Hearts in Atlantis

Nick read Stephen King's Hearts in Atlantis at a really confusing time in his life (Nick's that is, not Stephen King's [though it could have been]). Although he probably wouldn't have admitted it at the time, and perhaps not only wouldn't have admitted it but wouldn't have even been cognizant of it, things were changing, they had to change, he didn't know what the result of the changes would be, and it was probably pretty frightening. The interesting thing about it is that it didn't feel frightening to Nick. Nick thinks that Hearts is one of the best books he's ever read and he thinks that the book probably affected his life a lot though it's not clear at all if it, say, resonated with him because of what he was going through at the time and somehow that matched what was going on, or the message that was being offered, in the book that is (even though the message was basically about the 1960's specifically in the US and how the generation that came of age, if you will, during that time kind of blew it and completely failed to live up to their stated ideals), or if any half-way decent book he might have happened to have read during that time would also have felt like it had a strong impact on him because he was vulnerable in a way to be affected by seemingly anything, or if the book is just that objectively good that entirely separate from how he was feeling or what he was going through or what state his mind was in with respect to being receptive to something in a book he would have liked it and thought about it often as the years unfolded following that time and his reading of that book. Irrespective of the priming factors that may have been at play and that someone like Daniel Kahneman might have more to say about, that latter potential reason is clearly at the very least one of the true and extant reasons for Nick having such an important connection to this book and liking it so much. Of course, there are certain works that we can even fully admit to ourselves are objectively terrible but that we continue to "like" in some way because of what they represent or make us think of. The most obvious example is an objectively bad song that, though it's bad and you know it's bad and you even experience its badness, you can do so on some separate level and still like the song because it makes you immediately think of some happy event. Like for example when Pemulis hears that ridiculous song Call me Maybe in the grocery store or whatever he thinks not about how silly it is but about how the Swedes love(d) it so much that they played it on the radio about four hundred times on the way from Gothenburg to Kalmar before Ironman Sweden and so remembers that nice time in his life. But Hearts, on the other hand, and books more generally, probably can't be compared in the same way for a handful of obvious reasons including the fact that if the book was bad in the first place then you probably wouldn't have gotten through it. With the song sure you could have changed the channel but you didn't which makes one wonder if maybe you secretly liked the song all along but that's a whole other can of warms that we won't open right now because there are bigger fish here at the front of the stove that are waiting their turn, so to speak. I know why Hearts is such a good book and I probably know why Nick liked it so much and I have a pretty good guess about why it resonated with him so much. Part of it is Stephen King's writing and how he can get you to feel such empathy with all the characters and the trick in Hearts is that everyone is good (everyone being all the characters) but everyone is also bad (I guess except Ted kind of but clearly Ted has made some mistakes in his life but seems to have worked through them and come out the other side if you want) and when the people are bad for the most part you understand why they were bad and you can see yourself being bad in that same way. But then after they're bad they feel terrible and awful regret and many of the characters' lives are kind of ruined for doing something bad that they knew was bad but did anyway normally for some very human reason like selfishness or pride or whatever and even though the person did a bad thing you really feel bad for them when they are mourning their life and the path that it has taken and the regret they feel and all that. And I'm pretty sure that Nick could see himself in many of those characters and appreciate the human emotions of those people and the sadness that they felt after they had created it. The really interesting thing is that Nick will always remember when and where he read Hearts in Atlantis. It's anchored on his brain forever. And the book becomes more than just what's contained within the front and back covers but also what he was feeling at the time, where he was, the people that were there, and all that like peripheral stuff that now is bundled all up into the memory and idea of Hearts. Heck, even playing the card game Hearts is pretty well fused to the book and the time and the memory. And one question is, does this happen for all books? Of course not. All good books? Maybe. And we're brought back to the question of why a certain book might have a strong effect on someone and how it's probably a little bit the book, a little bit the reader, and a little bit the environment of the time it was read (emotional, physical, etc.). Pemulis remembers reading The Pale King over the course of a few Saturdays on the white couch in the Grenoble apartment while Joelle taught at the bilingual Kindergarten around the corner. He remembers it was early in 2013 and the weather was cold. Pemulis also remembers reading Infinite Jest at the cottage on Baptiste Lake not that long ago actually (August 2011) (and several weeks thereafter) and man that book! You can seemingly do anything with words, it turns out.

What books do you remember reading at certain times that had some kind of lasting effect on you or how you saw or understood the world? Maybe there's a book that you read and for some reason you remember all of these meta pieces of information like where you were and when it was but you don't know why because you think the book was actually nothing special. Maybe subconsciously it was. Maybe you just randomly remember it. So if you have a story about a book or even a song or anything that has a memory and a place and a time all tied up within it, sound off in the comments below! I can remember reading the Feynman books (there's a slew of them) in my last year of highschool in Tom's bedroom that I had usurped as my own (the bedroom I mean which was fine since he had moved away). It made me excited about physics (the Feynman books, obviously) and I remember that. I remember reading The Dancing Wu Li Masters in my Paris apartment and that made me excited enough about Physics to study it in university. I remember reading a lot of John Grisham books while in Leeds and while I don't think (I hope not anyways) that it led me to end up going to law school, I suppose one never knows do they?