A Gem

Ok, so my favorite book is "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer and if you haven't read it...this quote will kind of overwhelm you but give you a glimpse into what it's like. Think Walt Whitman meets Thomas Pynchon...in Derrida's Bathroom. Oskar's Dad died in 9/11 and here is a conversation he has with his mother in the book.

The next morning I told Mom I couldn’t go to school again. She asked what was wrong. I told her, “the same thing that’s always wrong.” “You’re sick?” “I’m sad.” “About Dad?” “About everything.” She sat down on the bed next to me, even though I knew she was in a hurry. “What’s everything?” I started counting on my fingers: “The meat and diary products in our refrigerator, fistfights, car accidents, Larry—“Who’s Larry?” “The homeless guy in front of the Museum of Natural History who always says ‘I promise its for food’ after he asks for money.” She turned around and I zipped her dress while I kept counting. “How you don’t know who Larry is, even though you probably see him all the time, how Buckminster just sleeps and eats and goes to the bathroom and has no raison detre, the short ugly guy with no neck who takes tickets at the IMAX theater, how the sun is going to explode one day, how every birthday I always get at least one thing I already have, poor people who get fat because they eat junk food because it’s cheaper…” That was when I ran out of fingers, but my list was just getting started, and I wanted it to be long, because I knew she wouldn’t leave while I was still going. “…domesticated animals, how I have domesticated animals, nightmares, Microsoft Windows, old people who sit around all day because no one remembers to spend time them and they’re embarrassed to ask people to spend time with them, secrets, dial phones, how Chinese waitresses smile even when there’s nothing funny or happy, and also how Chinese people own Mexican restaurants but Mexican people never own Chinese restaurants, mirrors, tape decks, my unpopularity at school, Grandma’s coupons, storage facilities, people who don’t know what the Internet is, bad handwriting, beautiful songs, how there won’t be humans in fifty years…”

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close pg. 42