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I think I am either reading too much or have too much to read.



Along with the numerous books I own that are stacked up, I also have scores of books from the public library chosen for reading enjoyment as well as suggesting material for future columns, written by authors you may see quoted or referred to in the future. I won’t mention all of them as to not reveal too much, but the names Kafka, William Burroughs, Lovecraft etc. will be familiar and related. I began a library Young Adult novel by Scott Westerfeld, Leviathan,, a Steampunk story set in an alternate WW I. The main character, a late teen male, is tutored the same as a young Mozart was, awakened "in the middle of the night, when his mind was raw and defenseless, … thrust(ing) musical lessons upon him.”

Almost the same day, I read a short story in a library book written in the “Bizarro fiction” genre which is a new style of writing borrowing much in the way of a style from the authors mentioned above. The book is actually entitled The Kafka Effekt by D. Harlan Wilson. In the story, a demented octogenarian school bus driver cuts off a man in a Mazda playing Mozart too loud to hear her screaming. Perhaps it was her rant to the driver that rattled me, not so much for its content (“Mozart! Mozart was a ass licker. And for that matter classical music is for ass lickers”) which certainly was shocking, but for the fact that all of a sudden, Mozart kept showing up, getting in the way. I am now questioning if I am reading too many different, or related(?) things at once to cause the repetition, or is it odd coincidence.