How to Be Both

by Ali Smith

All we are is eyes looking for the unbroken or the edges where the broken bits might fit each other.

We need both luck and justice to get to live the life we’re meant for, she says. Lots of seeds don’t get to. Think. They fall on stone, they get crushed to pieces, rot in the rubbish at the roadside, put down roots that don’t take, die of thirst, die of heat, die of cold before they’ve even broken open underground, never mind grown a leaf. But a tree is a clever creation and sends out lots of seeds every year, so for all those ones that don’t get to grow there are hundreds, thousands that will.

her habit of putting these 2 dots between clauses where a breath should come.

but what I really felt was frightened that something I’d done or made might have such wild effect.

Art makes nothing happen in a way that makes something happen.

A friendly work of art. I’ve never thought such a thing in my life. And look at it. It’s never sentimental. It’s generous, but it’s sardonic too. And whenever it’s sardonic, a moment later it’s generous again. She turns to George. It’s a bit like you, she says.

The being seen. The being watched. It makes life very, well I don’t know. Pert.

It is also like H is trying to find a language that will make personal sense to George’s ears.

very important figure in Greek life and philosophy, usually someone with no power, no social status to speak of, who’d take it upon themselves to stand up to the highest authority when the authority was unjust or wrong, and would express out loud the most uncomfortable truths, even though by doing this they would probably even be risking their life.