“Expect Nothing, Get Nothing”: Common v. Standard
In Chapter 7 (a “hard-boiled wonderland” section) of Haruki Murakami‘sHard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, the narrator details:
“I wound up my purchases and pulled into my convenient neighborhood fast-food restaurant. I ordered shrimp salad, onion rings, and a beer. The shrimp was straight out of the freezer, the onion rings soggy. Looking around the place, though, I failed to spot a single customer banging on a tray or complaining to a waitress. So I shut up and finished my food. Expect nothing, get nothing.” (p. 72)
As an English teacher, my mind immediately thought of Meursault in Albert Camus’s existential classic The Stranger:
“Soon after this I had a letter from [Marie]. And it was then that the things I’ve never liked to talk about began. Not that they were particularly terrible; I’ve no wish to exaggerate and I suffered less than others. Still, there was one thing in those early days that was really irksome: my habit of thinking like a free man. For instance, I woul