10,040 / 50,000: Everyone is Guilty

A fifth of the way there, I soldier on. I am a little behind, having taken the weekend off to read a book about connectivity, which is increasingly becoming the central metaphor in this book. It actually ties everything together quite brilliantly (imagine!). I had been looking to Eugene’s screed as the central metaphor, and I hope he doesn’t take umbrage at my having shifted directions slightly (no longer is it the central metaphor, but rather a symptom of connectivity). Nevertheless, without him, I don’t think my brain would have been sent down in this direction. And it’s been awhile since I’ve felt the need or compulsion to write about something a little bit prescient (dated already, because it has been acknowledged).

Here are some quotes from E.B. White about New York:
“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”

“There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. …Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. ”

“New York blends the gift of privacy with the excitement of participation; and better than most dense communities it succeeds in insulating the individual (if he wants it, and almost everybody wants or needs it) against all enormous and violent and wonderful events that are taking place every minute.”

The third one there is the rub of connectivity, by the way. And he didn’t even have an iPhone. The latter part of the sentence is winning.

Random sentences:

It would not occur to him that it could have just happened. That there wasn’t enough time yet to process and put into motion all of the convention of previous life when things were not quite so connected or immediate.

The grief, such as it was (not really grief, but rather the hope for it) would come on in waves.

When Thomas came home, the missing island was indicative of an absence, but its loss was not immediately clear to him. It had been such an eyesore, such a disappointment to him, that its absence signified a momentarily disconnect with her absence; in fact, it was kind of a relief.

But even Thomas knew he was too caught up in trying to trap her, to embarrass her back into commitment; this he understood completely: their relationship was over, but what he did not understand was why and how it had come to an end, and these are the questions he pursued with the dog-eared determinedness of a police detective overcommitting to the job at the expense of everything else. I

He felt alone and confused and scared of a day when he no longer felt loss, or empathy, or devotion. “It would have to be enough,” he would say each morning. And upon leaving the bathroom, he would towel off his face, gingerly patting dry his sore eyes before turning to his legs and arms. The rest of the morning would be easy.