Burmese Days Essay Paper Example For Students

Burmese Days Essay Paper George Orwells epic Burmese Days is set in 1920s Burma under British imperialism. It centers around the government of the British and its impacts on the connections between the British, the British and Indians, and between the Indians themselves. The epic focuses on the town of Kyauktada in Upper Burma. Kyauktada is portrayed as hot and hot. It is a modest community of around 4,000. The greater part of the occupants are Burmese, however there are additionally a hundred Indians, two Eurasians, sixty Chinese, and Seven Europeans. (Pg. 16) It is close to the wilderness and the Irrawaddy River. There are numerous trees and blossoms, including honeysuckle. In spite of the fact that the English have occupations to perform quite a bit of their time is overwhelmed by savoring bourbon the Club, withdrawing from the thorny; heat, resting, and once in a while playing tennis or chasing. In spite of the fact that there isn't a lot of physical movement by the English, they don't gripe about it. They do whine perpetually about the warmth and about the conceivable acknowledgment of locals into their only European Club. In Burmese Days the mind greater part of British held themselves better than the Burmese. They feel that it is their obligation to govern over the less smart niggers; of Burma. Through the depiction of the attributes of both the British and Burmese, Orwell causes us comprehend the worth framework through which the British have arrived at the resolution that they should control over the Burmese. A case of such a depiction is, that of Maxwell, them acting Divisional Forest Officer. Maxwell is portrayed as a new shaded light young people of not more than twenty-five or six ;#8211; exceptionally youthful for the post he held.; (Pg. 22) This depiction loans an incentive to the fair looking and blond British, however a few, similar to Flory, have dark hair. Maxwell is likewise extremely youthful for his post, giving the feeling that he is wise. Mr. Lackersteen, the trough of a wood firm, however forty and somewhat enlarged, it portrayed a fine-looking; with a straightforward face. (Pg. 20- 21) This portrayal persuades British are attractive and genuine. Orwell offers us various portrayals of great attributes of the British, yet he obviously separates terrible; British from great; British similarly. A case of this is Orwells depiction of Ellis, a supervisor of another wood organization in Burma. The main depiction of Ellis it that of a minuscule wiry-haired individual with a pale, sharp-included face and anxious developments.; (Pg. 20) When a notification in posted in the Club that thought will start to permit high-positioning locals in the Club, Ellis gets irritated. Ellis is, consistently, resentful and unreasonable.; (Pg. 25) His conduct portrays him as an awful; Englishman. It is likewise through Elliss convictions and activities that one starts to comprehend the British mental self portrait. Ellis over and over alludes to the locals as niggers and corrupts them. At the point when the subject of permitting locals in the Club surfaces, Ellis conveys the explanation that the British are in Burma is to administer a lot of damn dark pig whove been slaves since the start of history.; (Pg, 25) Mr. He feels it is a shock that they are regarding the locals as equivalents as opposed to administering them in the main way they comprehend.; (Pg 25) Ellis proceeds to chide Flory, Maxwell, and Westfield (the head of police) for their associations with locals. Most of Englishmen in Burmese Days believe that they are better than the Burmese, anyway none do as such as resolvedly as Ellis. The inadequacy of the locals is connected from various perspectives. One strategy Orwell utilizes is the depiction of the locals. At the point when Ma Hla May, Florys courtesan, and Elizabeth see another the contrasts between them are striking. Elizabeth is as faintly hued as an apple bloom;, while Ma Hla May is dull and showy.; This gathering; happens on Florys veranda with Flory present. It is then he understands how abnormal Ma Hla Mays body is. This impression of Florys places an incentive on the structure and attributes of an Englishwomans body along these lines corrupting the locals structure. The depiction of U Po Kyin isn't positive either. He is portrays as a colossal man with teeth that are frequently recolored dark red by betel juice. In spite of the fact that a fruitful, wealthy judge, he takes kickbacks and concedes that he has done a lot of wrong in his life. In the novel he is delineated as beguiling and mean. A case of this is his endeavor to outline Dr. Veraswami for composing a disdainful letter in one of the neighborhood papers. U Po Kyin likewise plans an uproar to make Dr. Veraswami look awful, while simultaneously making himself look life a legend. This reverse discharges, making Dr. Veraswami a legend. U Po Kyins activities alongside the joint effort of different Indians, portray the local populace as insidious, apathetic, and scheming. Locals are regularly portrayed as poor workers or hirelings whose lone reason for existing is to make the British rich and agreeable. One can best comprehend British sentiments towards the locals through Elizabeths meanings of good; and awful.; She depicts great or, in her words, dazzling as comparing costly, rich, and noble.; Her meaning of awful (brutal in her words) is the modest, the low, the decrepit, and the arduous.; (Pg. 90) Through this definition locals are viewed as brutal; in light of the fact that they harbor awful; qualities. British chaps are lifted up through these definitions since they ex emplify great; qualities. .