|
d6a43ea
|
It would be unreasonable to give you credit for being incredibly beautiful.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
8a5a992
|
Professor Tillman. Most of us here are not scientists, so you may need to be a little less technical.' This sort of thing is incredibly annoying. People can tell you the supposed characteristics of a Gemini or a Taurus and will spend five days watching a cricket match, but cannot find the interest or the time to learn the basics of what they, as humans, are made up of.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
d0b4ea0
|
You know what I like about New York?" he said. "There are so many weird people that nobody takes any notice. We all just fit right in."
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
46b71b6
|
Take notice of your emotions as well as logic. Emotions have their own logic. And try to go with the flow.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
2f1f56a
|
Why do we focus on certain things at the expense of others? We will risk our lives to save a person from drowning, yet not make a donation that could save dozens of children from starvation.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
182e509
|
Love is a powerful feeling for another person, often defying logic.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
e91b2d3
|
It seems right now that all I've ever done in my life is making my way here to you.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
4896d52
|
I know this song!' Rosie laughed. 'If you didn't, that'd be the final proof that you're from Mars.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
d8ad953
|
I need not be visibly odd. I could engage in the protocols that others followed and move undetected among them. And how could I be sure that other people were not doing the same - playing the game to be accepted but suspecting all the time that they were different?
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
76717a6
|
To the world's most perfect woman.' It was lucky my father was not present. Perfect is an absolute that cannot be modified, like unique or pregnant. My love for Rosie was so powerful that it had caused my brain to make a grammatical error.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
a020bba
|
If Rosie's mother had known that eye colour was not a reliable indicator of paternity, and organised a DNA test to confirm her suspicions, there would have been no Father Project, no Great Cocktail Night, no New York Adventure, no Reform Don Project--and no Rosie Project. Had it not been for this unscheduled series of events, her daughter and I would not have fallen in love. And I would still be eating lobster every Tuesday night. Incredibl..
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
41c38ba
|
So, to add to a momentous day, I corrected a misconception that my family had held for at least fifteen years and came out to them as straight.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
7761f31
|
But I had concluded that being myself, with all my intrinsic flaws, was more important than having the thing I wanted most.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
db3ef3e
|
I was suddenly angry. I wanted to shake not just Lydia but the whole world of people who do not understand the difference between control of emotion and lack of it, and who make a totally illogical connection between inability to read others' emotions and inability to experience their own.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
7eee515
|
You want a beer?" she said. A beer! At 3:01 a.m. Ridiculous. "Yes, please."
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
77c1322
|
Then, in this vanishingly small moment in the history of the universe, she took my hand, and held it all the way to the subway.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
2a8f230
|
I didn't have years. But I am a quick learner and was in human-sponge mode. I demonstrated.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
5613243
|
I watched as Humphrey Bogart's character used beans as a metaphor for the relative unimportance in the wider world of his relationship with Ingrid Bergman's character, and chose logic and decency ahead of his selfish emotional desires. The quandary and resulting decision made for an engrossing film. But this was not what people cried about. They were in love and could not be together. I repeated this statement to myself, trying to force an ..
|
|
love
humphrey-bogart
ingrid-bergman
unrequited-love
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
fa3bbf0
|
The Apricot Ice-cream Disaster had cost a whole evening of my life, compensated for only by the information about simulation algorithms.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
4a6417b
|
It seems right now that all I've ever done in my life is making my way here to you.' I could see that Rosie could not place the line from The Bridges of Madison County that had produced such a powerful emotional reaction on the plane. She looked confused. 'Don, what are you...what have you done to yourself?' 'I've made some changes.' 'Big changes.' 'Whatever behavioural modifications you require from me are a trivial price to pay for having..
