Wednesday, August 24, 2011

On liking, loving, and assumptions of obsession


A bookshop in Dublin, quote by Flann O'Brien


So I took down my last post because I may or may not be doing an internship with a literary publicist soon and the last thing I wanted was for them to google me and find me posting about experimental sushi hot dogs (I KNOW!) but now I'm in a position of having to write about something that makes me sound smart.

...   

Maybe the absence of something embarrassing will suffice in the place of something meritorious; I'm drawing from an empty well here.


True story: once I told someone that I liked children's literature. Later, and unrelatively, I mentioned that I went to a sci-fi exhibit at the British Library. Ever since then, this person will preface any discussion we have of books with 'Well, I know this isn't a kid book or sci-fi, but...' 

I love that.

It's like when you're ten and you draw a picture of Mickey Mouse because it's easy and makes you look talented and your family thinks because of this that you must love Mickey Mouse and so for the next five years everyone is giving you Mickey Mouse tee shirts and watches and pillows and radios for Christmas and birthdays and there is nothing you can say to stop it because the idea has taken root. (Not that this happened to me, but it totally did.) Once a person has a notion in their head about you, it is nearly impossible to change. I think the best you can do is hope to redirect. Perhaps with the person above who thinks I'm obsessed with sci-fi this means talking about a fascination with Jewish literature, or light pollution, or the wonders of peppers. That could sufficiently throw me across another train track. When I was young, I should've taken to drawing pictures of gold bricks and LP's. Who can say where I'd be now if I had derailed the Mickey train and replaced it with wealth and music taste?

Either way, I've got to build myself a new box soon, and hopefully one with more than two sides.


(Dublin again; it's a city that understands me)


Before I forget! I must apologize to subscribers of my feed. There's some sort of glitch that causes random posts from the past to come flying out of nowhere and back into your inbox. I think it's triggered by me taking down posts, but I don't really understand why that would be, so I don't want to conjecture too much. Suffice it to say, I'm so sorry for spamming you, please do delete these extra posts when they arrive.

I have to go now, but here's one last photo from Dublin; I'm off to Galway on Friday for a wedding and I hope it's as beautiful as this. 


Big hugs and lots of love,
Esssss