I am reading "the fiction" which is called Bel Canto. It is the middlest of middlebrow literature and doesn't yet have the redeeming value of being a tearjerker. I'm not sure why I thought I might like it, but it leaves me cold. I think one clue is that the book has a lot of weird spellcheck-proof errors, like "vile" for "vial" and "sight" for "site." Which leads me to assume that the book had a lot more errors that were caught in spellcheck. Which leads me to assume a fact that I also assume in a few other ways, that the writer wasn't paying a lot of attention to the writing and is mainly using words to whiz the characters from set piece to set piece. I don't feel like there's a single living person in the book. Which leads me to think it is supposed to be magic realism, so I am trying not to get too fixated on the things that are clearly ridiculous. I can suspend disbelief as well as the next person, but I am not sure if this writer intends me to.

But look: there's a scene where 58 people in a tense situation are frozen by the power of opera. The opera singer gets what she wants in a gun-filled standoff by crossing the room and singing "O Mio Bambino Caro." And then refusing to sing again, ever, unless she gets her way. I can imagine the writer thinking, what opera-type song will my readers know, that I can use here? And assuming everyone who reads this book also saw "Room With a View" 20 years ago and knows the song, and wants to be an opera lover and understander.

Opera is great, don't get me wrong, but rarely is it the kind of beautiful thing that knocks an unsuspecting person on their ass. One or two people will be caught up by it, in an ordinary situation, but most people would be begging for an end to the opera.

I will always remember watching Amadeus on a summer afternoon, in a crowd of recent high school graduates, the summer after high school, for the eighth time, and when the Pergolisi "Stabat Mater" was about to start, me and one other person both leaned forward and said SSSHHHHHH at the same time. It was enough of an icebreaker that we went on a couple dates.