It had simply never occurred to her that she, too, could buy these bestsellers. The way popular art repelled her was part of how she conceived her singularity, her outsiderness. Of course she wanted to read these books, everyone did. But she was afraid of what she might discover in them—that they were better, deeper, more deserving of attention than anything she might find in the margins of the internet or might herself create. That they were popular for a reason.
