COFFEE BREAK
Get ready for the time of the year where COFFEE BREAKs are few and far between. Maybe sometime between the not sleeping and the not sleeping you’ll get a chance to take a few minutes to relax. One can only hope…Happy Wednesday!
“Memory is a stopgap for humans, for whom time flies and what is passed is passed.”
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco is incredibly smart and a feat of literature. Yambo, an antique book dealer in his sixties, awakens to find he has no memory of his life — except for everything he has ever read. He cannot remember his wife, mistresses, friends, hobbies, etc. but he can recall full paragraphs from Moby Dick or The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. He can quote cartoons he read as a child with his mother or recite passages in French from his favorite novels. The story is accompanied by colorful images of comics, paintings and cover art to illustrate the only “paper memories” Yambo can recall. Eco describes an enchanting world full of new discoveries yet is tinged with the sadness and struggle of losing one’s identity.