...for reading, once begun, quickly becomes home and circle and court and family, and indeed, without narrative, I felt exiled from my own country. By the transport of books, that which is most foreign becomes one's familiar walks and avenues; while that which is most familiar is removed to delightful strangeness; and unmoving, one travels infinite causeways, immobile and thus unfettered.
Matthew Tobin AndersonโฆItโs like a spiral: They keep making everything more basic so it will appeal to everyone. And gradually, everyone gets used to everything being basic, so we get less and less varied as people, more simple. So the corps make everything even simpler. And it goes on and on.
Matthew Tobin AndersonI donโt know. Dโyou think? Heโs pretty wide in the chest.โ The girl looked at me, and I was frozen. So I said, โYeah. I work out.โ Violet asked me, โWhat are you? Whatโs your cup size?โ I shrugged and played along. โLike, nine and a half?โ I guessed. โThatโs my shoe size.โ Violet said, โI think heโd like something slinky, kind of silky.โ I said, โAs long as you can stop me from rubbing myself up against a wall the whole time.โ โOkay,โ said Violet, holding her hands up like she was annoyed. โOkay, the chemise last week was a mistake.
Matthew Tobin AndersonI wanted to say something to cheer her up. I had a feeling that cheering her up might be a lot of work. I was thinking of how sometimes, trying to say the right thing to people, itโs like some kind of brain surgery, and you have to tweak exactly the right part of the lobe. Except with talking, itโs more like brain surgery with old, rusted skewers and things, maybe like those things you use to eat lobster, but brown. And you have to get exactly the right place, and youโre touching around in the brain but the patient, she keeps jumping and saying, โOw.
Matthew Tobin AndersonI am messaging you to say that I love you, and that you're completely wrong about me thinking you're stupid. I always thought you could teach me things. I was always waiting. You're not like the others. You say things that no one expects you to. You think you're stupid. You want to be stupid. But you're someone people could learn from.
Matthew Tobin Anderson