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I have of late taken to following funeral processions in the street again, and so I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.  The last widow was particularly annoyed by my presence and only seemed to become more upset when I told her how much I liked the coffin she’d picked out.  As I mentioned in my previous post about the inaccuracies seen in whale-shaped door knockers, I find the salt of the sea to be the balm of the aching soul.  And this is no secret discovery of my own.  Observe the crowds, and you will see for yourself that water draws people to it as honey draws flies.  Every wave of the ocean pulls people closer to it.  Because we know that to be lost at sea is to lose oneself and all the troubles one carries.  All men believe this, even if they do not realize it.

My soul grows heavy and my eyes weary of the same faces, day after day.  Oh, to escape to the sea.  To lose sight of the land and all that sits upon her, all the troubles and responsibilities that plague a man.  Perhaps it would do me well to glide across the bottomless depths of the sea with its secrets hidden beyond my caring.  I shall ask Ishmael to lend me a book on nautical science to better acquaint myself with the art of sailing.

And then he came over and asked for a book, and I said, “Well, you still haven’t returned my copy of What Color Is Your Parachute?, so why should I trust you with any more of my library?” and then he accused me of never returning his garlic press even though I did, and things sort of ended there.  I was going to ask him to embark on a voyage with me, but I think I shall be better off going back to the Spouter-Inn and letting Fate set me up with another oddly-named stranger with his own harpoon.

Q3: I really like Bakhtin, because language is, afterall, the basis of any story.  It is the window in the thoughts of the narrator, and without an understanding of the language he uses, how can you possibly understand him and his story?

Ending: Wait a minute, what's the point of trying to classify ourselves if we're all using different criteria?  I mean, you can't define A just as "not B," and B as "not A," when you don't know what A and B are in the first place.  It's not as clear-cut as novel and not-novel, you can't just draw the line arbitrarily and say for sure that one of us isn't a novel.  That's a pointless exercise... Um, do I still get paid for being on the show?