ANECDOTES

Anecdotes

This collection of writings bears the title Anecdotes, not very inspired perhaps but I wanted, as described below, make it as clear as possible that these weren’t stories in the sense of fiction.

One of these stories (A Birthday Dream) was included in the Canadian arts journal Descant. Here’s the intro that their editor wrote:

The following text is a short excerpt from a novella-length autobiographical manuscript detailing four uncanny experiences.
In part 1, “Deliverance, a meandering tale,” the narrator contemplates the death sentence he received from his doctor when he was diagnosed with lymphoma, more than twenty years ago. He meditates on memory, particularly on his childhood, experiences a sense of joy at the thought of death, and finally fixes on a murder that he never committed. This section was originally conceived as a memoir for Zuckerbrot’s two children.
Part 2, “Patanjali’s Circus,” describes in detail Zuckerbrot’s silent yet consuming battle with perceived twists, jerks, levitations and other physical misconfigurations during a trip to Moscow.
Part 3, “Projection of the Double,” mostly takes place in Toronto General Hospital where Zuckerbrot had heart surgery in 1993. In the days proceeding the surgery Zuckerbrot tried to train his brain to have an out-of-body experience during the surgery, so that he could witness the whole procedure. The text focuses on those days and the aftermath of the surgery when he struggled with his identity and asked whether he was himself, or his friend Ed, who was in a different hospital at the time.
Part 4, “A Birthday Dream,” presented here, examines parallel worlds, the synchronicity and overlap of multiple dreams and events.

I would only add that in an early discussion with one of the editors there the term magical realism was used to describe these writings. Besides the evidence of an excess of analysis what struck me, as a more serious problem was the misconception that these were fictional tales. I assure you these are the obverse of magical realism, since they are nothing more (or less) than an attempt to rigorously describe my personal registers during some peculiar moments of daily life.

Here’s a letter that I sent with the original manuscript to my friend Patrick Watson, I think it serves as an adequate intro.

Hello Patrick, 

Here’s a couple of things that I hope you will find  interesting, at least in respect to their content—if  not their form. I haven’t circulated these writings  

very much and you will see why if you look  through them. It’s not just that I don’t think the  writing will pass muster—they are both goofy and  klutzy. It’s also that I don’t need a bunch of people  wondering about my sanity. I guess for both those  reasons no one but Donna and the kids have read  all of these tales, until now. 

I know that you are not too fond of Borges but I  will quote him anyway. That at least will let me  set up what this is not about, as well as supplying  some missing literary veneer. That old blind  librarian says: “…There is no satisfaction in telling  a story as it actually happened. We have to change  things, even if we think them insignificant; if we  don’t, we should think of ourselves not as artists  but perhaps as mere journalists or historians…”  

So let me be very clear, what follows are not, as  Borges would have it, stories. They are merely a few  anecdotes that, I believe, hold a certain, let’s call it,  psychological interest. Perhaps I should title them  something like: “notes toward a psychopathology  of everyday life”. 

These anecdotes are in chronological order (with  one exception that I’ll explain when we get there).  They all involve some distortion of perception, or  drastic change in perspective. In the first example  the change is evidently spatial. 

If these were literary works, I’d edit them to make  them more straightforward and less pretentious.  But it is not a work of fiction and so… 

Note: For the publication of one of these anecdotes in  the Canadian literary journal, Descant, I wrote a preface in  which I said: “The term magical realism was recently used to  describe these writings. Besides being evidence of an excess  of analysis, what struck me as a more serious problem was  the misconception that these were fictional tales. I assure  you these are the obverse of magical realism, since they  are nothing more (nor less) than an attempt to rigorously  describe my personal registers during some peculiar  moments of daily life.” 

Note: Yes, the first story is numbered two. The reasons for this  conceit will be made clear later. My apologies in advance if at  that point that doesn’t seem worthwhile.