I'm reading Bruce Chatwin's Biography and it's very interesting. (5+ hours on SF to Maui and back get's you a long stretch of reading time). It's interesting to read about Chatwin's personal history. Of course, this is not all there was to/about him, but it's a different view. I'm learning a lot more about him from behind his writing, things I wouldn't necessarily have gotten from reading his stuff. There are things I identify about him. Things I cannot. Surprise, envy, excitement, sorrow. It's such a candid look at a person. A real person.
I was on a dive trip once and I spent an evening talking with this guy. At the beginning of the evening we knew hardly anything about each other. We just had our small interactions to base our judgements of each other. The night waxed late. The air was balmy and it was time to turn in. I think I asked him what he thought of me after the candid conversation we had had - I don't remember his answer, or if he did. I do remember he asked me what I thought of him. I pondered for a moment. Before that evening, I thought he was a happy go lucky free wheeling diver sporty guy with a baseball cap and moustach from the 80s. After that night of conversations, he became a real person to me. He told me some great stories. Those masks we wear in front of so many people came off during our conversation. He became a real person, and I no longer had a judgement about who I thought he was. My judgement didn't matter. He was a real person, with varied textures, passions and wounds and stories and interests. That's what it came down to. He was another person.
That's what I feel is happening with Chatwin. He's becoming a real person to me. Not this vision of who I think Chatwin is. Of course I will never experience Bruce Chatwin in the flesh - his dust is buried in Greece. But my preconceptions: feelings of glamour, excitement, jealous of his travel and adventures, etc. are burning off. What matters is that he was a real person. He lived, he experienced, he traveled, he wrote, he died.
And after all, I have my own set of Chatwinesque adventure stories and statues...
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