"He Found Himself with Time on His Hands"

Something about the common expression “found [him/her]self” has always stood out to me as more significant than an author usually intends, especially in fiction. Carelessly, a writer drops the phrase as a neat little transition between one action to another or one setting to another(“As she walked, she found herself near the forest behind her house.”) Seems innocuous enough, but every time I encounter it, whether in other people's writing or my own, I'm suddenly struck by two odd ideas. The first is that this character has suffered a momentary lapse of consciousness, like she'd been low-dose roofied amidst her evening perambulations. The second is that he or she has just “found him- or herself” in the New Age hippie fulfilled identity sense. Suddenly, walking down the street they've just realized who they are as a person and what purpose they serve in the larger scheme of the universe. I doubt either of the implications is what the author means, but my mind jumps to both.

Sometimes, I could find myself believing it, though. For instance, if someone were to say, “I found myself nodding off to sleep.” I can see that. The lapse of consciousness is inherent in the situation and that half-lucid twilight feeling after you've offed your lights, rested your head on the pillow, and closed your eyes pretending you'll be asleep in a few minutes rather than four hours seems to justify a sudden realization of one's identity.

I guess, here would be where I suggest that only lazy writers would use such a suggestion without at least acknowledging these fleeting eccentric implications, but I don't believe that. I think what you should really take away is that it is somewhat hilarious when you encounter a sentence like, “Taking his regular morning shit, Allen found himself thinking about the dirt under his fingernails.”* At least, it's funny to me.

*Not that I ever have.

Introduction

I'm starting this blog as an alternative to my mostly-dead (possibly to reanimated) other blog, and as a place for my ideas as a writer and a reader. My intention for the blog is to begin every post (excluding this one) with a link to something I've read or a quote that I'll be responding to in one way or another, whether by attempting to deconstruct its point or by adding to said point.

We'll see how this goes.