I wonder if every person with a western upbringing approaches impending crises* in the same manner as your author.
I spoke to somebody yesterday - I gather such instances as kindling for my flaky hypotheses - who told me: "The first time I kissed someone, I expected fireworks to explode over my head, and for my left leg to dramatically detach itself and make for the sky.
"And every time an important decision had to be made in my family, I would hold my breath as I waited for a dramatic piece of music to commence, audible to all."
Westerners are, then, conditioned to expect the events of our lives to follow a narrative structure in the style of a dramatic television show. We're inadvertently exposed to them at a young age, and it is not long before their plot devices begin to superimpose themselves upon our own 'narrative structure.'
When my father would tell me off for scraping together another appalling school report, I used to wait in expectation for a Superman or some such to propel itself through an open window and drag me to safety. (I hate raised voices. I'd rather be kicked between the legs than endure it.) Needless to say, no comic book creation ever manifested itself. I speak as someone who has never watched much television, having never shown a great deal of interest in it. Nevertheless, its imprint is undoubtedly there.
Even now, the anticipation is there that some supernatural force will extricate me safely from every circumstance. Of course it never happens, but the irrational belief persists.
*Crises is used here to mean 'crises' and also its negation: thus the pleasant prospect of kissing someone for the first time is termed 'crisis.'
