The Essay as Realm
October 18, 2024 at 10:53PMElisa Gabbert looks at the similarities between two personal fascinations: architecture and essays. A committed rereader, Gabbert examines how well-crafted buildings and essays have the power to make us feel as we explore them.
“When I’m writing, I’m trying to be an architect. I’m trying to get the reader to feel the way I do; even when I don’t intend to convince them of something, and most of the time I don’t, writing is a subtly coercive act. The coercion is cooperative, like any performance. More precisely, I want a reader to arrive at my thought and feel close to the way I felt when I thought it. This may be authorial fantasy, delusions of grandeur, impossible dream, but it is what I want. I’m making the place where the thought is possible.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/10/18/the-essay-as-realm/
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