Unlikely forces can make a novelist. In this memoir Ian McEwan, brought up in a house with few books, describes how his mother’s hesitancy with words influenced his approach to writing

men

want to fix you
save you
or fuck you

I can’t be fixed
and I don’t care to be saved

yeahwriters:

One spring just before the financial crisis struck, students at Princeton University threw a Gatsby party. “It’s going to be big,” said an organizer, promising all the trappings of the novel’s soirees. “It’s going to be grandiose.” Gatsby parties are common, but this one stands out for its extravagance—the expected outlay was $20,000—and the particular irony…

I mean, of course we all did. So we can read this article and laugh at the plebeians.