That same afternoon, I plugged the camcorder to the TV and played back the first videocassette, but I couldn’t make anything out from the images that flashed on the screen except for a jumble of blurred forms and colors. Now and then, it would display somebody’s grossly magnified face or hand or back. I hurled the box of videocassettes against the wall. Then it occurred to me they might be able to do something about it if I go to an electronics store, so I gathered them up, one by one, relieved to find none of the videocassettes broken. The following day, I took the camcorder and videocassettes to a shop selling photography and videography equipment in the mall.
“Did you even bother to read the manual?” the guy in charge of selling camcorders said, looking at me like I was a lower life fo
