Cuckolded by Modernity

Cuckolded by Modernity

“When I went to see Ian McEwan speak at the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, I wondered how they would arrange the seating. The library is in one of the oldest townhouses in the Marais, Hôtel de Lamoignon, dating from the late 16th century. From the street, massive wooden doors open onto a courtyard surrounded by the stone building. The long lobby has glass cases featuring archival maps and posters, and even if the librarians moved the historic documents, there would barely be space for an audience. The only other option is the stately reading room with its high ceiling and gilded beams, filled with rows of heavy wooden tables and chairs.

I arrived early, inured from squeezing late into enough readings, and the library was unchanged. The crowd gathered in the lobby until they let us into the reading room and I laughed to my writer friend, Nafkote Tamirat, that they’d made only one special accommodation—all the chairs were turned to face the same direction. Despite our mutually responsible arrival, it was impossible to see the unelevated table at the far end of the room where McEwan and his interviewer sat….”

February column about Ian McEwan, ménage à trois, and the temptations of technology.

Full text at Epiphany Magazine, audio below.