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa , .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa .postImageUrl , .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa .focused content zone { min-tallness: 80px; position: relative; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa , .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa:hover , .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa:visited , .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa:active { border:0!important; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa .clearfix:after { content: ; show: table; clear: both; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa { show: square; change: foundation shading 250ms; webkit-progress: foundation shading 250ms; width: 100%; haziness: 1; change: murkiness 250ms; webkit-change: mistiness 250ms; foundation shading: #95A5A6; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa:active , .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa:hover { obscurity: 1; progress: darkness 250ms; webkit-change: murkiness 250ms; foundation shading: #2C3E50; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa .focused content region { width: 100%; position: relative; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa .ctaText { outskirt base: 0 strong #fff; shading: #2980B9; text dimension: 16px; textual style weight: striking; edge: 0; cushioning: 0; text-adornment: underline; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa .postTitle { shading: #FFFFFF; text dimension: 16px; textual style weight: 600; edge: 0; cushioning: 0; width: 100%; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa .ctaButton { foundation shading: #7F8C8D!important; shading: #2980B9; fringe: none; fringe sweep: 3px; box-shadow: none; text dimension: 14px; text style weight: intense; line-stature: 26px; moz-outskirt span: 3px; text-adjust: focus; text-enrichment: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-tallness: 80px; foundation: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/modules/intelly-related-posts/resources/pictures/straightforward arrow.png)no-rehash; position: outright; right: 0; top: 0; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa:hover .ctaButton { foundation shading: #34495E!important; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8bae ae060e833eaa .focused content { show: table; tallness: 80px; cushioning left: 18px; top: 0; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa-content { show: table-cell; edge: 0; cushioning: 0; cushioning right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-adjust: center; width: 100%; } .u9d1a35efdab87cee8baeae060e833eaa:after { content: ; show: square; clear: both; } READ: The Quest for the Ideal City: From the 60’s Utopia to the Modern Eco-City. EssayThe connection among Flory and Dr. Veraswami is the main case of a genuine kinship between an Englishman and an Indian. It is the one on the main British ;#8211; Indian associations that isn't focused on the Indian serving the Englishman or on corrupting the locals somehow or another. This is maybe in light of the fact that Dr. Veraswami was taught. At the point when Flory and the Dr met they regularly examined the circumstance of British colonialism in Burma. While Flory is hostile to English, Dr. Veraswami shields the dominion. He expresses that t he Burmese are powerless without the English and that without them Burma would have no exchange, railroads, boats, or streets. Upon the conversation of Dr. Veraswamis conceivable acknowledgment to the Club, the specialist expresses that regardless of whether he were admitted to the Club, he would not fantasy about joining in. He just wants the eminence that an individual from the Club had, however he understands that he ought not really visit the Club. Flory discovers this entertaining, yet after this discussion he makes his supposition known to the club that the specialist ought to be permitted to be a part. The contradictions in the Club about the specialists participation are stopped by a developing mob outside, engineered by U Po Kyin. Dr. Veraswami demonstrates his reliability to the British by endeavoring to keep down the group. Despite the fact that U Po Kyin states that he excessively was attempting to limit the group, the Club doesn't trust him. Dr. Veraswami is subsequently freed from the issues that U Po Kyin had made for him and his craving to turn into an individual from the Club is genuinely examined. In any case, U Po Kyin prevails as he continued looking for the participation to the Club by destroying Florys relationship with Elizabeth, which brings about Flory murdering Flo, his canine, and ending it all. The esteem that Dr. Veraswami had kicked the bucket with Flory. This destroyed Flory, making a participation in the Club inconceivable. Rather U Po Kyin was chosen into the Club, and got and pleasant, yet to a great extent missing, part. Any opportunities for comprehension among Englishmen and Indians kicks the bucket with Flory. This is on the grounds that no other Englishmen could see past the generalization of Indians as

Customer comparision - Kohl's vs. Home Depot Essay

