There is a way that a writer can make a reader disappear like magic, but this secret is not for general knowledge (and is, indeed, meant for the "maybe five" readers that Machado de Assis expected to discover his novel Epitaph of a Small Winner). And so we will present the secret in black text over a black background, to be highlighted by and thereby revealed to only a select few:
"The book must suffice in itself: if it please you, excellent reader, I shall be rewarded for my labor; if it please you not, I shall reward you with a snap of my fingers, and good riddance to you." (Translated from the Portuguese by William L. Grossman.)
