“We are creating the world as it should be. We don’t have to pay any attention to how it is.”
This is really about fantasy. It’s twofold: the fantasy of a perfectly lit dining room, of being waited on, of taking a break from the mundanity of your real life. It’s also about the fantasies we have in our youth. When we’re young and in the process of creating our “adult” life, we live in a constant present tense. We have unlimited freedom because we haven’t really encountered a sense of consequence yet. In those post-graduate years, you can take jobs or quit jobs, apply for credit cards and book plane tickets, go home with a bartender, and oftentimes it all feels temporary, like you can start over again tomorrow. The hard truths of life (how the world actually operates) haven’t yet penetrated. That’s where Tess is when she arrives in New York. The restaurant reinforces the belief that she will get unlimited chances (every night is a blank slate) to remake herself. At a certain point though, you begin to understand the effects of your actions, and realize that decisions can leave their mark on you forever.
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