Client comparision - Kohl's versus Home Depot - Essay Example The two organizations construct client esteem by offering clients both a more extensive scope of channels, and increasingly customized treatment through the combination of channels. Ongoing years, US retailers have kept up fast development through consistent improvement of its item/administration blend and mechanical advancement. It has likewise acknowledged fast development through capital infusions. The progressions are firmly associated with Internet offices and WWW which opens global markets for these organizations. Be in one of the most profoundly evaluated businesses for solidness and achievement, Home Depot and Kohl’s offer a chance to each and every individual who needs to change his home and individual style. Home Depot is a US based organization. It is an innovator in home improvement retail advertise. Today, Home Depot depends essentially on a proficient innovation development framework and flexibly chain. Home Depot is â€Å"the second biggest retailer working more than 1,700 stores in North America. The organization works Home Depot stores, Expo Design Centers, Home Depot Supply Stores, Home Depot Landscape Supply Stores, and Home Depot Floo r Stores† (Speight, 2004). Kohl’s is a national retailer proposing a wide scope of items for the entire family: â€Å"our stores are supplied with all that you requirement for yourself and your home - clothing, shoes and embellishments for ladies, youngsters and men, in addition to home items like little electrics, bedding, gear and more† (www.kohlcorporation.com). Target market of Home Depot includes proficient clients and non-proficient clients from white collar classes. Home Depot â€Å"offers items and administrations principally to developers, contractual workers, regions, mechanical clients and support professionals† (Hall, 2007). Kohl’s target crowd additionally includes white collar class purchasers searching for high item quality and great help. Clients inside the portion are like one another and not at all like different gatherings of clients in different fragments. Today, Home Depot situates

An Interview with Cheryl Strayed

An Interview with Cheryl Strayed Bestselling author Cheryl Strayeds newest book Brave Enough, a collection of quotes, recently hit the shelves, and I was lucky enough to get an interview! We spoke about her books, women and writing, and more; our conversation (edited for clarity/length) follows. Jenn Northington: First I want to say how beautiful Brave Enough is, both in look as well as in words. I was wondering if you got to participate in or observe the design process as it went along? Cheryl Strayed: Thank you! I agree. It’s the one part of your book that you get to, like, totally openly brag about. And I keep realizing that sometimes people think I’m talking about the content when I go, “Oh my God, it’s such a beautiful book!” But I mean it from a physical standpoint; it turned out really cool, and that’s what I was hoping for. Because you know obviously, the point of a book of quotes is, [its] a book that you want it to feel good in your hands and to look good on your table, it’s a book you pick up several times instead of reading it necessarily front to back. It was really tricky to come up with the cover and design. When we finally came down to the design of the cover and I knew it was going to be this really cool clothbound with the debossed title and everything we could not decide on the color, because we knew that the text was going to be gold but it looks so beautiful in so many different colors. There was red, and there was purple, and the re was blue. Honestly, we looked at dozens. And finally I was like, I can’t decide, I can’t decide. So they did mock-ups of what the cover would actually look like, and sent me about six of them. I lined them up on my dining room [table] and left them there for a week, and would just walk past and be like, “Which one do I like today?” And they left the decision up to me in the end, which was so cool. I got to choose the color. The green, it wasn’t my first pick, but then it grew on me and I went with it and I’m so glad I did. And that ribbon, I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d have a book that has a ribbon. JN: Yeah, I love the ribbon! It’s such a nice touch. CS: The book looks like a little jewel, doesn’t it? JN: It looks like it’s almost been wrapped for you, like, “Here is a present for you.” CS: Yes. So it’s all the designers, but I weighed in on the cover and the color. The designers did a great job. JN: I don’t know how they even start to think about picking font and sizing and layout of the quotes, but it’s a beautiful beautiful book. CS: Thank you! In the end we are responsible for rising to the occasion of our own lives. JN: How did you pick the first and the last quotes? CS: Oh, that’s a great question. How I picked all the quotes was definitely crowd-sourcing. I wasn’t concerned with what I thought was the wisest or whatever, it was more like, what do people, what do readers really grab and what’s meaningful to them. And I saw that “Be brave enough to break your own heart” was really a very popular one. It was one that I think a lot of people have taken into their lives in a way that was helping them through that hard decision that they had to make. Knowing that we all sometimes have to make a decision that involves causing ourselves sorrow and suffering, but that we’re doing it for a greater purpose, a higher purpose that will serve us well down the road. So I knew that because that was such a popular quote, that I wanted in some ways to highlight it, and of course then it also led me