Several months ago a friend and I were at browsing at Barnes and Noble, on our lunch hour. We were standing at a display of various Barnes and Noble branded, hardcover classics. I was looking at a copy of Dickens’ Great Expectations when I noticed my friend had picked up and was examining one of Kafka’s works.
Knowing very little about Kafka, I asked my friend if he were familiar with the author. He told me he knew nothing about Kafka but was curious.
Just then I noticed a woman, standing on the other side of the display, looking at us expectantly as if she wanted to say something. So, I asked her if she were familiar with Kafka. To this, she answered “why yes” and proceeded to launch into an in depth explanation of her appreciation for Kafka’s bleakness. She quickly eclipsed my understanding of the author but what little I did know seemed to jibe with what she was saying initially. So we listened to her view. As we listened it started to become apparent that things were amiss. Her view of Kafka quickly became her own conspiracy theory on the world’s leaders.
I was quickly trying to find a way to extricate us from this conversation, when, out of the blue, she asked if we had seen the Phantom of the Opera. We told her “no” but that we would like to see it, wondering where she was going with this. She then let us know that if we would like to meet the real Phantom of the Opera she could arrange it. In fact, she informed us, he was sleeping right outside, on the street.
By this time tact was out the door and I informed her while talking to her was interesting we had to get back to the office. She said she needed to get back to her office as well (she looked like she had just been working in a garden). And before we could go anywhere she left the store. We stayed put and continued to browse for another 15 minutes.
It still feels surreal.
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