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5% reality, 95% dramatization. It's not hard to disappear if nobody is looking, and in this case the "search" was an artifice created by WIRED. However, it's en

by h34t 17y ago

5% reality, 95% dramatization. It's not hard to disappear if nobody is looking, and in this case the "search" was an artifice created by WIRED. However, it's entertaining nonetheless. I've "disappeared" a few times simply going about my business--by moving to new cities knowing hardly a soul, and starting from scratch: Quetzaltenango in '03, Beijing in '07 and now Buenos Aires in '09. It can be terrifying to realize that you really can walk away from everything you've ever experienced and take for granted. It's kind of like pre-living your own death. You see exactly who remembers, who cares, and who doesn't. And when you choose to re-engage, you deeply understand that everybody you let into your life is a choice, not an obligation.

sutro 17y ago
This is a fascinating subject. I recommend the novel "Oracle Night" by Paul Auster for its treatment of this topic. At the core of "Oracle Night" is a short passage from Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon," reproduced in full here: http://www.fallingbeam.org/beam.htm http://www.fallingbeam.org/beam.htm. This story within a story within a story is about a man named Flitcraft who is walking to lunch one day when a beam from a construction site falls next to him, narrowly missing him. The experience rattles him so much that, after lunch, he walks away from his job, wife, kids, and city, and starts a brand new life elsewhere, never looking back. Another work that touches on similar themes is the novel "Fearless" by Rafael Yglesias, made into a movie in 1993 starring Jeff Bridges. As you say, it can indeed be sobering to consider how thin the threads are that tie us to our lives.
- h34t 17y ago
  What a fascinating read. Thank you for the pointers. Oracle Night will be the first book I buy for my new Kindle, which arrives in Buenos Aires on Friday. Speaking of which, the international Kindle makes dramatic, life-altering geographic purges all-the-more palatable to those of us who live on bread, water, and books.

by h34t 17y ago

sutro 17y ago

This is a fascinating subject. I recommend the novel "Oracle Night" by Paul Auster for its treatment of this topic. At the core of "Oracle Night" is a short passage from Dashiell Hammett's "The Maltese Falcon," reproduced in full here: http://www.fallingbeam.org/beam.htm http://www.fallingbeam.org/beam.htm. This story within a story within a story is about a man named Flitcraft who is walking to lunch one day when a beam from a construction site falls next to him, narrowly missing him. The experience rattles him so much that, after lunch, he walks away from his job, wife, kids, and city, and starts a brand new life elsewhere, never looking back. Another work that touches on similar themes is the novel "Fearless" by Rafael Yglesias, made into a movie in 1993 starring Jeff Bridges. As you say, it can indeed be sobering to consider how thin the threads are that tie us to our lives.

h34t 17y ago
What a fascinating read. Thank you for the pointers. Oracle Night will be the first book I buy for my new Kindle, which arrives in Buenos Aires on Friday. Speaking of which, the international Kindle makes dramatic, life-altering geographic purges all-the-more palatable to those of us who live on bread, water, and books.