Title:: [[A Shining]] Authors:: [[Jon Fosse]] Tags:: #novella #jonfosse #ficiton Read:: [[2024-01-02]] Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/jeronimo_ficus/p/C1o0qsdgc6J/ ## Editions - Edition:: [[Fitzcarraldo Editions]], 2023 (translated by [[Damion Searls]]) - Original Copyright:: 2023 - Pages:: 48 ## Purchase * Bookshop.org:: https://bookshop.org/a/94437/9781945492778 ## Annotations Comedy and sadness - two sides of the same coin.  A Shining is funny. A man, bored (“Boredom had taken hold of me — usually I was never bored but now I had fallen prey to it”), starts to drive with no destination in mind. He’s just driving, alternating left and right turns until he gets stuck in the mud in the middle of an isolated forest road. In a sense, he’s right back where he started. Boredom begets anxiety, and being stuck causes him to panic. He beats himself up for it (“no, how stupid can I get, no, this is worse than stupidity, this is, no, I don’t even have a word for it”). He decides the best way to get unstuck from his situation is to walk through the woods, wagering he’ll find a way out, or at least someone who can help.  But it’s dark and cold and his anxiety grows - “I stand still. I listen to the nothing. But that’s probably just a figure of speech. And if there’s one thing I need to avoid now, it’s figures of speech.” Editors nod.  He starts to see things in the forest - first a bright, orb-like white light. Then, confusingly, his parents, whom he has a very Costanza-like relationship with. There’s also a mysterious faceless man in a suit walking barefoot in the snow.  It’s absurd and surreal. The humor starts to fade away to reveal the sadness of a man who may not have found himself in this position as randomly as it first seemed. That Fosse makes it all come together, seemingly by accident, is remarkable.