So many books, so little time

CW: dissociation, violent death

One of my beliefs about literature is that it's complex—maybe more complex than one person can process. That's because, when we read, our minds are temporarily jacked in to another person's stream of consciousness. A prepared, orchestrated consciousness, but nonetheless a set of thoughts that came from another mind, which are now being "broadcast" into our minds. But, of course, our minds wander; certain words may trigger different associations for different readers; certain events may trigger different memories. So a text is never just the words on paper, and trying to claim that a text means just one thing is, by definition, a doomed enterprise.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about literature and, to my mind, the highest study of literature comes in the form of conversations between readers that share the details and interpretations of the different readings of a text so that everybody can gain a deeper knowledge and appreciation of how rich and complex the literature we love actually is.

So, bearing that in mind, here is an interpretation:

"We hit the truck practically in slow motion, or so it seemed to me. In actuality, we were going about forty. The truck was an open pickup truck full of scrap metal. When we hit it, a large sheet of steel flew off the back of the truck, came through our windshield, and decapitated my mother."

....

Meanwhile, I was completely absent from the scene for ten minutes and forty-seven seconds. I don't remember where I went; maybe it was only a second or two for me.

....

"My mother dying . . . it's the pivotal thing . . . everything else goes around and around it . . . I dream about it, and I also—time travel to it. Over and over. If you could be there, and could hover over the scene of the accident, and you could see every detail of it, all the people, cars, trees, snowdrifts—if you had enough time to really look at everything, you would see me. I am in cars, behind bushes, on the bridge, in a tree. I have seen it from every angle, I am even a participant in the aftermath[.]