The Bonfire

Now I'm reading The Bonfire of the Vanities, enjoyable so far, I've only met the characters, shared in their lives somewhat, and where I'm reading now is the first connection between two separate (until now) characters.

Reading about the trading floor has been the most interesting so far. As an almost budding writer, the level of detail is intimidating, as is the level of detail in the Bronx courthouse. It's as though the author has first hand experience of these places, and the goings on there. Not only that, but that the author was privy to the inner workings.

I want to include an excerpt that is so totally ME, that it makes me wonder how common my thoughts and ways really are. One of the characters has been involved in a hit and run, and is fretting over the fact that he didn't report it.

And even as he quaked with fear of such a ctastrophe, he knew he was letting himself wallow in it for a superstitious reason. If you consciously envisioned something that dreadful, then it couldn't possibly take place, could it... God or Fate would refuse to be anticipated by a mere mortal, wouldn't He... He always insisted on giving His disasters the purity of surprise, didn't He... And yet--and yet-- some forms of doom are so obvious you can't avoid them that way, can you! One breath of scandal--

I have honestly used this technique to calm myself, by envisioning the events I am afraid of and then assuring myself that now that I'm already anticipating it and I have it all worked out in my head, there's now no way things will go down the way I fear.