beginning

After a decade of publishing Noipap: The Story of a Soul in Romanian, Italian, and English, I took a hard, honest look at my first literary endeavor. With equal parts pain and humility, I confronted its flaws, celebrated its strengths, and acknowledged its imperfections. Now, I find myself back at the desk, editing and rewriting, determined to breathe new life into this story.

Prologue

Real Facts or Just Another Black Comedy?

The story begins in the Square of Sorrow. Here, as at the beginning of every year, the new greeting was to be announced: “We work and we don’t think!” Citizens were required to use it in place of the archaic “hello,” transforming what was once a simple form of courtesy into an obligation imposed by law.

Although it might seem absurdly humorous, this law carried a sinister undertone. Those who governed the world understood a fundamental truth: if an untruth is repeated long enough, people begin to believe it. And once they believe, that belief becomes their reality. It was through this principle that a great economic crisis was engineered, wars were incited, and the citizens were manipulated by infamous ideas and insidious concepts.

That day, the Square was engulfed in a thick haze of resignation and apathy. Ordinary folks showed no real interest in the new greeting, and none would have bothered to adopt it had the penalties outlined in the Sadness Law Code not been so severe. Yet, despite this grim atmosphere, a peculiar reward accompanied the Greeting of the Year—a free, abundant supply of pristine white mulberry leaves was distributed to all ordinary citizens. This gesture sparked a momentary surge of joy, for these creatures were not human but a variant of the well-known silkworms, albeit from a parallel universe.

They lived their lives in a massive stone tree and, much like their earthly counterparts, harboured a profound love for mulberry leaves—especially the white ones. But beyond their shared appetite, these worms’ world was filled with peculiarities that set them apart, as this story will soon reveal.

This is the tale of a bow-tied worm in a society of technological geniuses, where social lives are dominated by advertising and bad news. In this world, even the most eccentric worms scoff at the idea of butterflies. Some fringe cults cling to the belief that butterflies existed in a distant past and might one day return to Zeta-Zet. Among these are a few who genuinely believe their ancestors transformed into butterflies, though even they doubt such transformations are possible today. For the intellectuals, butterflies are merely metaphors—abstract musings relegated to dusty corners of their minds, pushed aside by relentless work schedules. And as for their children? These unfortunate young ones have no concept of what a butterfly even is.

And so begins the story of this strange, sorrowful world.