You’re in “Oedipus Rex”? said Alex. Yes, said Blurtso, Harlan and I have background roles.
Curse this clumsy foot! cried Oedipus.
My Shakespeare paper is due tomorrow, I’d better get started. I wonder what I should write? I guess it would be too obvious to say that Shakespeare knew a lot, even though he did. He knew more than I know, that’s for sure. I wonder how he learned all the things he knew? I wonder if he went to school? I wonder if he wrote papers? I wonder who students wrote papers about before Shakespeare became Shakespeare? If Shakespeare would have known how famous he was going to become, he could have written a paper about himself. That would be easy. Even I could write a paper about myself. But I don’t think I’m ever going to be famous. I don’t think Harvard is ever going to offer a class called “Introduction to Blurtso 101,” or “Advanced Blurtso 320,” or “Blurtsearean literature and the end of Enlightenment.” At least I hope not, because I don’t want to be famous. If I were famous, I wouldn’t have a moment to myself. People would be bothering me everywhere I went, even in the library, and I’d never be able to get started on my Shakespeare paper, or my Blurtso paper, and I’d really better get started, because it’s due tomorrow.
The leaves are changing. The world is a year older and I’m a year older. But for those born this past year, the world is brand new. If you’ve been here a while it’s hard to see the world as brand new. You see things that aren’t what they used to be and become nostalgic for the way they used to be. Or maybe you just become nostalgic for the way you used to see things, when you used to see things as brand new.