“I can’t help it, but I’m optimistic,” my agent said over lunch. We both ate chicken salad. My Dutch publisher was working on fish tacos and the newly appointed director of the publishing house was fighting with a turkey sandwich.
In Polanski’s movie “Bitter Moon” the female main character asks: “How can I believe in the pig that talks?” All optimism is based on the ability to believe in a talking pig. Pessimism is the ability to believe in the pig itself.