i disentangled myself from the studying equities and trusts for just long enough to get hopelessly entangled with the young historian and john d. and later galena h. on the subject of pseudo-translations (horse tornado for carousel or merry-go-round was an exquisite one.)* it would be too long to go into how we got on the topic of whether “the fluvial way” sounds like the title of a multi-volume roman a clef. when i invited john to co-write it with me, however, he declined, waving meaningfully at the draft chapters of his second book. we never miss a cue; he was duly accused of showing off re: book. do you really want a second book and be saddled with tenure, we demand, instead of blushing demurely at glowing fiction reviews in the times literary supplement and the new york times? (for it is a constant sorrow and occasional aggravation to me that the sweet folk of my acquaintance never do wish to get their priorities right.)proffered volume titles so far: the effluvia of affluence (like an economics textbook by the ironic); the ennui and the angst (me: so derivative! you people are rubbish at titles lah); and someone’s chapter title: landlocked. it appears we are turning into a serial novel syndicate!
*i am also reminded suddenly of the time i was wandering around berlin alone and had forgot the german for map (stadtplan) and the only thing that popped into my head was ‘speisenkarte’ (menu) which i grasped at with great relief thinking that karte might be somehow cognate with words such as cartography and la carte. over this undignified episode, i draw a hasty but impenetrable curtain.
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