What are we to make of the tone of resignation Jack embeds in this post? Some less than alert readers may have missed it, as they've grown accustomed to skimming through Jack's prose without noting how each word locks together in an intricate latticework, so we quote:
One error I made was not having had dinner. In the future I will continue to make similar errors to these and many other errors I have made in history for, oh, probably the rest of my life due to the nature of human beings. Maybe one day I will, significantly, change - this is possible, but a rare thing in the nature of human beings.
A constant theme in Jack's writing is the inevitability of mistakes, but this is an unusually candid and thorough appraisal of his situation. Moreover, it's well-put- succinct, accurate, ringing with precision. One thinks of Hemingway's charge to young writers: "Write the truest sentence you can." Jack has made a noble effort here, thrice over.
But how do we process this acceptance of flaw and inevitable regression with Jack's steady drumbeat of annoyance at the failings of others? Design flaws, creative miscalculations, poorly conceived marketing strategies - his blood constantly boils when he encounters these phenomena, and yet he is unusually candid in realizing, examining, and processing his own shortcomings.
Perhaps much of the humour of Jack's writing comes from this paradox: even as he is driven to madness by the constant folly of human life and experience, he finds himself turning about and biting his own ass for the selfsame reasons. It's a cycle of critique, appraisal, and re-appraisal that replicates itself. . . into perpetuity?
