When You Love Somebody, Or

By Definition, Memoir Demands A Certain Degree Of Introspection And Self-disclosure: In Order To Fully Engage A Reader, The Narrator Has To Make Herself Known, Has To Allow Her Own Self-awareness To Inform The Events She Describes.

Anorexia Is A Response To Cultural Images Of The Female Body - Waiflike, Angular - That Both Capitulates To The Ideal And Also Mocks It, Strips Away All The Ancillary Signs Of Sexuality, Strips Away Breasts And Hips And Butt And Leaves In Their Place A Garish Caricature, A Cruel Cartoon Of Flesh And Bone.

Around The Time I Began Starving, In The Early Eighties, The Visual Image Had Begun To Supplant Text As Culture's Primary Mode Of Communication, A Radical Change Because Images Work So Differently Than Words: They're Immediate, They Hit You At Levels Way Beneath Intellect, They Come Fast And Furious.

Before You Open The Lunch Menu Or Order That Cheeseburger Or Consider Eating The Cake With The Frosting Intact, Haul Out The Psychic Calculator And Start Tinkering With The Budget.

A Lot Of People, Quite Frankly, Think Intense Attachments To Animals Are Weird And Suspect, The Domain Of People Who Can't Quite Handle Attachments To Humans.