#700 The Man with the Hat- Sheila Heti
The angst of a writer, the heart of a writer, the soul of a writer—these were all things embraced by the man. Unfortunately he lived the life of a writer, a failed one at that. He hasn’t written a thing, but he feels like he could. Don’t we all?
To his friends and drinking companions he is a bum, and a leach. He gets kicked out of one bar or the next, and his anger turns to self hatred, despair, and then just a little poetic hope. “What right had he to kill himself when there were stars in the sky, twinkling all innocent and not noticing him and noticing nothing.”
Heti’s stories are the epitome of the short form. Most are brain droppings of small nuggets left to ponder, rarely fully developed as stories, and that’s fine, that seems to be the point. This one is more complete, and a good look at the struggles of an unrealized creative mind.
Notable Passage: “The truth’s got nothing to do with your life.”
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