2008/02/12 New York
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Danger and comfort

Singer

I believe Isaac Bashevis Singer once said that it was an enormous help to his fiction that people could look him up in the phone book of Manhattan.
I’m not in the phone book of Manhattan, but from time to time I’m being found.
Tonight I had dinner with two ladies I hardly know.
“There is comfort in danger,” says Adam Phillips. But as is widely known there is comfort in strangers as well.
One of the ladies told me she had a friend who was working on the City Night Line, the night train from Zurich to Amsterdam.
She was living in the Dutch city of Arnhem and from to time she would go to the station to wave to her Swiss friend on the City Night Line.
If she had time she would travel on the City Night Line from Arnhem to Amsterdam and back to talk to her friend.
The relationship never became romantic.
As a lover of trains in general, and Swiss trains specifically, this anecdote impressed me.


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19 comments Last_comment
Above all I like to travel by train, not the TGV with seat reservation, but the ordinary train in which you can jump on and off as you please.
said Jan Thys 12/02/2008 08:00 • x
danger and comfort indeed
Arnon,
In my dream last night you proudly announced 'we are engaged!' - pointing at the amante - the room was crowded- you were wearing the safety outfit for Iraq.
said Vera M. 12/02/2008 09:12 • x
Arnon
What kind of women do you attract? Bukowski was one of those writers who attracted solely crazy women. Does this count for you too, or for writers in general?
said Joep Smaling 12/02/2008 17:18 • x
By the way, your story about the girl was quite interesting. I think she had to be a kind of perfectionist, obsessed with cleanliness. It makes me think of a girl I knew once. Even her ass had to smell like a rose before she would ever engage in a romantic or erotic adventure. Of course she was prone to anorexia and bulimia too. I would not call her crazy. Slightly disturbed, yes.
Me too, as Joep Smaling states, I thought, why do I always attract weird persons. But the answer came quickly when she asked me ‘Why do I never date a normal person’.
Fortunately we could both laugh for a while.
said Jan Thys 12/02/2008 18:04 • x
time won't give us time
said evert .. 12/02/2008 21:09 • x
Joep
My goodness Joep, if Arnon happened to be a female, would you ask the same question? If you like, I'll tell you what kind of men are attracted to me?
said noa fenenga 12/02/2008 21:12 • x
Arnon's Italian swimming trunks for sale
http://www.marktplaats.nl/index.php?url=http%3A//boeken.marktplaats.nl/kunst-en-fotografie/147797198-zwembroek-arnon-grunberg-met-certificaat-van-echtheid.html
said Alfredo Pirelli 12/02/2008 21:15 (Updated 21:16) • x
Noa
Let me guess: big black guys with golden teeth?
said Joep Smaling 12/02/2008 21:23 • x
Creative people
Joep, what would you like to believe about writers? That they are alienated creative spirits without rational thoughts with a microcosmos in their wicked brain? That they are strange people surrounded by other strange people?
And what did you want to share? What kind of people are attracted by you? Am i a kind of woman if i tell you that i am a woman and i don't feel sexually attracted by Arnon Grunberg but i kept on reading this blog?
And why were those women of Bukowski so strange? Tell me. I don't know.
said Hannah annah 12/02/2008 23:53 (Updated 05:35) • x
Joep
Are you asking what women are attracted to?
I don’t think the woman who told me the anecdote mentioned above is crazy. In general craziness is a turn-off.
said Arnon Grunberg 13/02/2008 04:10 • x
@ Arnon
What are who do you consider to be crazy?
Currently I am working at a sculpture in wich I cast craziness into form, texture, colour, etc..
said Mieke Dutoit 13/02/2008 07:35 • x
@Mieke
Have you ever visited dr. Guislain in Ghent?
http://www.museumdrguislain.be/nl/index.html
I can recommend this museum.
said Jan Thys 13/02/2008 08:39 • x
@Joep
Self-absorbed parasites, not in the material sense but in the immaterial sense.
What kind of women are attracted to you?
said noa fenenga 13/02/2008 09:18 • x
@Jan
I know that museum by it's reputation, but I haven't visited yet . I surely will. Thanks.
said Mieke Dutoit 13/02/2008 11:41 • x
Hannah
No i don't have that kind of nonsense concept in my head about writers. But i guess you are aware of the existence of groupies and people who are attracted to status? I was wondering what kind of people that were and if AG had expierience with it.
Further: I suggest you read Bukowski, no matter what novel or poem. Not that he is that brilliant but you will know what I mean.
said Joep Smaling 13/02/2008 13:27 • x
Noa
Thats very variable. But they have to be depressed or else they will hate my guts for being not as happy as they are.
said Joep Smaling 13/02/2008 13:32 • x
Jan T
Who is Dr. Guislain?
said Arnon Grunberg 13/02/2008 18:50 • x
Mieke
What I consider to be crazy?
Well, let me just say that some people (often women) pretend to be crazy in order to become more interesting.
I admit to having problems with other people's hysteria.
said Arnon Grunberg 13/02/2008 18:52 • x
@Arnon
Dr. Guislain is the name of a famous museum about psychiatry (see site) in Ghent. Quite interesting for its ‘art’ work too.
said Jan Thys 14/02/2008 07:52 • x
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