‘If provincial life still exists, it does so only residually and is doomed to eventual extinction.’
In a global economy, with instantaneous worldwide communications networks, there are no longer any outlying areas, distant settlements, remote places, since everywhere is brought into contact with the ubiquitous metropolis. If provincial life still exists, it does so only residually and is doomed to…
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
‘Love was no longer encoded in recognised behaviours, but became subject to private desires and idiosyncratic needs.’
‘My mother’s cry rang in my ears from infancy. ‘No child of mine is going into a shoe factory.’’
‘Separation has been, perhaps, the single biggest determining influence in my life.’
