Tim Kinsella - Let Go and Go On and On and Coincidences

May 4th, 2016: The anniversary of the tragedy at Kent State where members of the National Guard murdered unarmed students. The same day, I read a passage of this novel where a radio broadcaster details the fallout of the tragedy.

May 5th, 2016: Woody Allen hates bike lanes. I read a chapter of this novel titled 'Annie Hall (1977)' where the main character, based off the life of actress and model Laurie Bird, has fictional interactions with Woody Allen.

May 6th, 2016: I read the passage of this novel where Laurie Bird and her boyfriend Art Garfunkel have dinner with Ringo Starr. I get off the couch, return to my bedroom, and hear my upstairs neighbors playing 'A Hard Day's Night.'

As any good atheist and/or existentialist, I don't think there's any inherent meaning in coincidences likes these. However, it does force me to take at least some note of these connections. I believe that is the thing that makes a good writer or an artist: to be able to establish connections where there may not seem to be any.

I woke up this morning to the news that a friend had died. The main character in this book commits suicide at the end (Laurie Bird committed suicide at age 26). Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar is quoted numerously throughout the book. That was a favorite book of an exgirlfriend of mine. She ended her own life a few years ago. While reading this book, I think how much she would have enjoyed it, the setting, the tone, the writing, if she were still alive to read it.

She also took summer courses at one of the Kent campuses. 

We used to watch Annie Hall.

We found Beatles records at a thrift store in Canton, Ohio. 

But again. Just coincidences. Right?