Lovers

"They love and hate, they grapple and spoon, they want and don't want, and as time goes on they each sink deeper under the other's skin. It's a real show, patty-cake, the follies and the circus all rolled into one, and dollars to doughnuts it's going to be like that till the day they die."

Who is the author behind these lines? It's one in a million shot. No search engine can ever reveal who this passage belongs to. No one, except the author himself perhaps, can tell. But will the author notice the words are his in the first place? Thrown as they are in a totally random, new context that bears no relation or reference to the original work itself, will they sound familiar to him? Who knows.

Assuming he can tell right away the words are his, how does he proceed next? As far as he can see, he has two options. He can openly claim ownership and satisfy the curiosity of everyone here. Simple as this solution is, it bothers him when he contrasts it with his second option.

He can let the mystery linger, perhaps perpetually inside the minds of his new readers. After all, they are no more than a motley crew of online strangers who've never heard of him before and for all he can tell, they will never be interested in reading any of his original works. So why bother. Option two seems fun but the author's vanity will never be affirmed and no matter how much he wishes he didn't have to grapple with it right now, he can't ignore its powerful grip on him.

As he reflects between the two options, he unexpectedly realizes there's a third one he must think through if he's to proceed with option two.

Suppose someone else reads the words and recognizes who they belong to and then that someone else comes out openly and points to the author before he has a chance to do so himself. Suppose that someone else is a fan or a loyal reader who instantly recognizes the words of his beloved author and rushes to tell everyone who the author is.

The idea that his readers will be able to recognize his work even when it's taken out of context is a flattering thought to him adding strokes to his vanity. However pleasing it is to contemplate, option three is not as straightforward a solution as it initially sounds and for some reason its very conception now seems all the more troubling to him.

Waiting for a reader to restore due credit to the author when he, the author, could do so himself sounds as if he is too willing to cede control of his actions to someone else on something that involves him so intimately. It's true that for all anyone here cares, the author can come forward and claim ownership by portraying himself as a reader or fan and use that person to point back to the author. We will never know who the reader is, let alone ever suspect he or she could be the author. By deciding to go with option three, the author reckons, he gets to settle the issue on his terms.

Alas, his anxious mind sees the set up and immediately drops option three. The very person who took the author's words out of their original context and is now challenging him to claim back what he owns is a very devious mind who knows very well what she's up to. He can see it clearly now. By explaining option three to everyone here in full detail, nadia or whatever her real name is, has irrevocably surrendered all the secrecy involved in handling the affair according to option three.

It doesn't take much to figure out that the more we read into the lines, the more we get spooked to expect that anyone (other than the author) who references the words back to the author could be the author himself. While it's true that we'll never be 100% certain it was the author acting as a fan or a loyal reader, the very suspicion that anyone acting on behalf of the author can be the author spoils away the pleasure of proceeding with option three.

By opening his eyes to the setup, the author now feels relieved to know he has avoided its roguish contraptions and proceeds to drop option three.

So far, the only thing we know about the author behind the quoted passage is that he is a man. Not necessarily a man in real life but at least someone with a male name.

For all we know the author could very well be a woman or a girl hiding behind a male pseudonym. Perhaps to complicate matters more, the author could be a male wishing to be perceived by the public as a female writing under a male name. Perhaps the quoted words don't belong to any real author out there and are the fictitious work of an online prankster who took it upon herself to entertain other people's minds.

The author, however, knows none of this is true and none of this will matter when he openly re-connects his name to the quotes. But as of now, he still hasn't made up his mind. No matter how much effort he exerts to make the right decision, the options before him come to a splitting end. Either he comes out and reveals who he is, or he musters control over his vanity and goes with option two, never to allow himself to reveal himself and thus neither let anyone else do so on his behalf...

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