Either/Or

by Elif Batuman

When I was little, whenever I heard of children who were distinguishing themselves in any field of art or science or sports, I was filled with longing and a deep sense of failure. But my mother viewed such prodigies with pity and sorrow: they hadn’t been allowed to be children.

Was there a version of “The Seducer’s Diary” where they were equal—where he wasn’t tricking her into doing something she didn’t want? Or was that what seduction was?

How unjust it was, when people treated the actual as limiting proof of the possible!

If anyone got annoyed at you, they couldn’t cry, or scream at you, or accuse you of offending them, and at any point you could just leave. It was totally different from being in your family.

electroplating a tortoise.

No idea what this is referencing