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Marginalia

I get a lot of books from the library.

Unfortunately, people often write in them, underlining words, or scribbling helpful notes in the margins ("irony," "foreshadowing").

I try my best to disregard these musings.

But other times, it's hard not to wonder at the mental state of the previous owner.

This section will investigate these curiosities. And more!

CASE #1: SATURDAY, BY IAN MCEWAN

The book appeared in perfect condition; especially so for a bestseller that had been read, I'm sure, more than a few times. As I flipped through the novel, I noticed something strange: A line had been cut from one of the pages.

The cut was smooth. The person had evidently used scissors--or even an exacto knife--to extract the line.

Why? And what did it say?

Curiosity got the better of me and, for the latter, I used Amazon.com's book-searching feature to find out.

One one side, page 30, was this zinger of dialogue:

"But uh, so what were you doing at the window?"

And on page 29, this sentence fragment:

burden of regret into his father's heart. It is, after all, the blues.

So, nothing as abundant with meaning as I had hoped for.

However, things get slightly more interesting once I saw how the cut line juxtaposed with the pages behind it. Page 29:

an augmented chord, a note held against the tide of harm

And the more compelling page 30:

The complete line would be "against the tide of harmony" (my italics) but the way the vandal/psychopath/avant-guardist positioned it, it turned it into harm.

Kind-of clever. Anyway, It goes well with McEwan's book in which the harmony of a comfortable, daily existence is ruptured by exterior threats, seemingly irrelevent actions--the tide of harm.

I may be looking too deeply into this. But I'd wager my analysis (Book Vandal as avant-guard cut-up artist) is more likely than it being someone who liked/didn't like the line and wanted to keep it/destroy it.

Anyway, I'll investigate the undisclosed library branch I picked this book up from. I'll see if any other books are similarly scarred--part of this sicko's sick agenda!

May 8, 2007