You be the judge
Not one but two readers and IWFs seem to think that I have enough time on my hands to not only read but to write about reading. They have sent me instructions for doing so.
Instructions:
- Find the nearest book
- Turn to page 123
- Go to the fifth sentence on the page
- Post the next three sentences
- Name the book and the author, and tag three more folks
See, this isn’t really going to work. The nearest books are all Polish and Slovene dictionaries and some German grammars. How about if we use the book which would be nearest if I were in bed?
123 isn’t a particularly gripping page in this particular book. Can I go back a chapter?
Fifth? Are you sure? That seems so arbitrary. How about the third one?
Okay:
He rolled onto his side and wondered whether he had it in him to masturbate, whether it might serve him well to have his mind cleared for for the business ahead. He made a few absent-minded strokes, then gave up. These days he seemed to lack the dedication and clarity or emptiness of mind, and the action itself seemed quaintly outmoded and improbable, like lighting a fire by rubbing two sticks.
Not really into the tagging thing.
If I had followed the instructions to the letter, leaving aside dictionaries, you’d have gotten this text, which (believe me) is far less emblematic and evocative of this slim, ironic, and possible plagiarized novel:
Vernon slapped the table to bring the room to order. They had still to hear from Jeremy Ball, the home editor, who was obliged to raise his voice; a ten-year-old boy was going on trial today accused of murder, the Lakeland rapist had struck for a second time in a week and a man had been arrested last night, and there was an oil spill off the coast of Cornwall. But no one was really interested, for there was only one subject that would quieten this crowd, and finally Ball obliged: a letter to the Church Times from a bishop attacking the Judge over the Garmony affair ought to be dealt with in today's leader; a meeting of the government's back-bench committee this afternoon should be covered; a brick had been thrown through the window of Garmony's constituency headquarters in Wiltshire.
I much prefer the first passage, don’t you?
I’m intrigued to know what “the business ahead” might be…
Comment by simon — Tuesday 19 December 06 @ 14.37 MST+2.00
No, you’re not. The “rubbing two sticks” occurs on page 109, and “the business ahead” is the text in the second blockquote, on page 123: an editorial meeting at a newspaper. Yaaawn.
Comment by sgazzetti — Tuesday 19 December 06 @ 15.13 MST+2.00
I am sorely disappointed by the lack of abuse heaped upon my head.
Comment by Jagosaurus — Tuesday 19 December 06 @ 15.27 MST+2.00
For someone seemingly dragged kicking and screaming into this meme, is it possible that the fact that you’ve provided 2 excerpts is an indication of how much of a masochist you may be?
Comment by DarkoV — Tuesday 19 December 06 @ 16.14 MST+2.00
Sorry for tagging you, but you did do well with it. I find tagging rather brutal (so demanding!) and uncomfortable (almost passive aggressive…), but so heady was I feeling after NaBloPoMo and discovering other blog writers I liked, I went for it anyway.
Nice work-around on the meme with the McEwan book. I confess, I slightly cheated and wrote three other sequential sentences from page 123 of my book — the others would not have been nearly as interesting…
Comment by Roo — Wednesday 20 December 06 @ 21.02 MST+2.00
I am definitely of the ‘bend the meme to my will rather than vice-versa’ school. And I will tag others if the planets are aligned just so.
Comment by sgazzetti — Thursday 21 December 06 @ 06.22 MST+2.00
Oh sure I just bet that was merely a random passage in a random book.
BTW, are you aware that our public library (PPL) chooses page 45 to stamp each book with their seal? Why page 45? Is it that way everywhere, I wonder?
Comment by gaoo — Tuesday 2 January 07 @ 02.08 MST+2.00