I was sitting beside an emergency exit on a plane yesterday and I was terrified I was going to experience a suicidal rush of blood to the head and pull it open. (Of course, I wasn't really going to. But how could I be sure I wasn't going to? Haven't you read Poe's Imp of the Perverse? )
Luckily, it seems that even the most Herculean strength would be incapable of opening an emergency exit when the plane is in flight. And this week I discovered I can barely manage twenty push-ups, so I'm safe.
Yes, these are the things I worry about. (I also worry I'm going to go loco and grab at priceless works of art in galleries. But surely they're not the real works of art, anyway? How would they be exposed to so much danger? And how come I'm the only person with this conspiracy theory, even if I don't really believe it myself.)
Imp of the Perverse. So that's what it's called. I sometimes wondered about people who do bad things, and whether they do it simply because it's possible.
ReplyDeleteI also think that some gallery pictures might be fake. The National Art Gallery is huge, and they don't have much security. What if an imp decided to destroy one of the paintings?
So it's not just me! Seriously, I don't know why more people don't think this. Some artworks have special security but most don't, even priceless and celebrated works.
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