Topical Guide 501
Mark Dorset
Rowboat, Drifting in, as Metaphor for Existential Crisis
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 4:
Let us explore together this question: why are people at a certain stage of life — when they begin to feel like weary rowers who have gone too far, forgotten where they were going and why it was supposed to be worth the trip, when they begin to drift and mope and regret having departed the shore — drawn to ethnic restaurants?
Forbidden Fruit: Its Allure
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 4:
Pouring drinks from a bottle in a bag, even if the bottle holds a decent wine, makes drinking seem like an illicit activity, exactly like the illicit activity it was when we were young. “Ahha!” we said to ourselves. “Perhaps we’re on to something here. Being here returns us to a time when so much of what we wanted from life (alcohol and sex, to name two) was forbidden and, being forbidden, more alluring, possibly, than it has ever been since. […]”
Otherness: Its Allure
Reservations Recommended, Chapter 4:
Is it only paranoia that makes us think the staff is talking about us? We confess that we have this feeling in all ethnic restaurants. When our waiter calls out something in Hindi or Urdu or Cantonese — or Italian, for that matter — we can’t help wondering whether he’s saying, “I’ve got some people here who are most certainly insane; come and take a gander at them,” […] It has occurred to us that, for the staff at Superior Indian Cookery, the place must seem to be filled with exotics all the time — people of bewildering customs, speaking a baffling lingo, pursuing inscrutable goals. […] If they imagine lives for us that are more intriguing than ours are in fact, doesn’t some of that rub off on us? Don’t we, seeing a curious look in the eyes of our waiter, bask in it? Aren’t we glad to be thought exotic?
See also:
Rowboat, Drifting in, as Metaphor for Existential Crisis TG 112, TG 118, TG 119, TG 448
Have you missed an episode or two or several?
You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide.
You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed.
You can listen to “My Mother Takes a Tumble” and “Do Clams Bite?” complete and uninterrupted as audiobooks through YouTube.
You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of Little Follies and Herb ’n’ Lorna.
You’ll find overviews of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy (a pdf document) and at Encyclopedia.com.