Moods, 78-81

Hoffmann seems to be interested in the tension between the general and the specific, the poetic and the banal, chaos and fate. He writes of the fact that if one Jorge replaces another, the new Jorge will grow accustomed to his new life. This refutes the idea that we are fated to be w/ one significant other. It doesn't seem to matter, either, whether we wear Adidas sneakers or Crocs to trace this path. This imagery is an example of how he takes the general/abstract (fate) and makes it specific/concrete: The person is tracing a real, physical path in this example.

Hoffmann likes to jar us. He reintroduces characters like Uncle Ladislaus at various times to both throw us off and also to give us a sense of continuity like in a real novel where characters reappear.