Whaling

I had a boyfriend who refused to read “Bartleby the Scrivener.” Over and over again he refused. Some people get that. Some people don’t. I’m in a Melville mood lately. Forgive me. I was at Silver Dollar City last weekend. The weather was perfect, and people were making things with their hands. If I were […]

Butterfly

Without gooey, wet music, nonfiction can get dry and flaky. Its author may also become too fact-heavy, which feels sort of like having eaten too much white rice. Tonight I read a survival strategy of a favorite writer: listen to opera when you write nonfiction. Makes sense. They’re cranking out the same goddamn “La Boheme,” […]

Brain Based

A migraine is good for creative types, because it has to do with your brain. The brain and the lungs are the best sites for artistic diseases. Lung problems give you coughing, and coughing is a clear, dramatic, and not-too-gross way of showing your suffering. (See “La Boheme.”) A lot of artists have genital diseases, […]

The Best Table

Last week has been hard to handle– full of yeses. Yes, we’d like to print this, and yes, we’d like to print that, too. I feel like someone just sent me to the best table in the restaurant, and I need to remind them I am the OTHER Schurman party, the one who has no […]