MacAllister @ 378
I'm not sure why people talk about being embarrassed by the covers of this book or that.
Well, part of it may be attached to the fact that many people are intensely concerned about the image of themselves that they present to the world. There are people who will make an assessment of the content of your character - based solely on your shoes. This is not necessarily a conscious process. We all have some preconceived notions or prejudices about other people that we apply when making a snap judgment. Sometimes these are reasonable, often they are not. If books are so important that you cannot conceive of a life or an identity separate from them, then it's pretty natural that you will identify with someone who shares your tastes as a kindred spirit. And of course the contrary can apply as well.
(I must add here that I was relieved to find out that Sherman Alexie won't clean my clock if he happens to see me on the München S-Bahn.)
It's not a nice impulse to feel automatic revulsion towards someone because they're carrying, oh...say a copy of "The Turner Diaries", but it's certainly an understandable one.
2: He wrote about talking squid sitting listlessly by empty swimming pools, as the silent jungle grew remorselessly over the rusting hulks of their squidcars.
Was this before or after they experienced a dark cephalopod frisson of ecstasy by means of high-speed squidcar collision?
(Calling all squidcars, calling all squidcars, be on the lookout...suspect has committed genre and and may be dangerous...)
(not lurking but has been enmeshed in the logistics of a transatlantic move for his family)
So, apparently, stuff has happened, what?
Joshing, aside, this journalist did something very few of us actually would. And apparently right now, he is being punished for it.* Regardless of that, he will be lionized in the east and west as someone who finally spoke his mind without the deferential blinkers that we reflexively put on when we refer to our leaders. (Ok, that I put on...I'm not a proper disestablishmentarian, and am still deconditioning myself.)
*OK, if you don't want to acknowledge the BBC as a legit news source, suit yourself. I and a great number of other people do.
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| 2008 | 1 |
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