“I am the generic he, as in, ‘If anybody needs an abortion he will have
to go to another state,’ or ‘A writer knows which side his bread is buttered
on.’ That’s me, the writer, him. I am a man. Not maybe a first-rate man.
“I’m perfectly willing to admit that I may be in fact a kind of
second-rate or imitation man, a Pretend-a-Him. As a him, I am to a genuine male
him as a microwaved fish stick is to a whole grilled Chinook salmon.”
—Ursula
K. Leguin (1929-2018), writer, “Ursula
K. Leguin on Being a Man,” in Brainpickings, 2014. (Thanks to alert WORDster Mark Larson)
• Editorial Comment: Oh, fishsticks.
PeezPix
Artichoke blooms
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