A body full of dreams is not quite present, and not quite present to the reader.
Yet he is not quite present, like a dissatisfied ghost.
The men in the film are never quite present.
And therefore it has a similar kind of cultural afterburn, present but not quite present.
Admittedly, that spontaneity isn't quite present in Georgina Parkinson's account of the Queen Mother.
All addicts, regardless of the substance or their social status share a consistent and obvious symptom; they're not quite present when you talk to them.
Or perhaps it is a consciousness that is missing: Jed can seem an amorphous witness, never quite present in his own sentences.
Mr. Mader gets some nice, unforced performances, especially from Ms. Wheeler-Nicholson, Mr. Arnold and Betty Buckley as Julius's grandmother, who must deal with her not quite philandering but not quite present husband.
In short, I worry that you are keeping your higher instincts too separate from your lower, your adult self too separate from your childhood self (which is obviously still quite present).
And another reminder that the past can seem quite present: some retired admirals in Britain have come up with a reason not to cut back on their fleet — the Argentines might attack the Falklands, any minute now.
