Oxford, 1968

Josh Lamb: mental patient

This entire chapter is a penetrating review of Josh's history beginning when he was just a young boy with the murder of his mother and sister by his father.

"All human beings tell their life-stories to themselves, selecting and reinforcing certain memories, casting others into oblivion." [p. 105]

"Languages, said Mr Shephard, show us that our way of seeing the world is incomplete. ... A man thinking in Latin is not thinking the same thoughts as a man thinking in English. For one thing, the shape of the words, and the shape of the sentences, changes the shape of the thoughts. For another, some words cannot be translated, they exist only in the language that made them." [p. 107]

"This should cause you never again to take English for granted as the language of common sense." [p. 108]

This is a spectacular 20 pages, devoted solely to one character.