Allie Wilson’s Reviews > An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures > Status Update

“It then seemed to her...that there wasn’t a man or woman who hadn’t chanced to look in the mirror and been taken aback. For a fraction of a second the person saw herself as an object to be looked at, which could be called narcissism but, already influenced by Ulisses, she’d call: pleasure in being. To find the external figure the echoes of the internal figure: ah, so it’s true I wasn’t just imagining it: I exist.”

“—though she herself wasn’t sure what she meant by “being protected”: did she, perhaps, have a childish wish to have everything but without the anxiety of having to give something in return? Was protection a presence? If she were protected by Ulisses...she’d immediately aim for the maximum: to be so protected that she wouldn’t fear being free: since from her flights of freedom she’d always have somewhere to return.”