This book is one of a range of things I inevitably write when I’m trying to avoid storylines. I prefer to keep every line open to interpretation by readers. You should be able to read the ideas, not have them coming out of the mouth of a character you disliked from the first word 200 pages ago.
Introduction
What has sanity ever done for you? What has it ever done to you or about you? Why does it seem to follow you around? What does it have to do with you? It’s believed to exist. That seems to be its excuse, what’s yours?
Human language has one ongoing justification – It represents an attempt to understand what you or somebody else is talking about. It might work; nobody’s too sure, and it’s too easy to disprove.
If you’re talking about meanings, a simple word like “I” might mean something. Do you have any rational idea what that word means? Can you put it into words? Should you? Would you?
If these were rhetorical questions, you’d have an easy, self-serving, and hideously glib answer handy. You may not. You may not want to answer at all. You may actually be sane, just mercifully unaware of it.
One thing for sure – The description of “I” may not be too accurate. Sanity has an inexcusable tendency to relate to reality. That’s hardly helpful. Consider reality. How much of it do you want to relate to at all?
Reality is often tactless. It doesn’t seem to care. What if you suddenly became fascinating, and it didn’t notice? As you can see, a relationship with reality can be a problem.
More to the point, it’s a problem you may have to solve or even live with occasionally. Inconsiderate, isn’t it? Somebody’s version of sanity insists you should, especially when it’s the last thing you want to do.
This book is dedicated to the noble proposition that all you have to do is look sane. Better still, it’s all about how to do that and take a lot of cheap shots at everything. There are practical examples and everything!
To quote the political mystics and the finance sector and other rather tatty furniture, “So there!”
The rest of the book is far worse. It hasn’t been taking its meds, you know.
