LONGREADS
(A Notable Essay for The Best American Essays 2019)
“Although we don’t always get flatware, suits of armor, and the shiny bowls of gaslights to flash variant realities at us, we live with them, all the same. We love, knowing that people are full of glory and depravity. Their romantic and moral impulses frequently violate our ideals of fairness, goodness, responsibility, and forgivability, yet still, sometimes, they and we succeed. People are complicated. But for the survivor of abuse or assault who still seeks love, navigating this commonplace fact makes for brutal experience.”
image: detail of Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, designed by Katie Kosma
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