to choose the title from that quote. I thought it should be there, front and center. It just made sense in some ways to use that first page to be and now as I’m talking about it, that is the first quote in the book, right? JN: Yeah! It is. CS: Okay. And then the last quote I don’t have the book in front of me, so the last quote is “The fuck is your life. Answer it.” Right? JN: Yes, that’s right. CS: In some ways that quote seems to me to be a call, to say, Ok, so here are all these things, all these different words about any number of subjects, and in the end we are responsible for rising to the occasion of our own lives. It just seemed like a nice send-off, if you will. JN: It feels that way when you’re going through the book. CS: When you read it, did you sit down and go front to back? JN: I read the first quarter all at once and then, was like, I’m going to take a break now, because I was having a lot of feelings. And then I I confess to picking through, and jumping around and reading what caught my eye font-wise for a while, which was also a really interesting experience. But then, the first and the last are there no matter how you start or end. CS: Yeah, obviously some people will sit down and read it front to back, but I do think it’s a book that you dip into. The book is so solid, and the paper is so fine, there’s this part of me that I have this image in my head of people ripping out pages of the book, and tacking them to their bulletin boards. I mean there could have been a good argument made to be, like, Let’s make it a spiral bound notebook and you rip out the pages, because certainly in my life that’s how quotes function. Let’s put this up on the wall, you know? So I can read it over and over. JN: I’m kind of amazed you guys haven’t announced the Cheryl Strayed Quote of the Day Calendar yet. CS: That’s probably next year, right? JN: We’ll look forward to that! CS: I’m teasing! That’s an idea, that’s an idea. JN: Certainly if you go looking on the internet there are enough [quotes] that people have found meaningful, so I feel like that could come together. Speaking of reading it periodically and dipping in and out, I actually have that experience with Tiny Beautiful Things. I didn’t read that one all in a row. I kind of leafed through and cherry-picked. I wonder how common that is, though. CS: I think it’s common, though I will say, one of the experiences that people report to me a lot with Tiny Beautiful Things is that they’ll sometimes read a letter that they’re like, “Oh well, this letter doesn’t really apply to me,” and then they read my answer and it totally applies to them, you know? So I think when you cherry-pick Tiny Beautiful Things you might be sometimes missing things that are actually really relevant to you. But I know what you mean, it would make sense that you would go through and be like, “Let’s see, let’s find letters by people who have problems like my own, or the opposite, So totally not like mine that I won’t end up weeping on the train.” I think that there’s no right way to read any book. And certainly when it’s a collection I do the same kind of thing, I dip in and out. JN: I’ve definitely read all of them over the course of owning the book, but when I first sat down to read it I was like, Im going to shuffle it up a bit. I don’t know why though. I’m also a person who shuffles songs on albums, which other people tell me is sacrilege, so maybe it’s a media consumption habit? CS: I’m just glad that you listen to whole albums. It used to be, that was the only way you could listen to songs and now I find myself just cherry-picking specific songs rather than having whole albums, which is kind of sad, it’s kind of a loss JN: It’s interesting; I understand of course that artists have a vision. Like you had a vision when you put together the quotes and musicians have a vision when they put together their songs, but readers come to the work or listeners come to the work and they bring their own needs to it. But I do get stuck. I read all of the pieces in Tiny Beautiful Things, I just read them out of order. I’ll listen to an album for a week straight, but I listen to it on shuffle. Because then I feel like I notice something different every time I listen to it. The way we transfer, essentially, authority from the writers to the readers is very cool to me. CS: When I was ordering Brave Enough and Tiny Beautiful Things, in both cases, I did spend a lot of time thinking, What order should these be in, but part of that was also just acknowledging that, some of it is, you just have to put it somewhere. Some of the pieces speak to each other and so you put them together, but sometimes it was just, well, let’s just plunk this one here and that one there and call it a day. It’s not always, “Oh my god, you’re not having some experience I intended you to have if you read it out of order.” And here again, how Brave Enough was even born, was just the way that readers make the book you wrote theirs. They’re the ones that get, in the end, to say what it means and what affect it has, if any. Most of the quotes in Brave Enough, it wouldn’t have really occurred to me, “Oh my gosh, that’s a quote.” It was just that other people pointed it out and used it as one. The last line of Wild, “How wild it was, to let it be.” I would have never guessed that people would really quote that, and so many people have tattoos of that line. What’s fascinating to me about that is, it’s not about me and my book, it’s about them and their life. Which is so