Dialectical Journal # 30: The Blind Assassin

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
“’It must be terrible’ I said, ‘not to know who you really are.’            ‘I used to think that’ said Alex, “But then it came to me that who I really am is a person who doesn't need to know who he really is, in the usual sense. What does it mean, anyway- family background and so forth? People use it mostly as an excuse for their own snobbery, or else their failings. I’m free of that temptation, that’s all. I’m free of the strings. Nothing ties me down.’ …           Was that the beginning, that evening- on the dock at Avilion, with the fireworks dazzling the sky? It’s hard to know. Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring.”	190	(R) Is Alex the mystery man? I think he is! I would be happy about this, except that he is about 22 and Laura is 14. So now I’m mostly creeped out by this whole situation.            I’m very curious as to what “beginning” Iris is talking about that would make her be all gloomy like that. It’s strange how people usually portray beginnings as things that are happy and should be looked upon with joy and what-not, yet here it’s being described as something almost dangerous, like a mugger.