emotional support trauma plot

One thing I’ve also noticed is the gradual loss of the understanding of “imagination” as a category; it can sound a little Reading Rainbow to talk about, but wouldn’t you know imagination is actually an essential part of the human condition. In so far as the words “spirit” or “spirituality” mean anything beyond woo-woo or cliché they must include t... See more

Shelby Lorman writes a cathartic essay on overwhelming tragedy and the lack of tools to process grief as a society—especially as tragedies compound. Lorman discusses the intersection between the internet and the history of US mass shootings up to the end of May 2022, offering a comparison with Nick Drnaso's graphic novel "Sabrina". To answer the ti... See more

the people I’m reading about (I don’t really think of them as characters) are behaving precisely as their motives dictate. Even the ones who act cruel and destructive have constructed a worldview in which their actions are justified, even heroic. The author’s job isn’t to absolve any of her major characters, but to reveal them in sufficient depth t

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This idea is familiar to psychology, too. To remove a fear, you first have to name it. To purge a repressed emotion, you must give it the right label. One friend tells me all the young women she knows spend hours discussing Sally Rooney novels and in this way are examining their romantic lives more closely than they ever would otherwise. Another re... See more

At present, we seem to be suffering from a widespread failure of literary imagination. We have become worse at imagining the experiences of other people, less inclined to credit these experiences as being as valid and real as our own. Why is this? In part, I think, because of the methods by, and pace at which, we acquire our stories. After all, eve... See more