I always think of a Haruki Murakami story about running into an old flame years later when I think of old thangs. In the story she’s crazy and screams at him through the passenger side window of his car. Then she throws herself off a bridge I think.
How good is her English? Or how good is your Mandarin? I think she figured out that you don’t remember. Also, your internal and external conversations basically match! Ha, ha.
For the good times (that only she remembers- you dog!):
Sounds like a real life version of the novel Brief Einer Unbekannten in which this guy gets a letter from a stranger woman - with whom he has actually had a succession of affairs with but does not remember her each time. Its been translated and made into movies etc. Really interesting premise but seems kinda depressing so I’m sticking with star wars .
It is the friends part that you need to pay attention to if you start cashing in on the benefits once more.
Twice in the past fortnight the mother of my lovely boy has enjoyed the pleasure of my company. Pheromones are intoxicating. Eyes have met over shared nostalgia. My penis is untrustworthy. The lone wolf howls. Run!
Zweig is stellar. Schachnovelle, Amok, Brief einer Unbekannten, etc. All pretty good reads. Man was definitely heavily influenced by the Belle Epoche psychoanalysis of his times though, fair warning, but nonetheless one of many great authors to come out of the late Austro-Hungarian empire. The German isn’t too hard either, especially in Schachnovelle, and I seem to recall you’re learning.
He had his hand at some creative nonfiction in Die Welt von Gestern too. Worth noting he was Jewish, fled Austria for obvious reasons, and ended up committing suicide with his wife down in South America. So you’re certainly getting a somewhat optimistic and nostalgic presentation of events, but I think there’s still something to take from it in terms of Zeitgeist.
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