Second Portrait
He is a voracious reader to put it simply. He reads everything, literally everything. It would be wrong to term him as a book worm as that would be falling into the cliché trap. An odd comparison perhaps but he is like Casanova, someone who wants to experience different women. He likes reading everything he can lay his hands on, from trashy romances to deep philosophical tomes and everything in between.
His house is a book lover’s dream and an organized person’s nightmare. As expected books take up every square inch of available space and more if that’s possible. You have to eat with them, sleep with them and even shit with them. Not that you would experience this yourself. It might not come as a surprise to you that he does not socialize. Compared to the excitement, exoticness and mental fantasy he finds in books real people seem to him like those sad characters in a poorly written detective story, utterly predictable and eminently boring.
He has specific types of books at strategic places for particular times of the day. Like, for example, a racy thriller at the dinner table, a word-of-mouth book on the sofa or that deep philosophical tome on the toilet. The last ‘choice’ perhaps needs a sentence of explanation. He feels that the weight of the language in such books makes him crap easier and avoid constipation!
His dreams contain scrolls filled with words from multiple languages. On rare occasions the words take on a human form. A noun looks like a tourist on his first trip abroad. An adjective morphs into that ‘tall dark handsome’ specimen of maledom women invariably seem or at least want to fall for. A verb takes on the shape of a blond woman about to lose her virginity. An adverb forms the outlines of an old man watching pornographic cartoons. He is not repelled by these ignoble images. On the contrary, he has a Freudian fascination for them. Each time they condense in his sleep he takes time out on awakening to try and decipher their panoptical persistence.
These days he is engaged in the study of personal politics. The ways in which we twist and turn situations, emotions, and people to suit our ego-cravings. The subtle study amuses him and also serves as a pleasant break from his eternal intimates. Now, let me shut this window of frozen time I’ve opened onto a slice of his life. Let us leave him to his private projects and textual panoply.
(Note: Second in a trilogy of fictional portraits. Please keep in mind that the image preceding the text has nothing to do with the text, the words were not inspired by the photo. It is only meant to complement them.)
January 29th, 2006 | Quote
de.vile: Oh, thank you…you are so kind….glad to have you here!
SilvermOOn: Ah we are birds of the same feather then and thank you!
January 23rd, 2006 | Quote
As a voracious reader, this piece easily drew me in. (I think all of us who read that much employ the bathroom as yet another reading room, but I sure chuckled at your priceless reason for that reading choice!) Like others I felt this was partly autobiographical. Very nice work!
January 20th, 2006 | Quote
This week Living In Poetry is having a tribute for .:A:. (English-August Blogspot) please visit the blog down below to tell us your thoughts on his writing and poetry
http://www.livinginpoetry.blogspot.com
January 19th, 2006 | Quote
Absolutely fascinated by your blog. And its been my dream to get reading everything, here, there, everywhere. Amazing writing, amazing blog.
January 18th, 2006 | Quote
paddy, Zofo: Thank you…
Mermaid: That is high praise…thank you…I’m a little surprised that you term them as honest though!
Geets: Ah, you caught me there! I admit there are some autobiographical elements in this…but only some. If you multiplied me with me a 100 times then you would get this ‘character’! Thats because I do not read either trashy romances or deep philosphical tomes on the toilet!
And why not? ‘He’ would love to get to know you better *winks*
finnegan: Yes, I was trying out something a bit different here…although the words themselves were written quite some time back.
January 15th, 2006 | Quote
an interesting portrait of a portrait. an interesting something new from you.
January 15th, 2006 | Quote
1. Very difficult to think of this as fictional given that we know that it’s your picture there…:-)
2. Just when I think I’m going to ask why the philosophical tome in the toilet you provie the answer - priceless! :-)
3. Blonde eh?
Definitely more ‘feeling’ in this one than the last one; it’s almost like you identify more with this character!
PS Can I get an intro? ;-)
January 14th, 2006 | Quote
I didn’t comment on your first portrait, because whatever I said with my own words would not do it any justice. Ditto for this second piece. Especially liked the fourth paragraph. Undeniably honest.
January 13th, 2006 | Quote
this reminds me of me… I am just like that..books are strewn all over the place and yes even the toilet..
nice one
cheers
z
January 13th, 2006 | Quote
hey just so amazingly described, and more so amazing given that it is fictional.