Doublethink Poem by gershon hepner

Though I’m often very sad,
an alter ego makes me smile,
emotionally not ironclad,
virtually versatile.
When like breathless puffs of smoke
thoughts rise, I do not let them sink
in sadness, for I make a joke,
enthralling them with doublethink.

Inspired by an obituary of Elaine Dundy, Kenneth Tynan’s widow, by Elaine Woo (LA Times, May 9,2008) . Elaine Dundy wrote about her first novel, ”Dud Avocado”:

This novel has a special place in my heart. It was my first novel and because of the warmth of its reception over the years, it has become a dearly beloved child to me. I remember so well how I actually began writing it: One morning I opened a notebook and wrote: 'I was walking down the street one day when suddenly-' A good beginning, I thought: I'm setting Sally Jay up for all hell to break loose. But what street was she walking down? As the street grew clearer, I saw it was in Paris. It was a boulevard. And some months later, that first sentence finally became 'It was a hot, peaceful optimistic sort of day in September. It was about eleven in the morning I remember and I was drifting down the Boulevard St. Michel thoughts rising in my head like little puffs of smoke when suddenly…' And I had to figure out - suddenly what? Somebody stops Sally Jay, of course. The man she will fall in love with? Undecided. Sally Jay is an actress and Larry who stops her is an actor and they already know each other and they go to a café when suddenly again-what? She sees her lover, an Italian Diplomat….' And I was off….It was around then, in Paris, that I became aware of something about myself only previously suspected. I had an alter ego, a second self, a not so ghostly increasingly intrusive highly comic character whom I had to acknowledge. In fact whose presence I could no longer deny. I had to accept her, had to give her space, for she would pop up getting things wrong when I least expected her to.

5/9/08