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
a49a474
|
I diagnosed brain overload and set up a spreadsheet to analyze the situation.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
885a2ea
|
Rain Man! I had seen the film. I did not identify in any way with Rain Man, who was inarticulate, dependent, and unemployable. A society of Rain Men would be dysfunctional. A society of Don Tillmans would be efficient, safe, and pleasant for all of us.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
902f34e
|
Time's up. Excellent work. All the rational solutions came from the aspies. Everyone else was incapacitated by emotion.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
cfb8665
|
I've sequenced the questions for maximum speed of elimination,' I explained. 'I believe I can eliminate most women in less than forty seconds. Then you can choose the topic of discussion for the remaining time.' 'But then it won't matter,' said Frances. 'I'll have been eliminated.' 'Only as a potential partner. We may still be able to have an interesting discussion.' 'But I'll have been eliminated.' I nodded. 'Do you smoke?' 'Occasiona..
|
|
romance
don-tillman
graeme-simsion
speed-dating
the-rosie-project
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
00f3320
|
I had feared that Rosie would not love me. Instead, it was I who could not love Rosie.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
73e4d8b
|
Rationality was returning to deal with the mess that emotions had created.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
672b4ad
|
Why do people value others' time so little? Now we would have the inevitable small talk. I could have spent fifteen minutes at home practicing aikido.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
33959f1
|
It seems hardly possible to analyse such a complex situation involving deceit and supposition of another person's emotional response, and then prepare your own plausible lie, all while someone is waiting for you to reply to a question. Yet that is exactly what people expect you to be able to do.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
52c1309
|
Rosie and I were on our way to New York, where being weird is acceptable.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
63e9116
|
Watch some kids, watch them play. You'll see they're just little adults, only they don't know all the rules and tricks yet.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
579a822
|
I have never heard of the Wife Project. But I'm about to. In detail.' 'Of course,' I said. 'But we should time-share it with pizza-consumption and beer-drinking.' 'Of course,' said Rosie
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
ef5a802
|
I am able to hug Rosie. This was the issue that caused me the most fear after she agreed to live with me. I generally find body contact unpleasant, but sex is an obvious exception. Sex solved the body contact problem. We are now also able to hug without having sex, which is obviously convenient at times.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
367c768
|
I have heard the word 'stunning' used to describe women, but this was the first time I had actually been stunned by one.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
de138ff
|
I haven't really noticed," I told the most beautiful woman in the world."
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
927362a
|
It is generally accepted that people enjoy surprises: hence the traditions associated with Christmas, birthdays, and anniversaries. In my experience, most of the pleasure accrues to the giver. The victim is frequently under pressure to feign, at short notice, a positive response to an unwanted object or unscheduled event.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
d26cbce
|
It must have been almost 2.30 a.m. How could I have lost track of time like that? It was a severe lesson in the dangers of messing with the schedule.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
4bd441a
|
It may have been due to the effect of the gordo blanco on my cognitive functions, but I was suddenly overwhelmed by an extraordinary feeling--not of satisfaction but of absolute joy. It was the feeling I had in the Museum of Natural History and when I was making cocktails. We started dancing again, and this time I allowed myself to focus on the sensations of my body moving to the beat of the song from my childhood and of Rosie moving to the..
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
dff8324
|
It was only later that I realised that I had experienced extended close contact with another human without feeling uncomfortable. I attributed it to my concentration on correctly executing the dance steps.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
d32d2a9
|
I thought you were happy about having a baby.' I was happy in the way that I would be happy if the captain of an aircraft in which I was travelling announced that he had succeeded in restarting one engine after both had failed. Pleased that I would now probably survive, but shocked that the situation had arisen in the first place, and expecting a thorough investigation into the circumstances.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
4499430
|
There was also a dark-haired man of about thirty (BMI approximately twenty) who appeared not to have shaved for several days, and, beside him, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. In contrast to the complexity of Bianca's costume, she was wearing a green dress with zero decoration, so minimal that it did not even have straps to hold it in place. It took me a moment to realise that its wearer was Rosie.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
e55ec78
|
All of us are programmed-genetically programmed-to keep doing what's worked for us, and to avoid things that didn't work.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
1b07dbd
|
Highly intelligent people are often bullied. As a result of being different. That difference being high intelligence.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
13ab63a
|
I became aware of applause. It seemed natural. I had been living in the world of romantic comedy and this was the final scene. But it was real. The entire University Club dining room had been watching. I decided to complete the story according to tradition and kissed Rosie.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |
|
80dba52
|
I could have argued that her wanting to do something for me meant she was ultimately acting in her own interests, but it might provoke more of the 'don't fuck with me' behaviour.
|
|
|
Graeme Simsion |