2010/05/01 New York
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Company

Chap

This afternoon I moderated a panel on writing under a pseudonym, part of PEN World Voices Festival.
I enjoyed listening to Bernardo Atxaga, Alina Bronsky and Randa Jarrar.
This sentence from Atxaga’s book “Obabakoak” struck me as deeply insightful: “For goodness sake get yourself an alarm clock! It really keeps a chap company.”

There is no need for loneliness as long as you have an alarm clock. Please, bear that in mind.


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14 comments Last_comment
Maybe this explains the increasing individualism/loneliness in modern society - more and more people use their phone instead of an alarm clock.
said Simon Nak 01/05/2010 10:09 • x
My clock keeps me ticking.
said Mieke Dutoit 01/05/2010 10:38 • x
I snooze myself through life.
said Careca . 01/05/2010 12:10 • x
I've got an alarm clock, but I'm still (feeling) lonely. What am I doing wrong?
said Dens Powells 01/05/2010 15:32 • x
Dens
Get yourself a proper realestate agent, or better: get married to some.
said david duinker 01/05/2010 18:12 (Updated 18:13) • x
david duinker
please elaborate on that. I'm simple minded.
said Dens Powells 01/05/2010 18:17 • x
Good for you. It works for me. Distrust alarmclocks like atombombs - yet cherisch yourself etc..
said david duinker 01/05/2010 18:36 • x
That is exactly why i keep those alarmclocks far away from me.
All of you obviously do everything to avoid lonelines.
said Hanny Verheezen 01/05/2010 21:59 • x
david
sitting next to alarmclocks, marrying real estateagents...
said Hanny Verheezen 01/05/2010 22:01 • x
I suppose an alarm clock talks to you and tells you are (perhaps unhappily) still alive. And it does this only once a day.

I suppose this is preferable to a nagging wife. And it is certainly worth remembering that loneliness is preferable to constant verbal castigation by an unappreciative spouse.

But an alarm clock? I wonder if Atxaga has tried masturbation or the public library yet.
said Carlos Dee 01/05/2010 22:52 • x
Or a child. Children mean the end of an alarm clock, as we knew it.
said aliefka 02/05/2010 08:35 • x
As a child I hated the walking alarm clock, my mother, “Get up! Time to go to school!” But my brother, himself, he was a never ending alarm clock during the night… Indeed.
said Bernard f 02/05/2010 10:05 • x
Alina Bronsky
My bookseller strongly, nearly enthusiastically recommended "Scherbenpark" by Alina Bronsky. Somehow I couldn't warm up to it. It's not exactly a mediocre book but I remain indifferent towards it which makes it difficult to give it a second chance. It would have been easier if I had hated the book.
said Juliane B. 03/05/2010 09:13 • x
Juliane
Did you finish Alina Bronsky's novel?
said Arnon Grunberg 06/05/2010 07:36 • x
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