Surprise Sunday: Deep Thought Dept.

Andrew Sullivan refers me to a wonderful blog post by writer and writing teacher Chris Bachelder who writes about the importance of surprise in human existence and the importance of literature in that equation and I, of course, immediately feel an empty space has been filled in, I feel self-satisfied. This is why we read news, I easily conclude. We are addicted to surprise, I think, with none of the negative connotations usually associated with the news in my mind.
Bachelder, of course, is making a point about literature, and leads me along casually. I forget he is a writer, and waiting in the bushes to spring out at me with that knife, aimed at my throat.
And I am reminded again why it's good to read something besides news. Something by Denis Johnson:

A man has died a terrible death. He’ll never live again. His wife, now a widow, is notified in the hospital. Says Fuckhead, our narrator: “What a pair of lungs! She shrieked as I imagined an eagle would shriek. It felt wonderful to be alive to hear it! I’ve gone looking for that feeling everywhere.”

Score! Er, bookmarked.

UPDATE: Fun fact. Bachelder writes for an online magazine called The Believer, which I suspected might prove to be religious. Not so. It describes itself thus:

The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object.
There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are very often very long.
There are interviews that are also very long.
We will focus on writers and books we like.
We will give people and books the benefit of the doubt.
The working title of this magazine was The Optimist.