[Most writers' view of the New West is] either phony - obsessed with the same tired mythology - or it's obsessed with anti-mythology,.. There's not a lot of realistic, observant writing about the West right now.
Walter Kirn
She started out all excited and impressed... (She took an immediate dislike to Bill, who struck her as a narcissistic snake.)
dislike
Because she was very upset and I was trying to do the gentlemanly thing.
thing
They don't understand that in the West, there are many groups that have not yet made their peace with the rest of America.... People came to the West to be left alone, as the Mormons did. The West continues to be an experimental American culture.
culture people peace rest america understand made american left west
A hundred and fifty years ago, this was just a continent. You could move to the borders and start a whole new country.
start country
mythology writing realistic tired obsessed west view
What should be, is.' As my grandmother explained it to our family the winter she lost three fingertips to frostbite when the furnace in her little house broke and she fell and cracked a hip while trying to light it, 'Accepting life's imperfections is not the secret. The secret, dears, is to understand life has none. How could it? We've got nothing to compare it to. We can dream something up, of course- some pretty maybe life where fingers are very hard and indestructible- but that's pure mischief, darlings. Fingers freeze. It's one of the things they like to do sometimes.
life mischief family light dream secret lost pure winter hard understand things pretty house imperfections frostbite
I wasn't above having thoughts of God's wrath.
thoughts wrath
Literally, while I was writing, the town eccentrics were looking over my shoulder, asking about what I was writing, listening to my explanations, offering their two cents. It had gotten around town pretty quickly that what Walter was doing inside his house could be viewed easily on a computer. I thought, 'This is more interactivity than I can stand!' But it was interesting too.
listening writing thought interesting stand computer inside explanations pretty house
I've been told my old city possesses a 'thriving arts scene,' whatever that is; personally, I think artists should lie low and stick to their work, not line-dance through the parks.
work art city arts artists lie
The mist just keeps on lifting and soon I'll be able to see all the way, as far as the earth's curvature allows. It's a blessing, that curvature, that hidden hemisphere-if we could take it all in at one, why move?
inspiration
When Loughner himself speaks and we find out his real influences are Spiderman, 'Gnome Chomsky,' Taylor Swift, and Dr. Bronner, then what?
politics taylor-swift twitter
Memo to extreme partisans: If you can't bring yourselves to love your enemies, can you at least learn to hate your friends?
politics enemies friends twitter
@bobbybaird i'm a writer, so are you. We try to compose our thoughts and words for effect as well as sense. Vain of us? A bit.
writing twitter vanity
Given Loughner's obsession with meaninglessness and language, maybe Foucault
language twitter
Literature had torn Tessa and me apart, or prevented us from merging in the first place. That was its role in the world, I'd started to fear: to conjure up disagreements that didn't matter and inspire people to act on them as though they mattered more than anything. Without literature, humans would all be one. Warfare was simply literature in arms. The pen was the reason man invented the sword.
literature
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