Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Autobiography

Theo's Autobiography

(Text as at 12/08/2007 10:17:46)

At long last I’ve started writing the story of my life. This may sound somewhat Pooterish, if not an impersonation of Adrian Mole. And I can hear in my mind’s ear the sniggers of those who are thinking long these lines. However, maybe it’ll end up more like James Joyce’s “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, or at least like something by Bill Bryson. I have not consciously followed any of these exemplars.

Moreover, I have some points of justification.

1. While I’ve not had a particularly eventful life – no lions tamed, rapids shot, honours won – I’ve been involved in a number of interesting or unusual situations.
2. I’m (training to be) a philosopher and see life’s passage as a whole – indeed all persisting things are, I think, four-dimensional “temporal worms”. I want to review to date the worm that is me to see what I can learn, and how I’d like the tail end to emerge, if it doesn’t already exist. I’ll try to do the philosophising in an unobtrusive manner avoiding tedium and preaching.
3. I’ve met a lot of interesting people from whom I’ve learnt a lot (though ought to have learnt more).
4. Unless I am sadly deceived, I have a good memory for events, and a fluid writing style. Or so some have said.
5. It’ll save the King’s College Cambridge biographer a job.