Murder and Innocence
What did I murder? My computer. I killed my computer. It’s been running really slowly, so I thought it’d be a good idea to wipe out the hard drive and do a clean reinstall. Except I had no idea how to do this. How hard could it be? I thought.
Well, apparently I’ve paralyzed my hard drive. It is toast.
In addition to committing computercide, I’ve been rereading The Age of Innocence. I’ve forgotten how amazing Edith Wharton is. She’s a keen portrait artist of society:
”In reality they all lived in a kind of heiroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of aribtrary signs…”
An expert at characterization:
”He stopped and turned away angrily to light his cigar. ‘Women ought to be free—as free as we are,’ he declared, making a discovery of which he was too irritated to measure the terrific consequences.”
And funny:
”She sang, of course, ‘M’ama!’ and not ‘He loves me,’ since an unalterable and unquestionable law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.”
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