
Lost Cat - allthebest
https://granta.com/lost-cat/
======
buro9
I've consumed more words from RFCs, hacker news, emails and chat this last
month or two, than from reading books.

This is a strong reminder as the writing is beautiful.

When we read our writing and world view takes on a small part of what we read.
If all we read are fragments designed to communicate without ambiguity to the
highly logical them we lose a lot of romance in the world.

Thank you for posting this on here.

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xgulfie
This essay is more thought-provoking than I expected, I read it 2 hours ago
and am still thinking about it.

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funkjunky
I really, really enjoyed this. Also I cried a little.

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ak39
This writing is a triumph of words in the exaltation of symbolism. Deep
compassion is all I could feel with the power of her words.

"Oh, that is your trauma."

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snvzz
I'm not sure why you've linked this, what I'm supposed to see here.

Can you elaborate on that?

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maleno
Not OP but this is a wonderful essay by Mary Gaitskill, one of the most
interesting writers at work today. This is probably my favourite Gaitskill
essay, but I am a cat person so I'm biased.

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dngray
I'm not really a cat person but I enjoyed it anyway (even if it got me in the
feels). I am glad it was posted as I doubt I would have ever come across it
otherwise.

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jger15
Love Mary Gaitskill -- believe this essay was included in her collection
"Somebody with a Little Hammer".

Would recommend along with "Bad Behavior" and "The Mare."

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thrower123
Is it just me, or is something screwy going on with this post? I feel like
I've seen it every day for the past week, with the same comments getting
forward-dated each time.

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dang
You're probably seeing the effect of the second-chance pool (described at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380)).
But that should only have happened once, so I'm not sure what accounts for the
"every day for the past week" part.

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lars512
What a lovely piece of writing, thank you for posting it.

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cm2012
This article reminds me of a Russian novel. Too intense for me.

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ctchocula
I know, right? Especially this part:

> Finally her mother said that if Natalia behaved herself for three months
> straight, stopped violating curfew and went to school, she could return
> home. Natalia did it, for the entire three months. The court date was set.
> It was expected to be a walk-through. Formally, the judge asked Natalia’s
> mother if she would allow her to return home. And her mother laughed. She
> laughed and said, 'I would never let that girl come live with me again.' The
> social worker told me Natalia screamed like an animal. She said she had to
> be held back by court officers.

This reads like something out of Dostoevsky. I like how simion314 puts it. "It
is an interesting real life story, with real life problems, for me it showed
me some new things, showed me how other people think and react." This is what
is appealing about Dostoevsky too. For example, the following passage was
illuminating to me:

> I asked why. I don’t remember what he said. I came away with the impression
> that my friend found the language I used too corny or therapeutic. And it
> was. Certainly my father would've found it so. But I don’t think that’s the
> only reason he walked away. If my language was a cliché, it was also
> heartfelt and naked. That kind of sudden nakedness, without even a posture
> of elegance, would've been a kind of violence to my father. It would've
> touched him forcefully in a place he had spent his life guarding. To say
> 'yes' would’ve allowed too much of that force in too deeply. Saying 'no' was
> a way of being faithful to the guarded place.

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shearskill
Enjoyed reading this.

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tanzann
Can someone explain why some links appear on first HN page while the others
end up laying unnoticed on second page?

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RandomBacon
Algorithms.

Don't know if this is the case here, but if a mod notices something
interesting and it doesn't gain traction, they will invite the submitter to
submit it again at a later date and add a bump to keep it up a little longer
to see if it gains traction then.

It's nice that there is some variety of interesting things here so that it's
not all tech-related. Most hackers love cats I think.

