Jinin Kiem

From “Stranger on a Train” by Jenny Diski

October 19, 2006 on 3:44 pm | In No Context |

I thrill at being a stranger. I thought of the other travellers I would be with on the train as vignettes, moments or summaries of lives, flashing and vivid as they passed me by, then gone back to their regular existence. I can see other people so much better in my strangerhood. Strangerness brings people into sharp focus, so that like a firework display, vibrant patterns can be seen in sudden blazing light before the overall blackness of the sky returns and prepares us for the next revelation. Everyday busyness and regular social contact is more like a firework display in broad daylight.

Jenny Diski. Stranger on a Train. Picador, 2002.