Post by Jacob Baine H3 on Apr 19, 2008 6:16:11 GMT
He honestly did not believe that there was a squid living in the lake. He didn't care if it was giant or teeny tiny---he didn't believe it was real. Of course, for the longest of times he didn't believe magic was real, either. In fact, when he had first received his Hogwarts letter, he was almost certain that it had been a prank. He threw away the first dozen or so letters, and only opened his mind to the possibility of magic when the letters started streaming in from a fireplace he had never had before, and did not have after. All the same, Jacob was a skeptical person. Unless he saw it, or otherwise experienced it, it wasn't real. And unless he was being eaten by the squid, or eating it with a bit of lemon and onions, it wasn't real.
So why was he here?
Well, if anyone asked him, he had decided that he would say he was here because he was simply enjoying a nice, squid-free day. The truth of the matter was, however, that he secretly-might-possibly-maybe-not-really-but-yet-maybe suspect that there was a giant squid in the lake. And so here he was, not believing in it, but looking for it all the same.
The thought had occurred to him that perhaps he had ought to decide one way or the other. If the squid wasn't real, he would have wasted a nice squid-free day looking for a non-existent over-sized bag of ink. But if he was right, then he would have proved himself horribly and terribly mistaken, wrong, not-correct. Best to decide now and never have to think about it again.
But the irrational part of Jacob did not really think that was fair. He fancied himself a reasonable man (he hated proving himself wrong, but he had no qualms about deceiving himself), and the reasonable man thing to do was to see the merit in both arguments and sit it out.
...
Swatting a fly away, he decided that he hated being a reasonable man.
So why was he here?
Well, if anyone asked him, he had decided that he would say he was here because he was simply enjoying a nice, squid-free day. The truth of the matter was, however, that he secretly-might-possibly-maybe-not-really-but-yet-maybe suspect that there was a giant squid in the lake. And so here he was, not believing in it, but looking for it all the same.
The thought had occurred to him that perhaps he had ought to decide one way or the other. If the squid wasn't real, he would have wasted a nice squid-free day looking for a non-existent over-sized bag of ink. But if he was right, then he would have proved himself horribly and terribly mistaken, wrong, not-correct. Best to decide now and never have to think about it again.
But the irrational part of Jacob did not really think that was fair. He fancied himself a reasonable man (he hated proving himself wrong, but he had no qualms about deceiving himself), and the reasonable man thing to do was to see the merit in both arguments and sit it out.
...
Swatting a fly away, he decided that he hated being a reasonable man.
