Ghost relationships

Yesterday, I came across an NPR article about a bad book review that created a sort of fictional friendship between one of the book's characters (written by the author) and an editor of the New York Times. The book in question was This Bright River by Patrick Somerville, a book and author I had never heard of. But the story intrigued me. Somerville's NPR interview led me to his article in Salon: "Thank you for killing my novel".

Somerville tells the story of the bad review and how the writer had misread a key element of This Bright River. In order to make amends for this error, a Times' editor sent an email to the Gmail account Somerville had created for one of his characters, starting a dialogue between the "real" world and the fictional:

from Somerville's article:

"Here it is: (Our exchange is published with his permission)

Dear Mr. Hanson,
Given the vagaries of fictional life, I understand that you might not be able to answer this question, which has come up after one of our readers read the review of “This Bright River” that we published. But – in the prologue, are you the person who is hit on the head?
-Ed Marks, Culture Desk

It was a very, very odd feeling to read this after a sequence of odd (read: horrendous) feelings from the night before. I was glad that the Times wanted to talk about it, and I was impressed by the playfulness and the levity of the email, but I also thought: This may be the most sadistic moment of belated fact-checking in the history of mankind. The New York Times, the paper of record, had written a fictitious character to verify a fact."

So far, Ben and Ed have exchanged 38 emails. Somerville believes that they are becoming fast friends, or at least close to: "So far Ben and Ed have discussed, outside of the review and the correction, the psychology of reading, Jorge Luis Borges, Thomas Pynchon and Twitter" (Somerville).

I just loved this. The possibility of talking to a fictional character--of becoming friends with a character. What particulary struck my interest was Somerville's discussion of "ghost relationships.

From Somerville's article:

"But perhaps even more interesting than all of this: How many ghost relationships do you have? I am drawn to them and like to ask people about theirs. Chat rooms? What are they, and what do they mean? Is it the Internet or something else? Subway eyes. People you’ve only met through email, or Facebook or Twitter? Authors you’ve read whom you may very well love, and I mean actually love, even though they’re dead? People who’ve commented on something you’ve done having never seen your face? People from afar who’ve changed your life? A customer service rep who somehow made your day, a random H.R. person who ruined your year? Even that lady on the On Star commercials — have you ever thought about her? 

Our lives are filled up with these people; they often play a role in our pivot points. For the last few years I’ve felt some kind of warm benevolence whenever I’ve come across Janet Maslin’s name, grateful to her for her enthusiasm and generosity, for her choice to read my book and tell her readers about it. I’ve never met her and I doubt I ever will, but I’ll just say it like this and move on: She was a ghost friend of mine"

From the NPR article:

"On what Somerville calls 'ghost relationships'
'I've thought in the past that I may be in love with Virginia Woolf [You and me both, Somerville, you and me both]. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if that stands. And that's not true when I'm reading The Waves, I should say, too. But it's true of all of her other books. But, you know, these are intimate, personal connections, and books give that to us. Letters give that to us. And I don't think that it's a new thing.'"

My life has always been full of these "ghost relationships," although I've never had a term for them until now. (See London Encounters I; Virginia; Meet my friends...; Wuthering for examples). The people I meet on public transportation, my favorite authors--dead and alive, my library patrons, Tumblr, youtubers, etc etc. People who leave a mark with a look or a small interaction. Changing lives without even realizing it. It's wonderful.

I highly recommend reading the entire article--it's cleverly written and very interesting. Now, of course, I'm quite interested in reading This Bright River. Putting the book on my to-read list. Not for the summer though. I'm not allowing any more books on the Summer Reading 2012 list, otherwise I'll never finish!