Suffice it to say that I was sixty-two at the time, turned grey and, having become a respectable professional in my middle-age, was wearing a grey suit, a pale blue shirt and a formal tie – and yes, silk I recognise the need to note that it was silk. And besides, it was only a coincidence from my perspective, for he cannot possibly have known that he might turn into me in twenty years, whereas I could see plainly who I had been those twenty years before. This seeming coincidence is anyway irrelevant to my story, so forgive me if I don’t explore it any further. He was also a sceptic of such proportions, such philosophical dedication, as to make my own doubts and questionings seem amateurish though he was also, quite probably, the only truly happy man I ever met.
So I shall simply state that the fellow who took the aisle seat adjacent to my window seat, on the long-haul flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv, was the spitting image of myself when I was his age, and that this seeming doppelganger was a perfectly explainable coincidence – I just don’t have that explanation at hand to share it with you. When newspaper headlines announce the discovery of a gene that predetermines character, or proof that extra-terrestrials wrote the Bible, I turn to the fiction reviews. When radio phone-ins discuss alien abductions and past-life experiences, I change channels. When I watch magicians perform their amazing stunts, I look for the trickery, and smile with smug self-satisfaction when I discover it. In general, mystical and magical experiences inspire me to scepticism, not awe. In this satirical tale, Candide cultivates his garden and Zarathustra finds peace on his mountain-top, and Thomas Neinsager turns out to have been a Jasager all along.Įxcerpt: From Chapter One: Journeys Outwards Or perhaps those terms are not correct, for underneath the phobias, Thomas Neinsager believes himself to be the happiest, the most contented man alive. What he recounts is the tale of that previous journey, the one that turned him into a hermit and a misanthrop. To pass the time, and to help him deal with all his phobias, he talks, unceasingly, to the poor unfortunate who found himself in the seat beside him on the plane. But now he has been obliged to travel, to collect the remains of his dead sister from Canada and take them to Israel for her funeral. Of leaving home at all, except to do the shopping, and even that could be ordered in over the phone or via the Internet.
Quickly jump left across the wall of laser beams as you pass the wall and approach another one.Step to the platform’s right side to continue riding it past another low-hanging wall.Note that several of these have stone joints keeping them aloft, which you can instead break away using guided Apollo’s Arrow shots from the platform near the checkpoint if you prefer. Repeat the process on more flaming boulders as the platform continues its route.Fire an additional shot to strike the target in the alcove just beyond where that boulder had been dangling, eliminating some laser beams.From your vantage point, fire Apollo’s Arrow and use the guided shot to destroy a stone joint holding one of the flaming boulders aloft.Shoot all the targets and stone joints along the way Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon Jump onto the platform to access a checkpoint.Use Hephaistos’s Hammer to clear away two sets of flaming boulders that dangle across your path as the square platform continues along its route.Drop down to the next square platform that comes by and ride it while crouching to pass beneath the wall of laser beams.Use your hammer to clear a path Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon
#Torment of the styx chest series
Continue riding the platform as it clears the wall and then jump to and climb the series of ledges to your right, just ahead of another wall of laser beams.Ride the platform as the bulk of it passes under the low wall, then jump left across some laser beams just beyond that wall to land on the platform’s left edge.Remain crouched to pass through a high wall of laser beams, but make sure you position yourself along the platform’s right edge.Duck as you ride the square platform through a low opening in the next wall that is spanned by laser beams.Image: Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft via Polygon.