Curious intersections of late. Having been reading a fair amount of JG Ballard’s work, it was strange to discover that according to Iain Sinclair, the Bentall Centre is “one of the few places he does go to on a regular basis”.
The Bentall Centre—a shopping centre in Kingston—is somewhere I am, sad to say, pretty familiar with. Had the strange trails we weave through time and space ever intersected? Had we walked past, oblivious to one another’s existence? Or had our eyes met for some brief moment, uncomprehending, an insignificant instant soon forgotten?
Despite our pretensions to empathy, solipsism prevails. Underneath it all, it is still a fundamental shock to discover that there are other people in the world. To discover that books—these strange artefacts, these transcriptions of inner lives—are rooted in the physical reality you yourself exist in. To discover that this twisted jumbled upside-down city, this leviathan, is seen by other eyes. To discover that you are not alone. This is still something we may not quite understand.
Addendum, 26th October
More coincidence: my implicit link (and more importantly, the contrast) between Ballard and Le Guin is echoed by the latter’s review of the former’s latest book, Kingdom Come. Being unaware of the review when I wrote the above paragraphs, I thought it was worth noting this new connection, especially in the light of the note at the bottom of the review that “Ursula K Le Guin’s City of Illusions will be published in paperback by Gollancz later this year.” Given that it was originally published in 1967, should they have said re-published? Not sure what the convention on this is.
5 comments
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Saturday, 14th Oct 2006 at 00:14
Tom Martin
I have to agree with you in this. Well, I don’t have to, but I do.
I have always gone through life without a thought that other people haven’t had the same experiences as I do. Until that is, I met my girlfriend. She has only lived in my city for two years, living in Alaska previously. When we headed from here (Tacoma) to Seattle, I was talking to her about the various places I’ve been, and the popular attractions, and she had no clue what I was talking about, which really surprised me.
Thinking about it now, her not knowing about the ‘hot spots’ and the little bits of history that seem common knowledge to me shouldn’t have been so shocking. It really opened my eyes and ever since then (a few days now) I have been kind of introspective in thinking about how it is I (and I imagine others do it as well) assumed she knew what I did.
In the everyday grind when you see the same people, it is really hard to see that you aren’t alone. After all, if you see the same people and do the same thing day to day, how do you know they aren’t just part of your imagination? And then in my case, having her come into my life, really threw me for a spin. It is fascinating to run into someone who doesn’t know what you know, in terms of local geography and random facts. It really is a shock to discover that there indeed are other people in the world.
Wednesday, 18th Oct 2006 at 02:19
Dimension
haha, ion’s in love :D
Saturday, 28th Oct 2006 at 19:23
Debugger
Hey guys, i’m having problems with Tarski theme,
i’m afraid that comments procedure is not right, you should fix it…
good luck…
Monday, 30th Oct 2006 at 14:37
Benedict Eastaugh
You’ll have to talk to the WP.com guys about that, we don’t have any control over their code.
Saturday, 4th Nov 2006 at 00:49
David
Intersections like this make life intriguing. Your style of writing is also intriguing.
I love the idea of solipsism. There is an undeniable truth to it.
Also love LeGuin.
Comments are working fine for me.
D