I want to learn how to write because I’m infatuated with the desert. Barbara Kingsolver wrote about Tucson, and the chain link fences, the weird altars and hermit crabs having an internal clock. The red dry and the night that brings out rabbits.
I want to write because I’m going to Brazil and I need to be able to convey the exact moment of foreignness, why it mattered, and how it exited.
I want to write because I need to understand the larger arc of this, whatever this is . Writing will force me to look beyond the sidelong half assed glance. I will be conscious.
Alex — and you’ve taken the first step. What a definition. I can hear you in it, it’s interesting, thoight provoking…
Um… you are certainly on the right track!
When I traveled last year, I felt the exact same way that you do about needing to convey the exact moment of foreignness of Brazil. (Although I never thought to articulate that aching desire in that way! I like the way you stated it.)