Our Wives Under the Sea

by Julia Armfield

A footprint, once left on the surface of the moon, might in theory remain as it is almost indefinitely. Uneroded by atmosphere, by wind or by rain, any mark made up there could quite easily last for several centuries. The ocean is different, the ocean covers its tracks.

Jesus Christ, Julia...

Panic is a misuse of oxygen.

I've always used the imagery of a storm - we keep our head down as we trudge through a traumatic event, only looking up and assessing the damage once the storm has passed. This feels even more powerful. The symbolism of a broken down submarine, where panicking will only make you suffocate faster. You must remain calm to survive longer, keeping your fingers crosed you hold your breath often enough/long enough to make it out alive. Only once you've returned to the surface and escaped the submarine can you hyperventilate all you want. Because it's true, we react/act out more after the trauma than we do during it.

When you sink—which we did, long hours of sinking—you can’t see the bottom and you can’t see the top and the ocean around you extends on both sides with no obvious limit except the border around your own window. Earth and its certain curvature become far less clear underwater.

To know the ocean, I have always felt, is to recognize the teeth it keeps half-hidden.

I’m gay for Gillian Anderson,”

Do you think Gillian Anderson has read this book?

“What I’m saying is, the pain is in the aftermath, more than it is the break.”