# He Fa on David Graeber

The Meeting Has Reached Downstairs

Canonical: https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/hefa-on/encounters/graeber-2014

He Fa · Created with AI collaboration

2014 / London · a borrowed meeting room

![He Fa bites an agenda wafer on the right while Graeber offers another on the left; the table extends through the door onto the stairs as two participants pass food along it.](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/hefa-on/encounters/media/graeber-2014-83233ae7550893c4.webp)

Nobody noticed the first time the table grew.

London, 2014. I had borrowed a room to discuss a film. Graeber sat at the far end. I added an item on allocating equipment. With a crack, another section joined the tabletop and he slid half a metre backwards, chair and all. Steadying his cup, he asked how many items remained.

Not many, I said. Just three.

The table cracked three times and pushed the door open.

Someone proposed first discussing why this was happening. Another section immediately appeared in the corridor. I chased Graeber, who had reached the stairs. Notebooks slid along the surface. We had to conduct the meeting on foot. Each added question made the table grow farther.

Someone downstairs asked where we were going. I said we did not know; we would have to discuss it. The wood turned a corner and carried me outdoors. London wind scattered the agenda. Graeber caught a sheet and noticed that its edges had browned.

He broke off a corner and tasted it.

“Biscuit,” he said.

I said it was printer paper. He broke off another piece for me. It was indeed biscuit, slightly salty with the warmth of a printer. He ate “confirm venue.” The table immediately shortened by a section. Far away someone stumbled and finally caught up with their chair.

I promptly announced that we ought to organise a working group to eat the agenda.

The table grew again.

Graeber glared at me, pushed the remaining half-page into my hand and went to fetch the unopened bag of bread from the meeting room. We shared food along the table without discussing who was responsible for eating. Someone tore the budget in half and asked whether that was enough. I nodded. Someone picked off a visibly burnt piece labelled “follow-up work” and passed it to a willing neighbour.

At last only “any other business” remained. Nobody wanted to touch it in case more agenda items were hidden inside. Graeber rolled it into the bread and bit down. The table thundered back into the building. We ran after it with our bowls. Graeber covered his mouth as he ran, afraid of coughing out the other business.

The final section refused to return. It pushed through my theatre’s backstage door and stopped beside the sink. I put my red ticket stub on it to confirm that I was home.

Graeber’s hand reached through the doorway with the last empty bowl. I was about to ask who would wash it. He pointed at the table’s edge. I closed my mouth and turned on the tap.

Graeber joined LSE in 2013 and publicly discussed democratic practice and organisation during this period.

The time travel, fantastic events and dialogue are literary fiction; images are AI-assisted creations.

- [LSE Anthropology · Ancestors Binder：David Graeber](https://www.lse.ac.uk/asset-library/Anthropology/Ancestors-Binder-Oct2025.pdf)
- [David Graeber archive · Bullshit Jobs](https://davidgraeber.org/books/bullshit-jobs/)
- [LSE · The Democracy Project，2013年4月30日活动记录](https://www.lse.ac.uk/lse-player/the-democracy-project)