Since long before I saw the M. Night Shyamalan film “Signs” I’ve had a fascination with the phenomenon of coincidences and omens. I experience these things very frequently, although they are usually rather small and insignificant. I like to play the game that these are “signs” pointing to something or other, but I almost never find any significance, real or imagined.
Despite my lack of success and despite the ham-fisted and off-putting way in which the Shyamalan film clobbered us with its “signs,” I still keep one eye open for odd little coincidences, convergences, and alignments. Such as the one that happened today, on my lunch break, when I went to Cheap Thrills (used books, CDs, etc.) to do some browsing.
Some background: Tess Fragoulis is a Montreal writer who I’ve seen at a number of literary events and readings over the years. She recently put out a novel called Ariadne’s Dream. I’ve heard her read excerpts from the novel a number of times, mostly while the book was still in development. I liked what I heard, except that I found it a bit annoying that so many lines began with the character’s name: “Ariadne opens the door…,” “Ariadne sits and waits…,” “Ariadne sees that….,” and so on. Because of this, I always hear the word “Ariadne” in my head with any mention of Tess Fragoulis, and whenever I see the word “Ariadne” in writing (which is rarely), I hear it in my head, in Tess Fragoulis’ voice.
So there I am at Cheap Thrills, flipping through a bin of uncategorized books. I spot an earlier book by Fragoulis–a book of short stories called Stories to Hide from Your Mother. I recognize it as one that I’ve heard her read from several times. I pick it up, flip through it, and decide to buy it. Now I have the word “Ariadne” playing over and over in my head on an infinite loop. Ariadne, Ariadne, Ariadne…
I continue flipping through the bin, picking a few books up, but not cracking any open. Then I notice a copy of Cartographies, short stories by Maya Sonenberg. Having an interest in cartography–both real and metaphorical–I pick it up. The blurbs on the back look promising, so I flip it open. The page I land on is the start of a new story called “Ariadne in Exile“.
So I bought both books. The question remains, is Fragoulis pointing me to Sonenberg, or is Sonenberg pointing me back to Fragoulis?
I’m not expecting my world to change or anything, but how could I not buy both books?
An interesting postscript: a moment ago I did a Google search on [Cartographies Sonenberg] looking for a nice link to use in this blog. I didn’t find any–at least nothing direct. But one indirect link was to a page about a literary journal called Gargoyle. The page lists the stories found in Gargoyle #25 (1984), and indicates that the title story of Sonenberg’s book (“Cartographies”) appeared in that journal. The web page is hosted by Atticus Books, a Cheap Thrills-like store in Washington DC.
No big deal, except that my earlier post today was about dragons, and I had mentioned missing one scene in the bug movie where they looked like gargoyles. Subsequently, I had spent much of the day looking out my office window imagining dragons on Place Ville Marie and other nearby buildings, perched there like gargoyles. Plus I’m currently reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the narrator and her brother call their father (a primary character) by his first name–Atticus.
There a full moon tonight, isn’t there?
