[astrangerhere]

I had never read this before, so I did not come to it with any notions or nostalgia as I have seen others mention. I did not love it as much as many, but I also really enjoyed reading it in the context of our time (and hers, when it was written).

The introduction! There is nothing I did not love about this introduction! I was reminded so strongly of Joan Didion that I photocopied the introduction on my home copier and gave it to my wife (a writer) to read.

"The truth against the world!" -- Yes. Certainly. Fiction writers, at least in their braver moments, do desire the truth: to know it, speak it, serve it. But they go about it in a peculiar and devious way, which consists of inventing persons, places, and events which never did and never will exist or occur, and telling about these fictions in detail and at length and with a great deal of emotion, and then when they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say, There! That's the truth!

From Joan Didion:

"[Writing is] hostile in that you're trying to make somebody see something the way you see it, trying to impose your idea, your picture. It's hostile to try to wrench around someone else's mind that way. Quite often you want to tell somebody your dream, your nightmare. Well, nobody wants to hear about someone else's dream, good or bad; nobody wants to walk around with it. The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream."

- The Art of Fiction, No. 71, The Paris Review, 1978

I can't help but feel sledgehammered by the notion of Fear being king and ruler in our current climate. I read those lines on the day the cheeto-in-chief plans to declare an emergency to close the borders. Not trying to drag the political subforum in, but how can I not at least comment on this?

"I fear liars, and I fear tricksters, and worst I fear the bitter truth. And so I rule my country well. Because only fear rules men. Nothing else works. Nothing else lasts long enough. You are what you say you are, yet you're a joke, a hoax. There's nothing between the stars but void and terror and darkness, and you come out of that alone trying to frighten me. But I am already afraid, and I am the king. Fear is king!"

What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry?

This quote brought to mind an article from Vox last week which quoted a Trump supporter who is being hurt by his policies: "He’s not hurting the people he needs to be.” Is this the hate of one's uncontry? Seems awfully prophetic to me.