The book that generates coincidences

[shewhomust]

I believe in coincidence: that coincidences happen, and they don't mean anything, they are just coincidence. Or if they mean anything, it's something dull like: if you surround yourself with a certain kind of books and music and, and, and, then that is the sort of stuff with which you will be surrounded. So naturally you start seeing patterns in it.

And I do:

Near the end of The Ocean at the End of the Lane - but I don't think this is a spoiler - the unnamed little boy who is the narrator's younger self has to wait somewhere, and he whiles away the time by singing Gilbert and Sullivan to himself.

It just so happens that the previous book I read, Laurie R. King's Pirate King, also has quite a lot of G & S in it. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes become embroiled with a film company who are making a film about a film company who are making a film of Pirates of Penzance.

So that struck me as a coincidence.

Then I was listening to the radio while I was cooking dinner, and Amanda Palmer was a guest on The Museum of Curiosity (The Ocean at the End of the Lane is dedicated to her).

Is it a coincidence when the same book gives rise to two coincidences?

Comments

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I do know that I haven't read that book by King and since I love her writing and I love G&S this is not something that should endure. I have it on order at the library.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

It's a total romp; it took me a while to relax and just enjoy it, but that's a constant in my reading - humour is fine, but it doesn't trump everything else.

I hope you enjoy it!

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

It sounds like just what I need. *Exits singing "For I am a Pirate King."*