This was years ago now, and I’d be pressed to find an example of what that looked like in the context of white-water rafting, but say, for example, one where one were to reach for a branch on the side of the river. That would be an instant-qualification for swimming oneself.

Swimming oneself is easier than one would expect, or at least Julian would have you believe. Nobody in our group “swam theirselves”, and I like to think it was Julian’s impression on us to avoid swimming ourselves.

My favorite part of Julian’s sarcastic soapboxing was their catchphrase, “You swam yourself!”.

“‘You should be ready for people who don”t get this to say, “Oh, well, he was really just gay, and couldn’t deal with it.”’” pp. 123

how it was possible that the characters in these books could react to the conflicts in their lives with comedy. I never understood this comment. What else should they use to express their sorrow? Texas?)”

In spite of the sense of ever-present exasperation with my own body, I was rarely depressed and reacted to my awful life with joy, with humor, and with light. (In the nineties, when various critics reviewed some of my early novels, they would question

My mother had been levitated her whole life by corklike faith in the goodness of people, by the belief that things would somehow ‘work themselves out’

This legacy of cheerful wit became the thing that sustained me and also, at times, burdened me.

pp. 31 “I’d arrived at early adolescence having inherited my mother’s buoyant optimism. In spite of the nearly constant sense that I was the wrong person, I was filled with simultaneous hopefulness and cheer that most people found annoying.

as I interviewed the incomprehensibly bitter director of the Skunk Club, I still believed that somehow, everything would work out for the best.” pp. 63

Fkn kyle

🤔