What to distinguish him from a corpse this angle? Nothing whatever.
In the history of art a figure was never painted from that perspective.
Whorled strands thinly covering the pate; waxy enough and without any suggestion of respiration.
Was there a heartbeat?
As in the case of a real corpse, difficult to tell whether HDB Uncle unable to afford aircon luxuriating in some precious cool shut-eye; or else a retiree getting out from under his wife’s and the maid’s feet at a more salubrious residence.
Without the snoring the Shelf-stacker need not intervene. (Strictly speaking, there was no sleeping allowed in the library, offenders tweaked by the ear and duly informed, even the ancients.)
Usual crowd in the Basement. Hardly a student, to say nothing of a student of life. Couple keen graphic readers with noses buried; more’n a couple. (Once and for all, to hell with the keen promoters of the art-form! Even the NYRB has joined the ranks!)
Sleepers marginally in the majority. One little champ irritated to have his concentration on BATMAN distracted by a junior by the far shelves that he can’t quite make out. Craning his neck with an appropriate look of disdain etched prematurely on his youthful face…
How grown men allow themselves to be decked out in HUSH PUPPIES really beats you. Truly defies understanding. Does the chap have any shred of self-respect? (This same moment within a hall of learning in a parallel world in a galaxy not so distant from our own a man in that same get-up is taken by the shoulders and shaken like a tree for its fruit. My dear Comrade, please take a look at yourself in this rock-pool by the entry.)
Refreshing to see the lass sharing the couch submerged in ancient Egyptian artwork; Mandarin text. Not pursuing Biz. Fin. to please parents, for all the straight up-and-down appearance.
Might have been AUTHENTIC next in the same colour tone and design as the Puppies sandwich-board. (Cruelly diminished nobodies & ghost apparitions in the concrete jungle forced to declare themselves Limited Edition, Authentic and Superman in disguise. Global high numbers per capita massification labels.)
Correction: screens of course clearly in the majority; most definitely. No contest, winning hands down. (Facing away from the main row of couches swivelling round was needed to check properly.)
Picasso and Truth suddenly broke like a thunderbolt from the least likely hands of a Zeus in the row directly ahead. Wow! You would never have picked this fellow, not in a million years. Australian possibly; no brand blue polo. Hair-cut and steel rims mid-range Exec; boating shoes, but not the expensive leather. (Fessing up now; coming clean: you once wanted a pair of those handsome dark tan shoes yourself, didn’t you now, with the stiff laces that sprung from the tongue? Yes you did. And very nearly purchased too.)
Nice Try was bought by mum for the tousle-haired young teen looking like a lost sheep in the aisle; or was he allowed to choose from the rack himself, inducted into the consumer playground?
Failed to notice Creativity and Literary Arts signed. Plenty of graphics will be found on those shelves there, no doubt. Batman a cert. How much more creative can you get than Bat & Robin in their cave hideout?
Someone on some sort of device had a kind of rubber-duckie timed monitor or alarm hooked…
Lap-top overheating; prompt apology.
Ear-piece, phone & lap-top. The man had tapped the latter. Indian-Chin?
When one has been an observer all one’s life, set puzzling questions and boggling quandaries from early on, this was how you end up.
National Library, Sing
2011-25
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