Charles Yu

I should consider meditation to better attune myself to the city’s needs

You will embody a city of millions. You need not be them

ou will embody a city of millions. You need not be them, but know that they are part of you.”

I’ve seen thirty-nine of them, these varieties of me, and about thirty-five of them seem like total jerks. I guess I’ve come to terms with that, with what it probably means. If 89.7 percent of the other versions of you are assholes, chances are you aren’t exactly Mr. Personality yourself. The worst part is that a lot of them are doing pretty well. A lot better than I am, although that’s not saying much.

night I sleep alone, in a quiet, nameless, dateless day that I found, tucked into a hidden cul-de-sac of space– time.

So, yeah, I think I’m happy here in the Present-Indefinite, not being precise about it. I know what I know. I know I’ve been looking for him for a while, spent a good portion of my life trying to untangle his timeline. Trying to bring him back home. What I don’t know is why he would want to untangle his worldline from ours. What I don’t know is what that will mean for us all, when we get to the ends of those worldlines, when we’re supposed to be knotted up together.

Chronological living is a kind of lie. That’s why I don’t do it anymore. Existence doesn’t have more meaning in one direction than it does in any other. Completing the days of your life in strict calendar order can feel forced. Arbitrary. Especially after you’ve seen what I’ve seen.
Most people I know live their lives moving in a constant forward direction, the whole time looking backward.

But no one grows up wanting to be the time machine repair guy.
No one says, Hey, I want to be the guy who fixes stuff.

attachment coefficient
Inhabitants of Universe 31 are separated into two categories, protagonists and back office.
Protagonists may choose from any available genre. Currently, there are openings in steampunk.
Back office support workers must choose between retcon, accounting, human resources, time machine repair, or janitorial.
In order to qualify as a protagonist, a human must be able to demonstrate an attachment coefficient of at least 0.75. A coefficient of 1.00 or above is required in order to be a hero.
Factors used in calculating the coefficient include
ability to believe
fervency of that belief
humility
willingness to look stupid
willingness to have heart broken
willingness to see U31 as nonboring or, better yet, to see it as interesting, and maybe even important, and despite its deeply defective nature possibly even worth saving
Any inhabitant with a negative attachment coefficient (in which case it is referred to as a coefficient of ironic detachment) will be placed on probation pending review of the individual’s suitability for continued inclusion within the U31 diegetic space.

The books in his study, with their rigid cloth spines and their impenetrable titles, they seemed daunting and impossible back then, but now, thinking back, I can see how the books were all related, I can see how they were, collectively, a bibliography of a career in striving, in aiming, in seeking to understand the world.