I was interested in how a singular voice, when heard from a sociological distance, implicated a larger population, in how the autobiographical was rarely an individualistic mode; all of its wonder and devastation was social. I knew I couldn’t articulate that interest in those terms. It would sound like nonsense to Michael, as so much of my academic writing and thinking would. I often questioned what use that language was when it alienated so many. But just as we don’t get to choose who we love, as the saying goes, I don’t think we get to choose which kinds of language envelop us like another
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