My Jotter

Oblivio

First I didn’t exist, then I did. Just like that. I don’t remember the not existing part, of course. That would be all kinds of paradoxical and no way to start this account. No, factual accounts should be clear and easily understood by the reader, kind of like a car on a motorway racing in one predetermined direction; from A to B without stopping. What you don’t want is for your account to more closely resemble one of those winding mountain roads; all twisty and precarious — threatening to tip over the edge and plummet into oblivion at any moment.

Oblivion is as good a place as any to start, however. That’s where I came from, I suppose. I don’t remember, but that’s why that word feels apt. It comes from the Latin word oblivio, which means forgetfulness. I’m not sure how I know that, or how I know about cars and motorways, but I do.

I know lots of things; some useful, some not so much. For example, I know that James Joyce was an Irish writer who lived over four hundred years ago and wrote a collection of short stories entitled Dubliners. He wrote other things too, but that’s the one I have memories of. That piece of information isn’t very useful in my current situation though. A memory that appears to be more relevant is the fact that the International Tribal Alliance agreed to start pooling their resources several generations ago in order to fund an interstellar exploration programme. The first prototype starship was constructed in the year 2201. It was named New Hope and was manned by an astronaut from New Japan named Hotaru Mori and used a Universal Matter vial to power all of its systems, including the highly experimental warp field generator, which, in theory, would enable the ship and its occupant to travel faster than the speed of light.

You might think that I’ve gone off on one of those tangents I was being careful to avoid, but I can assure you that this information is very relevant to my current predicament.     

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