Part 1 Summary

Interest in professional fasting is declining. The professional, or hunger artist, is becoming as disillusioned with his audience as they are with him. He watches from the barred cage where he sits in straw with only a clock for company. He sips from a glass of water, answering questions "with a constrained smile." He dresses his pallid body in black tights. His bare ribs protrude. Occasionally, he stretches out an arm so a visitor can feel how thin it is. He recollects the glorious days when villagers bought season tickets to his performances, and he weighs those memories against the current reality that only children still marveled, that adults found him "a joke that happened to be in fashion."

The hunger artist also remembers those most familiar with him and his profession, who believe in his truth without need of proof. They stand...