Persuaded

We're reading in bed, Evan and I. He's enjoying Woolf's "The Voyage Out"; I'm enduring Austen's "Persuasion". We've got our heads together, the dog cuddled between us. All by itself, this is pretty wonderful.

It's approaching 3:30 AM & we've been like this for a couple hours, frequently trading lines read aloud from our books: one astute, unveiling image after image from Virginia; one minute, stifling social trivium after another from Aunt Jane. Both these books are in some sense consumed with women negotiating social minutiae, but they come at it from different passions.

I am feeling slightly guilty, possibly vulnerable, at not finding Austen so wonderful as I 'ought'. And then, suddenly, precisely in turn, the characters from EVAN's book start discussing MY book. Literally: the set of friends in 'The Voyage Out' begin a debate over Austen's "Persuasion", some finding her genius, others finding her wholly tedious. Our fictional counterparts took over the discussion for us. When one of Woolf's characters begins to read aloud from "Persuasion", it causes another character--as forewarned--to fall asleep.

So we took our cue & went to sleep.

Life is art.