5 ms·
Anyone else disappointed not to hear more about the Sheila interaction?
by e40 5y ago
Anyone else disappointed not to hear more about the Sheila interaction?
- LukeEF 5y agoInteresting you said that - i read the first part, scanned the rest looking for continuation of the story and then searched for 'Sheila'. Really wonder what happened next - was there a reconciliation, did the hurt run too deep, did Sheila even remember or did she think they just drifted apart?
- legohead 5y agoI asked myself how a 63 year old would recognize a childhood friend on the street. My assumption is Sheila found her on purpose, because she had lived her whole life with this burden of regret, and wanted to apologize. I have a similar burden, and occasionally try to look up an old friend, but his name is too common.
- optimalsolver 5y agoWhat did you do?
- ntxy 5y agomade me read to the end. brilliant!
- russh 5y agoMade me stop after searching for her name and not finding it in the rest of the article.
- Wistar 5y agoAbsolutely yes. For me, it somewhat upstaged the rest of the essay.
- leroy_masochist 5y agoOne consequence of this essay being published in a high-profile literary magazine such as Harper's, whether intentional or not, will be Sheila's sense of humiliation upon reading it. I bet it's intentional.
- rufus_foreman 5y agoMy guess is that Sheila has a completely different recollection of the events described, if she recalls them at all.
- allturtles 5y agoI think she should have left it out. As anecdotes about humiliation go, it's not much. There's no mention that Sheila publicly shamed her (as the author, by the way, has now publicly shamed Sheila), she just didn't want to be friends anymore. And she's still holding a grudge against her erstwhile friend from when she was 13? People grow apart, especially around major life transitions like adolescence.
- lazide 5y agoAs noted in a upvoted comment above - resentment, hate, anger all poison/burn the one who holds it. The stronger it is held, and the longer, the more damage it does. There is a lot of poison here, and I don’t think it is in Sheila.
- trgn 5y agoIt's also the consequence of being shackled to a literary technique common to these long form articles, for authors to write themselves into the piece, in order to make the content more relatable to the audience. It's a form of exhibitionism, where the author has to come up with something recognizable, but not too revealing or truly heart wrecking. Something milquetoast form adolescence will do in a pinch. I am sure these sort of confessionals used to come across as audacious. Now, it's just a tired trope of the format.
- charlieo88 5y agoI think the proper form would have been to pause the Sheila narrative at the Edna reveal, and then at the very end of the story, have the 50 years later meeting as the wrapper.
- trgn 5y agohaha, yes, you're right! fwiw - I also wanted to know what happened there right after their encounter.
- a0-prw 5y agoI couldn't agree with you more. I usually stop reading this format immediately. Got about 2/3 of the way through.