Becoming Jane

A Story by Abishai100

Narrated account of a Windy-City resident whose pursuit of 'encounters' draws him to a self-discovery about Earth's special dome(s).

A superstition vignette inspired loosely by Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze). Enjoy,

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I'd been wandering around Chicago Park every Saturday thinking about spotting a special media-figure or movie-star or TV-personality and taking iPhone stock-photos for cyber/Facebook comments about the quality of media-culture and capitalism-imagination on Earth. I'd become obsessed really.

I'm a fan of the Cubs, and I was walking around in my Coronavirus mask one autumn Saturday thinking about my love of Facebook-chess and the possibility I'd been casting challenges against movie-stars or media-figures using identity-masking aliases to play chess online and wondering if I'd encounter one of these 'stars' while looking for them actively at Chicago Park on Saturday(s).

I became obsessed with this cyber-pastime after seeing a special/iconic Western film about the nature of self-absorption and why we might cast ourselves into the 'world' or conscious living activity of another person, perhaps someone we 'watched' on TV or in the movies and thought of as ourselves literally!

I put on sunglasses on a special Saturday and headed out (again!) to Chicago Park when I simply was convinced I'd spotted one of these media-figures wandering around, but I wasn't sure who she was or what movie or TV-show I'd seen her in, and all I knew was...she'd be a perfect photo-model for my cyber-blog/commentary about the nature of celebrity-culture and media-imagination in the West!

As a born-again Christian, I consider Biblical readings more 'cathartic' than cinema/television, but I wanted to immerse myself into the imagination-IQ of media-culture and capitalism orientations that made consumerism/entertainment a thing of 'distance(s)' in the United States.

I followed this media-star 'lookalike' to the Chicago WalMart (supermarket/shopping-center) and went inside with my iPhone handy-dandy smartphone-camera in my hand, determined to get the 'ideal' photo-shot of this person shopping for fruits/goods and thought about approaching her myself and asking her, "Do you enjoy being a capitalism advocate in the United States today?"

I didn't find that 'extra-credit' courage/valor to approach her to ask this question myself, despite the face I'd not been certain she was in fact a media-figure of some kind, just a lookalike (at least). However, I took about 5 iPhone shots of her and then ran out of the shopping-center to construct my cyber-blog about my 'encounter' in the fabled Windy-City of the Bulls-Bears market(s).

One week later, I was driving by the Chicago O'Hare when I thought I spotted a real UFO, or alien-spaceship! This time, I knew my human-species fascination with the encounters with metaphysics-curiosity would draw me towards that 'revelation' about everyday life on Earth. Once more, I wasn't 'certain' if what I thought I saw was a real 'figure' or a 'lookalike' (perhaps an 'experimental' government-craft doing some kind of security-check flyby that day!). However, once more, my iPhone (camera) proved invaluable!