How to Set a Fire and Why

by Jesse Ball

Here is the best thing to do: arrange to begin a new life for yourself that is disconnected from the life that you have hitherto led. You will go away. You will know no one that you previously knew. You will use a new name. You will live by a skill that you previously did not display. Then, when you go to set your fire, you go as yourself, as you always go, in the costume you always wear. Then, the person who is discovered is you, but only the one you have been in the past. That person, insomuch as he/she may be found in the world, by her habits, by her dress, by her occupation, by her circle, no longer exists. There are biological traces that you will need to be careful not to leave—but this single precaution I speak of (and it is, I know, a difficult one to adopt) can help to ensure that you live your life happily undiscovered by the law. A new ethic wherein people of any city, of any place, welcome itinerants with gentleness and secrecy could go a long way toward making this measure quite simple for anyone to adopt.