Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas

Author:Scarlett Thomas
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781847679062
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 2010-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

The next morning it was raining again. Christopher was out of it in bed on the strong painkillers they’d given him at the hospital, but had begged me not to leave him alone. I’d been planning to see Libby that evening, but it looked as if that was going to be impossible. The rain made things trickle and gurgle outside, and while Christopher slept I sat on the sofa with my laptop, re-establishing my personal email account. There was nothing at all from Vi. There was lots of stuff about the TV deal, though. My new agent had also asked more questions about my novel, and wanted to know whether I might finish it this year. I wrote him a long email about the notebook idea but it looked wrong, so I deleted it all. Then I wrote another long email about how I hoped my career would now be able to progress more in the way I’d originally intended. I hinted that I was embarrassed about my Newtopia books, and asked whether my name would have to appear on the credits if the TV series was actually made. I explained that I wanted to leave genre fiction behind and become known as a serious writer. I tried again to summarise the notebook idea. I looked at what I’d written and realised that I was trying to say something I could not yet say, as if I was designing my own afterlife. I deleted it all and wrote a couple of lines confirming that I would try to finish the novel this year. I’d finish the novel and let that speak for itself.

Just after I’d gone on the Internet to look at Greek islands, there was a little bleep that told me I had a new email. Had the agent responded already? I flipped from the browser to my inbox and there was a message from Rowan. The subject header was ‘Lunch?’ The email itself was brief, but it was as if there was a Catherine wheel inside me as I read it. He was sorry he’d been ‘odd’ on the ferry the other day, and was I free to have lunch any day next week after all? I didn’t know what to say back. Yes? Or No? Should I insert an Aristotelian reversal and tell him I didn’t think it was a good idea, or just accept and take the ship in a bottle along as an excuse?

In my Orb Books account there were various messages from board members and regular ghostwriters on the subject of Zeb’s disfigurement. These had become rather silly, and Claudia had sent a new message telling everyone off for being childish, and reminding us that Zeb needed a proper character arc, based on cause and effect, and could not have been simply ‘abducted by aliens that look like taps’. Could he have learned something from his disability? How has his disability helped him to write? What everyday activities does he struggle with, and how

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