R’s Interview with Big Brother

Big Bro:  On Facebook, you posted a note entitled 17 Books in 17 Minutes.  I find it curious that you only managed to list 6 American titles.

1. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Twain
2. Kim – Kipling
3. Heart of Darkness – Conrad
4. Bird of Life, Bird of Death: A Political Ornithology of Guatemala – Maslow
5. The Magic Mountain – Mann
6. Native Son – Wright
7. Pather Panchali – Bandopadhyay
8. Pedagogy of the Oppressed – Freire
9. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Garcia Marquez
10. The House of the Spirits – Allende
11. Hopscotch – Cortazar
12. Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter – Vargas Llosa
13. To Kill a Mockingbird – Lee
14. A Confederacy of Dunces – Kennedy Toole
15. Germinal – Zola
16. An American Tragedy – Dreiser
17. Crime and Punishment – Dostoevsky

R:  Well, I was an English major.

Big Bro: How is that relevant?  There are no Englishmen on the list.

R:  English majors don’t just read books by the English…but you are wrong: Kipling was an Englishman and Conrad, a British citizen.

Big Bro:  Your choice of books makes me question your loyalty to this country?

R:  Can’t I have a world view?

Big Bro:  (Pause)….I’ll have to check the regulations, but your books are radical.

R:  I don’t know about radical, but they are books of substance to be sure and touch on topics of universal interest – the death penalty, civil rights, capitalism, racism, workers rights, class struggle, imperialism, political repression, magical realism and the like.

Big Bro:  You posted this on your twitter account : Wribbie ‏@wribbie 8 Feb “reports of a flying garbage barrel had commuters terrified this morning in Boston.”

R: Well, it was a windy day.

Big Bro:  What did you mean “terrified”?

R: Sir, if you saw a flying garbage can on your morning commute, wouldn’t you feel terrified?

Big Bro: Later that week you posted this: “enough with the fence…just Let em in.”

R: You know, immigration reform.

Big Bro:  Let em in – let who in?

R: Uncle Ernie

Big Bro: I see.

Big Bro: Why is one of your passwords, toronto123?

R: How did you know that?  What is the point of this interview? You already know everything about me?

Big Bro: Just to remind you that I in fact do, even the little known fact that you are ambidextrous.

R: I may have posted that once.

Big Bro:  Twice actually – Feb 9, 2009 on Twitter and you made allusion to it in your short story posted August 27, 2010 on your blog.

R:  Dang Bro, you’re like the super computer Watson.  Tell me more.

Big Bro: I’m sorry Ribbie, I’m afraid I can’t do that.