Watch Me Entertain Myself!

Sacha Guitry once said, "You can pretend to be serious, but you can't pretend to be witty." Oh yes, I'm the great pretender.
(pilot episode: 20 January 2004)

Friday, March 26, 2010

The McVie Show On Prime Time

I believe this is the very first time that a book review had such an impact on me. The review by Lisa Schwarzbaum is found in the March 19 issue of Entertainment Weekly, and it is for the book The Solitude Of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano. It’s the story of two people whose “lives intersect at various points in the course of this quiet heartbreaker, and each recognizes a kindred alienation in the other.”

What got me was the following paragraph in the EW review:

But in truth, Alice and Mattia are only alike insofar as how strange and singular they are. They’re twin primes, if you want to get fancy. Primes, Giordano writes, are “suspicious and solitary numbers,” divisible only by one and by themselves. Twin primes “are close to each other, almost neighbors, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from truly touching.”

And I remember the heartbreaking Oscar-nominated film, The Remains Of The Day, wherein the characters played by Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson know that they are attracted to one another and yet never they do not end up together. Even years later, when they meet again, the most heart wrenching sight was their fingers slipping off one another as the bus pulled away, separating the two forever.

I’ve been single since birth, not by choice. At first I fell only for straight guys. After I grew out of that, most guys I was interested in were either taken or were not interested in me. It happened once too often, so much so that when a guy showed interest in me, I’d give him a chance. Why? Well, I was always in their shoes and I wished the guys whom I was interested in would give me a chance. But a sad truth I learned was this: the more one-sided the interest, the more patience is needed. And even then patience is not a guarantee of success.

More and more I’m beginning to accept the fact that I’m at my prime. And maybe I should just stop resisting and accept it fully.

12 comments:

Marty said...

Heart wrenching McVie...=(

TBR said...

parang maganda nga yung libro ah

karla said...

is it because it's Lent and we'd all love to go to that secluded beach with the s.o.? i still hope he finds you mcvie.

VICTOR said...

Thanks for sharing this, McVie. I am listing books I will read for April and this book will definitely be on the roll. :)

I have read The English Patient as a novel, and it has always been my favorite of all Ishiguro's work. Bleak and funny.

Peter said...

Good book recomm for Lent. Am not certain about the rule of primes in life; thought there's someone somewhere that belongs to someone. That makes finding (not waiting) for that someone the real 'trial' of life. If this is a quest, I wish you well (Btw, welcome change of photo).

Ming Meows said...

hindi pa huli ang lahat. hindi pa nga tayo nagkikita.

icarusboytoy said...

i think i'm a prime number too :p

Anonymous said...

ang mahirap lang ay yung nakikita natin na all around us everyone else is coupling while some of us, hindi. maaring masakit sya and we need to have the serenity na maaaring not everyone ay para sa relasyon.

~Carrie~ said...

Huli na ko sa aking Oprah book club. Ching.

***

"But a sad truth I learned was this: the more one-sided the interest, the more patience is needed. And even then patience is not a guarantee of success."

I mis-read it by interpreting that you learned to be more patient with people in the one-sided affair. You actually mean that one has to wait with patience for another person who'd reciprocate.

Mac Callister said...

you will find your "someone" too,just dont stop looking I guess...

Kane said...

McVie,

A prime is just a number. One can meet one, and two can become one. Or not. Who knows?

But I think what matters most is how to accept the things given (or not given) to us. With grace, as you always say my dear friend.

Kane

Anonymous said...

A person as a prime number analogy is a heart breaker. Thanks for posting, it is very thought provoking.