Unsurprise

And there, in the shadows of the hallway, was my mother, looking up, unsurprised, in this house of unsurprises.

To summarize, theories about learning from failure depict a rather straightforward process: The surprise of failure is followed by a systematic assessment to “unsurprise the past.” Once the part, or otherwise malfunctioning component, has been identified, learning from failure is a question of figuring out new, more functional cause-effect relationships.

“Then try to unsurprise yourself.” But Gienna couldn't remember a thing. His mind went blank. He had thought about her continuously and pictured her a thousand times every moment he was away from her—even dreamed about her—and how the fuck could he not remember a thing like that? “Is this supposed to be the message?” “Tell me the color.” “Dark,” he said. “Sort of brownish-black.”