But all my main characters are failures in the social world who trail
around after a hidden meaning that finally defines, rather than defies,
them. What they seek becomes them as integrated beings. This is a very
Thomist vision of reality that is also found in philosophies of culture
everywhere. But I really care about failed American women from the 20th
century, the anonymous saints and geniuses who couldn’t make a living.
My pronouns shift because people are objects sometimes, subjects other
times, and their minds can also leave their bodies and become joined
with other minds that are out there with them. I feel there are actual
spheres of consciousness, but I am also steeped in the 20th century’s
tragic view of language as being a closed system.
Fanny Howe -- Interview