{"id":10553,"date":"2018-03-08T19:29:21","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T00:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=10553"},"modified":"2018-03-08T19:29:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T00:29:21","slug":"commitment-in-two-senses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=10553","title":{"rendered":"Commitment (in two senses)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nPhoto by Mikhail Vasilyev<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m still keyed up <\/strong>about my sudden admittance to the ragged outskirts of the movie industry. For all I know, this translation experiment will be a failure, culminating in shame and derisive laughter. And yet it seems to be going pretty well so far. Which leads me to ponder, after the manner of a script doctor, where this plot line in my life started.<\/p>\n

It was a summer in the 1970s. I\u2019d recently graduated from college, though I was still living in an upstairs apartment on campus. The woman I had fallen in love with, more than any other before or since, had recently left the country. I had a strong feeling that I\u2019d never see her again (I was almost right), and that I would be forever sad and alone (I nailed that one). So what was I to do with the shards of my hardly-begun life?<\/p>\n

I resolved to do two things. I would write a novel, and I would learn Norwegian.<\/p>\n

My true motive for writing the novel was (I\u2019m pretty sure) to Show Her. I would be a great and famous literary figure, and she would kick herself for missing out on a good thing every time she saw me guesting on the Carson Show.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t work out very well. The novel would be finished \u2013 eventually \u2013 and it would be published, about 20 years later. But to date it has failed to make me a beloved cultural icon.<\/p>\n

My motive for learning Norwegian, I think, was that I had a vague idea that someday I\u2019d travel to Norway, where I\u2019d meet a wonderful woman who\u2019d be impressed that I spoke her language and make me forget my sorrows.<\/p>\n

That hasn\u2019t worked out very well either.<\/p>\n

But I stuck with the plan, by gum. And now the two of them together have snagged me an interesting job.<\/p>\n

At this point, I suppose, I should close with a hackneyed meditation on the importance of perseverance.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s only one possible lesson. Another is a similarly hackneyed bromide: \u201cInsanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, insanity is no handicap in the film industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by Mikhail Vasilyev I\u2019m still keyed up about my sudden admittance to the ragged outskirts of the movie industry. For all I know, this translation experiment will be a failure, culminating in shame and derisive laughter. And yet it seems to be going pretty well so far. Which leads me to ponder, after the … Continue reading Commitment (in two senses)<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,17],"tags":[2049,2175],"class_list":["post-10553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-norwegian-language","tag-perseverence"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}