Chapter 19

Loquacious.

What a strange sounding word. A new word I learned while reading John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer winner "A Confederacy of Dunces". It's found on page 51. The guy committed suicide because, among other things, nobody would publish this novel.

"The tragedy of the book is the tragedy of the author - his suicide in 1969 at the age of thirty-two. Another tragedy is the body of work we have been denied. It is a pity that John Kennedy Toole is not alive and well and writing. But he is not, and there is nothing we can do about it but make sure that this gargantuan tumultuous human tragicomedy is at least made available to a world of readers," said Walker Percy in the foreword of the book.

I am looking forward to reading his "The Neon Bible" too which was published posthumously. 

Seriously, capitalist proprietors need to set their priorities and learn to appreciate art even if they think it won't sell. Perhaps as Francis Ford Coppola said of his movie "Megalopolis", which he self-financed with 120 million dollars, and still is yet to get a distributor other than the entrepreneurs of IMAX, studios need to go beyond looking for ways to only escape from debts.

Loquacious. 

I thought of this word out of the blue today because I am told by my family that I am becoming loquacious. Only my immediate family seems to have noticed it. 

Recently a friend walked out on me while I was having coffee with him at a cafe. We are both movie buffs but for some reason I wasn't in the mood to chat about movies that day. He should understand that mood swings do affect humans. But he had said "If you are not talking, there's no point to hanging out. Let's go home". He didn't wait for me to settle the check; he just left and to date hasn't bothered contacting me again. Should I consider him a true friend though we were besties in high school?

My dad told me my sister recently pointed out to him that I have recently become loquacious.

"You were always the quiet one. Why this change? Is something bothering you?" my dad brought up the issue over breakfast.

It was just the two of us. My mom and sister were away for work. My dad is a househusband, so this was a father-son talk.

Afterwards, the whole day I kept wondering what made them think I am now talkative. Why hadn't I noticed that about myself?

It's true I discuss movies with my sister because lately it's just me and her who go to the movies. My parents stopped going though they were a regular at our local cinema, sometimes going to a Bollywood movie more than twice. They said it's now not convenient to go to movies at their age.

I admit that even last night I shared the knowledge I had about the upcoming movie "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" with my younger sister. I told her about an interview I read on Yahoo! that director George Miller had outdone himself after "Mad Max: Fury Road" which I had watched countless times. I told my sister that Anya Taylor-Joy had only 30 lines in the whole 2.5-hour movie and that she felt strange spending so many days silent on the movie set without talking much with the rest of the cast and crew.

I remember one night when my sister talked to me nonstop for over two hours discussing the stuff she was passionate about: Neil Gaiman, Japanese anime, and Korean television series, etc.

Now who is the talkative talker.

It's true that when I go to cafes to have coffee chats with my friends I tend to talk a lot but those occasions demand it. We hang out to catch up and that means we have to say everything that needs to be said within an hour or so. So I don't bother keeping quiet when I meet friends. That incident where my high school friend abandoned me may be an exception and not the norm. Perhaps I should practice silence at home then, even if it means not making conversation just for conversation's sake; talking just for the sake of talking. At least I have a few friends who are not tired of chatting about movies. They are true movie buffs like me.