“As soon as we notice that certain types of events “like” to cluster together at certain times, we begin to understand the attitude of the Chinese, whose theories of medicine, philosophy, and even building are based on a “science” of meaningful coincidences. The classical Chinese texts did not ask what causes what, but rather what “likes” to occur with what.” – M.L. Franz
I caught a second or two of Dr. Phil, lecturing a couple of couples about infidelity. The thing that always interests me the most about “real-life” television cheaters is how often the cheated-on and cheated-with resemble each other. I wonder if it escapes the attention of the married half that his or her choice of sexual playmate looks remarkably similar to the cuckolded spouse.
There’s also the issue of attractiveness. So often, I wonder why anyone would risk losing spouse, children and self-respect (assuming there’s some passing familiarity with that concept) to have (probably quick and unappetizing) sex with such homely lovers. (I’m not sure that “lover” isn’t a gross overstatement.) Generally speaking, they both tend to be more than a little in need of sprucing up.
I don’t know. If you’ve seen one philandering spouse, you’ve pretty much seen all of them. I moved on to a Times article on the web about the difference between literary sex scenes written by “old” male writers and “young-ish” male writers.
The commentary wasn’t all that compelling, really. Having hit the second paragraph, I began mining for names of writers whose work I haven’t read yet. It’s so hard to keep up, you know, on the blizzard of young, fresh, important writers published every year.
I spent most of a summer reading David Foster Wallace’s novel he failed to finish before welcoming his wife home with the vision of himself hanging from the end of a noose. Apparently, everyone is reading DFW or, at the very least, talking about his suicide. (Count me in!)
Given that investment of time and energy, how could I ever hope to keep up?
I have a notebook I carry around with me containing page after page of writers I must get around to and topics I have to pursue. It’s also filled with names of doctors, appointment times and other effluvia, but that’s another post altogether.
I love the synchronicity of Phil and novelists. It just goes to show that at eight o’clock on any given morning, there’s some kind of cosmic flow to my life. Sex with Phil, sex with Phillip Roth. It’s almost too delicious to be true.
Warrior Princess 