Without Work, So Much Of One's Identity

Once I Had The Voice, I Knew I Wasn't Going To Fall Off The Bicycle. I Tap Right Back Into It. It Really Was Like Learning How To Ride A Bike - You Never Forget, And I Was Able To Carry It Along With Some Ease. I Never Encountered Any Stumping Problems That Left Me Not Knowing What To Do, So I Was Mostly Able To Hold My Ground. Of Course, I Should Mention That It Took Me A Long Time To Actually Acquire The Voice; There Were A Lot Of Frustrated Attempts Along The Way, Revisions To Long Sections And Versions Of The Book That I Abandoned.

Names Generate Meaning In A Short Amount Of Space — They Provoke Thoughts, Questions. That's Something I Like Doing. Of Course, You Have To Be Careful. Sometimes It Can Alienate The Reader, It Can Be Another Level Of Mediation, To Make A Character Carry The Great Burden Of A Metaphoric Name. The Character Can Be A Device Before He Or She Becomes A Person, And That Can Be A Bad Thing For A Writer Who Wants To Offer Up A Kind Of Emotional Proximity In The Work. It's A Constant Struggle, The Desire To Be Playful And The Desire To Communicate On Some Very Stark Emotional Level.

We Loved Killing Time And Had Perfected Several Ways Of Doing So. We Wandered The Hallways Carrying Papers That Indicated Some Mission Of Business When In Reality We Were In Search Of Free Candy.

She Looks At Herself In The Mirror. The Idea Is To Look Sexy Again. And For Whom Exactly? Yourself, Of Course. Yes, Well, That's All Wonderfully Self-affirming And Very Strong-minded As Any Decent Woman Should Be These Days, But Let's Just Face Facts Here And Say That When A Woman - No, When A Person Is Thinking About Feeling Sexy, It Is Always With The Idea Of Someone Else In Mind.

We're No Longer Dealing In The World Of The Real In A Truthful Way. We're Interacting With Each Other In Shiny Homepages. I Don't Think That Makes For Honest Communication.