The Spectacular

by Fiona Davis

I still have all my memories intact, thank you very much. There are days when I wouldn’t mind blocking out the more painful ones, but I have nothing to complain about, not yet. I’m aware of my limitations, but I’m not defined by them.

“Manhattan’s never been welcoming. It’s our perception that changes. In fact, it seems to me that whenever a person comes to New York, the year that they arrive gets coated in amber, in a way. Frozen for perpetuity. You walk around memorizing every block, every corner, because it’s all new and that’s how you navigate the neighborhoods. That’s the year everything is perfect. From then on, as the city changes—and of course, the city has always been changing—we yearn for the past and fight against anything new.

Everyone can be analyzed. Everyone has quirks. Even strangers.

“There is something to be learned from every patient. The entire field of psychiatry will come to a halt if we simply overmedicate the troubled.