Friday's Little Notes.

I stuck my courage to the sticking place and finished Hangsaman. And then I read the Wiki article on Hangsaman and concluded that the writer had read a different book than the one I’d just finished. That’s usually the way with me. It’s why I’d make a terrible reviewer or academic or even editor. I suspect it’s similar to the phenomenon whereby sub-atomic particles change their nature when they pass through a slit in a barrier. (I also discovered that there are a surprising number of women in this world called Natalie Waite. It led me to wonder why I’d never met one.)

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Last night I thought how interesting it would be to have a magic mirror which, when you looked into it, would show you exactly what you would look like at any point in your future. You could keep going further and further out of curiosity, couldn’t you, until the mirror suddenly went dark. And then you’d discover something which you didn’t really want to know, and you’d curse yourself for not predicting that obvious eventuality earlier and wished you’d never used the damn thing.

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Also last night I dreamed about somebody I haven’t had cause to dream about for many years. In fact, I never dreamed about her even when I did. She went swimming at night, in a lake situated close to a big house in a big city. It was very vivid and lifelike in ways that dreams usually aren’t. Should I read anything of significance into it?