SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

I have never started a thread in General before! Better late than never.

I was re-reading a favorite essay, one that I haven't read in ages but think of often, and the first line landed in a way that it hasn't before. I thought I would share it and see if people think it applies to SI:

I think that if there is any value in hearing writers talk, it will be in hearing what they can witness to and not what they can theorize about. My own approach to literary problems is very like the one Dr. Johnson's blind housekeeper used when she poured tea - she put her finger inside the cup.

(asides - if you find the first line intriguing and want to read the rest of the essay, you can find a pdf by googling "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction" (1960) by Flannery O'Connor. If you like the whole essay, I can highly recommend the laugh-out-loud "The King of the Birds" which is in the same collection, Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose. And if you are already a Flannery O'Connor fan, please say hi. She's the best)

Woohoo for your first thread in General .

Many people have said they didn't know how devastating an A would be until they experienced it themselves. I would guess this applies to that part about witnessing versus theorizing.

I am getting ready to get on the road again...but I may look these up...especially the laugh out loud one...I LOVE to do that !! Thanks for sharing !

I also highly recommend "Introduction to a Memoir of Mary Ann" which starts "Stories of pious children tend to be false. This may be because they are told by adults, who see virtue where their subjects would only see a practical course of action . . ."

There is no way to tie this outstanding essay, my favorite in the world, to infidelity, but I can recommend it to you on the basis of your shared southern sensibilities :)

Have a wonderful and safe trip!