beautiful. It’s this thing that I wrote in my book about my life, but then other people make it theirs to the point that they put it on their body. Permanently. The way we transfer, essentially, authority from the writers to the readers is very cool to me. JN: It is, it’s really cool to watch. Another thing I feel like I’m seeing is an uprising in books by women that are about creativity or emotional development or memoir. So there’s your work, there’s Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, there’s Brené Brown, and Shonda Rhimes’s Year of Yes. I’m wondering if you feel like we’re having a moment. Finally, women writers are just saying, “We’re not going to let you call us small anymore, because it’s gigantic.” CS: Maybe! I think we are, now that you mention it. And I think what that’s about is, for so long and obviously this is still a really predominant idea but I just can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard my work and the work of other women writers talked about in these ways that are like, “She writes about the *intimate*, but not about socially significant things.” And I think so many women writers and also readers of both genders, and I’ll even say some male writers too probably, are redefining what we think of as socially significant. I can tell you, being on the other side of literally thousands upon thousands of people feel that their lives have been changed by one of my books. And I know that people feel that way about books by Lydia Yuknavitch and Roxane Gay and Elizabeth Gilbert, and I could go on and on with that list. I think, ok, well if that’s not socially significant, I don’t know what the fuck is. The reasons that their lives feel changed is that we wrote about a very intimate inner landscape and told the truth about it. Whether that be about a fictional character or a nonfictional character. I think that finally, women writers are just saying, “We’re not going to let you call us small anymore, because it’s gigantic.” Just take, for example, Eat Pray Love, the number of people who say they feel changed by that. There are so many people who really are taking art personally and making change in their lives because of it, and there’s nothing small about that. That’s a big gigantic thing. So yes, I think we are in a moment. JN: I think it’s a moment that’s maybe been coming on for a few years, but it seems to me that it’s really peaking, or becoming more obvious. Eat Pray Love is such a good example, because when I was in the bookstore handselling that book, back when it first came out, it was so dismissed as, “Oh, it’s commercial.” “Oh, it’s for book clubs.” “Oh it’s for moms,” despite its popularity. And I feel like we’ve gotten to a point where maybe, things are less easily dismissed that are stories just like that. CS: I think it’s so funny when it’s like, “Oh, it’s just for moms,” as if moms are this uniform, idiotic, imaginary group of people. And just for the record, Liz Gilbert is not a mom, kind of famously. But I know, it’s shorthand for basically women, stupid women. The degree to which I think all of that thinking is bullshit cannot be overstated. Lots of people have come to me and said, “I didn’t read Wild because it was on the bestseller list, but then I broke down and read it and I absolutely loved it.” And I always say to them, “I hope that that means that now you’ll question whatever your biases were about books that get on the bestseller list.” And especially books that get on the bestseller list by women. I don’t think anyone goes to Jonathan Franzen and says “I didn’t read The Corrections because it was such a blockbuster bestseller.” You know what I mean? This is a discrete coded way that we talk in sexist terms without even knowing that we’re being overtly sexist. And that works too with race. There’s so much of that at this point that’s happening, and it’s really almost in code, these subliminal ways that we talk about race and gender when it comes to our literature. And equating popular with not-high art, not-literary, especially then those books are by women. I do think that we’re evo lving, but there is still that dynamic to be sure. JN: Yeah, there’s miles to go before we sleep, I think. But it does feel like, from my perspective, that we’re making progress. CS: Indeed. I think of literature really as my religion. It is my sacred place. It’s my anchor. JN: Obviously your words have meant a lot to a lot of readers. I’m wondering what book you turn to when you need a comfort read or inspiration. CS: So many! So many books. Once of the most fascinating aspects that we haven’t directly touched on but I think that we’re kind of talking about is, there is this way in which some of these books, like Tiny Beautiful Things, for example it’s a literary book of essays. It really is. And yet it’s in the self-help category, a category that I myself have felt skeptical of that genre, sort of snobby in some about it. “But these are essays!” But it’s also self-help. One of the things that I’m struck by is that, when somebody comes up to me and says “Your book saved my life,” I never know which book they’re talking about. Because people also say that about Torch, my first novel, and they have been saying it for years. Even though neither of those books [Torch or Wild] are in the self-help category, one’s a novel and one’s a memoir, they function in a lot of people’s actual lives in a way that sounds like self-help. The way that people talk to me about Torch and Wild is the same way that