Being There - Until Your Dissociative Fugue

I just finished Being There by Jerzy Kosinski and it was a delightful little novel. I admired the pacing: in a matter of pages a simple minded gardener goes from homeless to being present with the president of the United States but it never felt forced or contrived…as if a play on the title of the book. The plot reminds me of a Woody Allen quotation: [paraphrasing] “80% of success is showing up.” And it is also funny and poignant (research backs this up - which is why people pay for likes on youtube and facebook) how Kosinsky draws the main character, Chance, into the being the icon of the fallacy ad populum. Once, popular, nothing he says can be wrong and it is HI-larious.

via GIPHY

But one line hit me hard:

“A man’s past cripples him. His background turns into a swamp and invites criticism.”

Ah, what must be the power of a dissociative fugue and waking up in Nebraska with no past to invite

criticism. I kid, sort of.

Of course, most people know of the movie with Peter Sellers which I now have to put into the queue. And while I figure I will appreciate the movie, I feel confident it will not come near his performance in Murder By Death. His character Sidney Wang tells little jokes like:

“Talk, like television in Honeymoon suite, very unnecessary.”

And one line in the movie goes unfinished so I ask you to provide the punch line:

"Treacherous road like fresh mushroom, must always…"