— Tell us, Dedalus, do you kiss your mother before you go to bed?
Stephen answered:
— I do.
Wells turned to the other fellows and said:
— O, I say, here’s a fellow says he kisses his mother every night before he goes to bed.
The other fellows stopped their game and turned round, laughing. Stephen blushed under their eyes and said:
— I do not.
Wells said:
— O, I say, here’s a fellow says he doesn’t kiss his mother before he goes to bed.
They all laughed again. Stephen tried to laugh with them. He felt his whole body hot and confused in a moment. What was the right answer to the question?
From A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce, 1922.
I once read an article about Facebook, and how (according to the author) Zuckerberg thinks we should be making decisions based on what our friends think. His bankroller, the burgeoning industry of online advertising, at least agrees.
I’ll pass.
