I've been accused, one on more than one occasion, of stating my opinion as if it were a law of nature—usually when I'm offering some sort of literary or cinematic criticism.

This always seemed rather silly to me, because, after all, no-one can truly know what a filmmaker or author truly means; ultimately any story has two halves, that provided by the sender and that by the receiver. Not for nothing did one of my favorite authors comment that it was far harder writing “between the lines”: that's the part the reader supplies, and getting readers to make those creative leaps is what distinguishes a really gifted author.

The point is nearly all the statements in the reviews–indeed, the whole site–are merely my opinions. Once in a while, though, I do make waht I believe to be statments of fact, as with the cover. And boy, I blew it with this one. Everything I said about taking a great deal of care over writing the review was true, but obviously, I was so focused on the arty aspects of the story that I completely neglected the Grey Ghost, who sits in for the exotic cat in the portrait Rebecca paints of Kenneth.

Worse yet is the fan, a charmingly painted gift from Kenneth in which he represents Rebecca as a playful ginger kitten–just the sort of personalized trifle I enjoy making for my friends. Both the cat and the fan are so smoothly worked into the story I barely noticed them, and the cover artist (or art department) is to be congratulated for choosing such eminently suitable icons.

Rereading my review encouraged me to return to this favorite, and finally on the fourth or fifth round, I happened to notice there was indeed every reason to put a cat and a fan on the cover. I could've just corrected the original review, but I have to admit, even I sometimes find my pompous pronouncements more funny than anything else.

Well, duh.

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