When I was traveling in England the second time, when I was 23, I
went into a bookstore in Chelsea and found a book called 'The Crow
Road', so I bought it. Two days later I was in Cornwall with guy who
had picked me up hitch-hiking and invited me to camp with his friends
in a quarry that one of them owned. We were walking down the road
along the coast at night, on our way to the country pub. Talking
about books, and I noticed the crows, blacker than the night, lining
the field to our left, and he didn't, he was talking about books.
And
he said: “One of my favourite books is 'The Crow Road'. Have you heard
of it?”
*
Dr. Hannah smiles. “Very cool.”
Dr. James snorts.
*
Working in the bookstore during my stay on the farm, everything
easily becomes about work, about paychecks, relaxing after work,
small talk. That morning, before we open the doors to let in the
customers, I glance at the New Age section, my attention caught
briefly by a box-set of runes. I remember reading the runes, I wonder
at everything implied by the runes and what they imply about the
world. But I cannot feel it, cannot find it in the stark mall
lighting, the stream of people, the economics.
Later in the shift a man buys a box-set of Faerie Oracle cards;
illustrated by Brian Froud. As I turn the box over to scan it I see
the author's name, who wrote the commentary. Jessica Macbeth, and I
remember being picked up by Jessica while I was hitch-hiking in
Scotland when I was nineteen, her taking me to an ancient cairn and
teaching me my first meditation technique before dropping me off in
Oban and saying goodbye.
*
“Fine,” he says. “They are interesting stories. But frankly I
don't see the point of them.”
*
A girl that I worked with at the bookstore named Kaye lends me
over 30 hours of videotapes, all the episodes of 'Roswell' to date. I
watch them continuously for a day and a half. Like brainwashing.
These stories of aliens disguised as humans trying to relate and
survive in their small town. Sure it moves me.
The last time I did a total immersion run like that was when I
read Grant Morrison's 'Animal Man' straight through. Later that
summer a RPG character I was playing became self-aware and now gets
calls and emails from fictional characters in the game.
*
“Again, the recurrence of TV, of role-playing games. The
pathology is clear to me, Dr. Hannah. I'm still unsure of the value
of these stories.”
***
I see the value... ;-)
ReplyDeleteTeaching stories are like that -- and not everyone gets them. Serendipity at work.