We're not keen on the idea of the story sharing its valence with the reader. But the reader's own life "outside" the story changes the story.

Whatever you get paid attention for is never what you think is most important about yourself.

It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.

Probably the most dangerous thing about college education, at least in my own case, is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract arguments inside my head instead of simply paying attention to what's going on right in front of me. TC mark

Nuclear weapons and TV have simply intensified the consequences of our tendencies, upped the stakes.

When I say or write something, there are actually a whole lot of different things I am communicating. The propositional content (i.e., the verbal information I'm trying to convey) is only one part of it. Another part is stuff about me, the communicator. Everyone knows this. It's a function of the fact there are so many different well-formed ways to say the same basic thing, from e.g. "I was attacked by a bear!" to "Goddamn bear tried to kill me!" to "That ursine juggernaut did essay to sup upon my person!" and so on.

I find in myself a need to get very away.