Sublime

a sticky summer evening, for example, as new renters attempted to settle into the sepulchral apartment downstairs—a young couple, arranging themselves in their first shared home, arguing over whose desk should go where in the office off the kitchen, which suddenly seemed drafty, didn’t it? Should they contact the landlord? Or? Tape the windows? Or?

Most people live their entire lives with their clothes on, and even if they wanted to, couldn’t take them off. Then there are those who cannot put them on. They are the ones who live their lives not just as people but as examples of people. They are destined to expose every part of themselves, so the rest of us can know what it means to be a human.

tenuous

hallowed

nepotistic

Over time she realized that deep down almost everyone asks themselves the same sort of questions: Am I good? Do I make anyone proud? Am I useful to society? Am I good at my job? Generous and considerate? A decent shag? Does anyone want me to be their friend? Have I been a good parent? Am I a good person? People

“It’s not personal,” she says. “It’s just a job.” “There is nothing more personal than doing your job,” I say.

Does she ‘go crazy’? No, not at all: after a few moments of bewildered fugue, Heather Lelache accepts the ‘new’ world as the ‘true’ world, editing out the point of suture. This strategy – of accepting the incommensurable and the senseless without question – has always been the exemplary technique of sanity as such, but it has a special role to play