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- Feb 13, 2022
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I encountered the sentence "Why did someone forged in the same smithy as I need to gather so many people around her?", but am struggling to understand it. Could you please let me know what it means? Here is the excerpt:
I was going to be alone all day. Who knows, tomorrow as well. And the worst was, there was no one I wanted to be with to stave off the loneliness. I could have called people. But I didn’t want them. I could go to the movies early today, but movies, especially after the past four nights, would drive the point home even more fiercely now, as though even movies, from being my staunch allies, had gone over to her side now. Why were people so easily available to her? Why did someone forged in the same smithy as I need to gather so many people around her? The answer scared me: because she’s not you, not your twin. Simple. Or is it that she can be of your ilk and everyone else’s as well? The woman she is with them is totally unknown to you, and what she’ll share with them or want from them has names she’s never even told you.
- André Aciman, Eight White Nights, Sixth Night
This is a novel published in the United States of America in 2010. It is narrated by a nameless male protagonist. He meets Clara at a Christmas party in Manhattan. Now the protagonist is feeling lonely because he thinks he would spend the day without Clara, since she has gone to see other friends.
I wonder what the underlined sentence means.
I am also struggling to parse it, because I cannot see clearly what is the verb in this sentence.
My wild guess is: "Why did someone (who is forged in the same smithy as I need to) gather so many people around her?", but I know I am wrong...
I was going to be alone all day. Who knows, tomorrow as well. And the worst was, there was no one I wanted to be with to stave off the loneliness. I could have called people. But I didn’t want them. I could go to the movies early today, but movies, especially after the past four nights, would drive the point home even more fiercely now, as though even movies, from being my staunch allies, had gone over to her side now. Why were people so easily available to her? Why did someone forged in the same smithy as I need to gather so many people around her? The answer scared me: because she’s not you, not your twin. Simple. Or is it that she can be of your ilk and everyone else’s as well? The woman she is with them is totally unknown to you, and what she’ll share with them or want from them has names she’s never even told you.
- André Aciman, Eight White Nights, Sixth Night
This is a novel published in the United States of America in 2010. It is narrated by a nameless male protagonist. He meets Clara at a Christmas party in Manhattan. Now the protagonist is feeling lonely because he thinks he would spend the day without Clara, since she has gone to see other friends.
I wonder what the underlined sentence means.
I am also struggling to parse it, because I cannot see clearly what is the verb in this sentence.
My wild guess is: "Why did someone (who is forged in the same smithy as I need to) gather so many people around her?", but I know I am wrong...
