New York Times: Subject Appears Anxious
I wrote this piece, “Subject Appears Anxious,” for The New York Times’ Opinionator, a collection of blogs in the online version. This was published in the Opinionator’s Anxiety section.
Category: Prose
A Broad, Locked Up
My carceral interests began at a very young age. I was fascinated by the idea of living, against one’s will, in a miniature society that’s kept completely apart from the rest of the world. Over time this interest expanded to include insane asylums, castaways and cults.
Face Value
“Julie,” he said. “You need to prepare yourself for tomorrow. These are people who have been devastated. They are self-conscious. You need to not register any shock when talking to them. You need to make them feel welcome and normal. Do you understand?”
Important People: Grete Waitz
“That’s where Waitz and I converged. The thing that held me back from saying hello seemed to bear some resemblance to a quality she’d carried at some point. Two shy girls, eyes cast downward.”
Important People: Rosey Grier
“I was about to meet a star. Not exactly one of my idols, but a man who’d figured largely in my rather limited cultural development. But he was frightening. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was white and rarely saw black people. That wasn’t it. It was the fact that he was a giant.”
Tell Us A Little About Yourself
“My completed questionnaire should have taken me about five minutes. But I spent days composing it, laboring over its many facets of subject matter. It was more like an opus, an emotional, spiritual and intellectual topographic map of my internal landscape. This questionnaire was going to be a window into my soul. Surely others were sending in similar representations of themselves.”
A Broad, Locked Up
My carceral interests began at a very young age. I was fascinated by the idea of living, against one’s will, in a miniature society that’s kept completely apart from the rest of the world. Over time this interest expanded to include insane asylums, castaways and cults.
Face Value
“Julie,” he said. “You need to prepare yourself for tomorrow. These are people who have been devastated. They are self-conscious. You need to not register any shock when talking to them. You need to make them feel welcome and normal. Do you understand?”
Important People: Grete Waitz
“That’s where Waitz and I converged. The thing that held me back from saying hello seemed to bear some resemblance to a quality she’d carried at some point. Two shy girls, eyes cast downward.”
Important People: Rosey Grier
“I was about to meet a star. Not exactly one of my idols, but a man who’d figured largely in my rather limited cultural development. But he was frightening. It had nothing to do with the fact that I was white and rarely saw black people. That wasn’t it. It was the fact that he was a giant.”
Tell Us A Little About Yourself
“My completed questionnaire should have taken me about five minutes. But I spent days composing it, laboring over its many facets of subject matter. It was more like an opus, an emotional, spiritual and intellectual topographic map of my internal landscape. This questionnaire was going to be a window into my soul. Surely others were sending in similar representations of themselves.”