James Hogue - Alexi Santana

February 17, 2017 1:16 PM

He woke up one morning and decided to become someone else. (SLNewYorker)
The questions I was asking him weren’t real questions, he explained. They were the products of a story line in my head, whose relation to his life was at best coincidental.

• Q: Is there anything that you’ve done in your life that you wish you hadn’t done?
• A: I don’t know. I mean, the things that interested me are the abstract things. The specific things I think are boring.
• Q: Abstract things? Like what?
• A: Why did I do this? Why did that work? Why didn’t that work?
• Q: Why did you do it? Why didn’t it work?
• A: Because they found out it was all a fraud.

posted by zinon (4 comments total)

I am glad I have things that interest me and enough love in my life that I don't have to be the best at the things that interest me. There is a terrible emptiness at the center of James Hogue that I'll never understand. At least he fills it non-violently like some other people with high ambitions and terrible emptiness.
posted by infinitewindow at 1:54 PM on February 17, 2017 [1 favorite]

Harvard officials were dismayed to learn that Gina Grant had omitted from her application any reference to the fact that she had bludgeoned her mother to death with a lead-crystal candlestick.

What do you think she meant by "an enthusiastic resourceful self-starter with a pro-active outreach?"
posted by dr_dank at 5:45 PM on February 17, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm glad I didn't come across stories like this earlier in my life. I have a really youthful face, and I tried to hold on to the college years a little too long. If I'd seen something like this when I was 25, I totally could see myself trying to pass myself off as a new freshman.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:42 PM on February 17, 2017

A fascinating read, thanks so much for posting this. It put me in mind of this UK story from way back when. I'm one of those who has always been taken as 10 to 15 years younger than my true age, (though not so much lately fortunately/unfortunately.) Maybe it's just me but I feel there are sometimes moments when the temptation to 're-invent oneself' is there. There but for the grace of God. I'm an agnostic btw.
posted by Atom Collection at 7:13 PM on February 18, 2017