people talk to me about Tiny Beautiful Things and Brave Enough, even though those latter two books are in this other category. And I think that’s true of some of these other writers we’re talking about. For example, I mentioned Lydia Yuknavitch. Her memoir, The Chronology of Water, is a completely literary memoir, and utterly, utterly life-changing in that way that self-help literature can be. I think that people read it as a deep reflection of w ho they are. When you ask me, “What books do you turn to for consolation,” there are so many books over the course of my life. Pretty much, that’s what books do to me. They are my friends and consolers. I wrote about that in Wild, you know, Adrienne Rich’s The Dream of a Common Language. The first thing I did this morning actually, I was in bed, I woke up and I was remembering this poem by Adrienne Rich called Dialogue, and I grabbed my phone which was on my nightstand and I googled it and found it and read it. And that was the first thing I did this morning. And I’ve read that poem intermittently over the last 25 years. So I turn to that, I turn to Alice Munro, my favorite writer. Sometimes it’s not even an intentional thing. Sometimes it’s just wandering the shelves. So many rooms of my house are lined with books and [I’ll just be] grabbing a book and reading it, reading a page, or a paragraph, and feeling that sense of being connected to other people across race and gender and generation and culture. That is so deeply, profoundly consoling to me. I think of literature really as my religion. It is my sacred place. It’s my anchor. JN: I feel very similarly. I have books that I’ve read over and over again … and it does, it feels a little bit like going to church. CS: Isn’t it amazing? The main thing that people say about my work is that they’re weeping. Which I love, don’t get me wrong, I love making people cry. JN: It is. Well, you mentioned Torch. So you’ve written a novel, you’ve written a memoir, you’ve written essays-slash-self help, depending on who’s shelving it. Is there a genre you are dying to dive into as a writer? CS: Let’s see, gosh. I’m also writing a script, a TV script for HBO, and that’s a whole different kind of writing. But in the book realm I love poetry, but I’m gonna give the world a big solid and I’m going to keep myself from writing my own collection of poems. I’m just going to stay on the sidelines, you know, the very verbose prose writer that I am. There’s two areas that I’d like to branch into. One is tapping into something that was so interesting to me as a writer when I was writing the Dear Sugar column: the epistolary exchange. What you were reading when you read those is actually a letter that someone wrote to me and a letter that I wrote back to someone. Obviously that was done in a public space, so I was really writing to more than just the person who received the letter. But I was always writing to that person too, foremost. So it has occurred to me to write an epistolary novel. A novel that is done entirely in letters could be really interesting. I’m not working on that right now, but it comes into my mind that that could be potent ground for me. I always feel like Im funnier in real life than I am on the page, because my work â€" it can be funny in places, absolutely, but the main thing that people say about my work is that they’re weeping. Which I love, don’t get me wrong, I love making people cry. But I have thought about writing a collection of funny things. One of the running jokes that I have with my husband is that in the world, I’m Sugar, and everyone’s like, “Oh, you’re so nurturing and kind and you love everyone unconditionally.” Then in my real life my husband and kids see a more multi-dimensional side of me which is like, you know, this person who is complaining about things and is grumpy. I would rant about people and things to my husband, and I hatched this idea for a funny book. I arrived at the title, it’s called Guess What, Dumbass and it’s a collection of things that I’m furious about and want to rant about, these short essays of me ranting against this or that category of people. JN: That sounds amazing! CS: What do you think? JN: I would read it! I would read it. CS: It would be new territory for me! JN: I really appreciated the introduction to Brave Enough, and one of the things that was so funny was your husband putting the quote on the fridge, the “I’m going to be mad at you for the rest of my life.” It’s so interesting to have that window, because you are known for being accepting, and unconditional, and supportive, but of course, you’re a person. CS: That’s right, that’s right. JN: Ok, my last question: what are you reading right now? CS: I just finished reading a wonderful book that I hope lots of people will read. It’s called Becoming Nicole. It’s a nonfiction book by Amy Ellis Nutt. It’s about a family who live in Maine, and the parents adopted identical twin boys as infants. As the boys were growing up, very early on, one of the boys just knew that he was not a boy. That he was a girl. And the family had to really figure this out. What would they do? They came to a slow understanding that their son was transgender and was really a girl, and they helped him in all kinds of ways with this, and he became Nicole. The book follows them through their struggles and trajectory, and it was really illuminating to me and also just a fascinating story. Sign up for True Story to receive nonfiction news, new releases, and must-read forthcoming titles.