26. VANISHING POINT
In July of 2003 a struggling Scottish author named Colin Mackay put the manuscript of a book into a Clampfile, tucked the Clampfile into an A4 envelope, and posted it to his solicitor.
Titled Jacob’s Ladder, the 100-page manuscript would eventually take its place among the world’s most ironic literary creations, up there with Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s Letter to Lord Chandos, in which, in language supremely expressive, a poet who has forsaken poetry laments language’s inadequacy to confront reality.
Jacob’s Ladder begins:
This is to let you know that I am dead. I committed suicide on my birthday, Saturday the 26th, because continuing to live with my lack of talent was really too squalid a burden to be tolerated any longer.
Jacob’s Ladder also joins ranks with Don Quix
