Sublime

Jacques Derrida writes: “I believe that ghosts are part of the future and that the modern technology of images [. . .] like cinematography and telecommunication [. . .] enhances the power of ghosts and their ability to

A standard trope in the genre is a nagging uncertainty about whether the double is real at all. Is this actually an identical stranger, or are they a long-lost twin?

“integration of the shadow” is “a Jungian term that identifies that we all have shadow material (aggression, violence, nonconsensual fantasies, etc.). Disowning these parts of ourselves is not an effective way to deal with them, as what is disowned or ignored tends to grow (and often grow unconsciously).

Am I who I think I am, or am I who others perceive me to be? And if enough others start seeing someone else as me, who am I, then?

A person who has a doppelganger, Freud wrote, “may identify himself with another and so become unsure of his true self.” He wasn’t right about everything, but he was right about that.

Rachel kept looking up at Jones, who stood a few rows from us, at the front of the car. She put her hand on the back of an empty seat, which kept her balance as we rode. I wondered what kind of thoughts she had. During the day, did she carry her mind like a net above her head and then in evening write poetry at a desk?

The past is not dead; it is not even past. And what we resist will persist—as haunting.