The orangutan's lighthouse: a rant.

But what on earth, you will be asking, is the orangutan's lighthouse?

Well, don't ask me.

I was watching TV the other day - The Big Bang Theory, as it happens - and there was an advertisement featuring orangutans in headphones. 

I've no idea what the thing was advertising, but then I seldom do. There was a voice-over. It wasn't making much sense, but then I wasn't really listening.

Anyway, at the end of the advertisement, a voice-over said Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.

And I had a blinding flash of revelation, because those, as you'll know, are the last words of To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, a book I have read three times and, indeed, studied for an 'A' Level English exam, without ever having the faintest idea what on earth it was all about.

But all the time it was all to do with orangutans playing on their phones!

!!

I feel a sudden sense of deep peace at finally understanding the book after all these years. 

But why on earth did I never manage to work that out for myself?

Word To Use Today: fatigue. This word comes from the Latin fatigāre, to tire. 

As if things weren't difficult enough, a version of the quotation on the Goodreads website has Lily laying down her brush in extreme fatigues - though why the silly woman was wearing extreme fatigues (is that something like a chemical-weapon clean-up suit?) is nearly as baffling as the orangutans.

The advertisement can be seen here:

(I now realise that Audible actually own the rights to many of my own books. So if anyone out there fancies, for instance, a theological comedy thriller read by a complete and utter genius, Christian Rodska, it can be found HERE.)