The breast approached him, and he entered it. Drinking, he was milk.
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‘As he grew up he would drink, and likewise urinate, without embarrassment. Snacks, so long as they were light and informal, were liquids: casual and seemly.’
The breast approached him, and he entered it. Drinking, he was milk.
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‘Feelings can be very obscure but numbers never lie.’
Kevin Brazil on metrics, obsession and fitness.
‘An intense workout is an ecstasy of punishment packaged as self-improvement.’
Mary Wellesley on exercise, ritual and Barry’s Bootcamp.
‘I was not good at sports because I would not do sports because I did not have the body for sports because I would not do sports.’
Saba Sams on girlhood, embodiment and avoiding sports.
‘Following United rarely brings me any great joy and most often it depresses me. If I could disengage, I would.’
Jonny Thakkar on Manchester United.
‘I deployed my body against an opponent like a blunt and effective instrument.’
John Patrick McHugh on playing Gaelic football.
Adam Mars-Jones is a writer and critic living in London. He was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 1983 and 1993. His fiction includes Box Hill and Batlava Lake, which are short, and Pilcrow and Cedilla, the expansive first parts of a semi-infinite novel. The third instalment, Caret, will be published in August 2023.
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‘Is there in fact a jostling for dominance between the art forms, some barely suppressed competitiveness?’
Adam Mars-Jones on music and ceremony.
‘When I was put on Granta’s first Best of Young British Novelists list in 1983, no novel of mine had been published.’
‘Obscure repertoire is a sensible hiding-place for mediocre technique.’
‘At the end of the year, an ambulance brought Suseela home from hospital to die’.
‘I put my trophy on a high shelf, and at some stage laid it face down.’
‘We shouldn’t just study people through their archives, but also by being witness to their dreams.’
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