Dept. of Speculation

Surely all art is the result of one’s having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, to where no one can go any further.

^^ RilkeI've never read anything quite like Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation --- short sentences, stream-of-consciousness, and I can't quite remember the plot fully though I remember really having a great time reading everything. Would recommend. :)

DEPT. OF SPECULATION by Jenny Offill

The following are excerpts taken from Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation. Bold and italics are mine. Everything else is Jenny's.

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I felt a sudden chill and pulled the blanket over my head. That’s the way they bring horses out of a fire, I remembered. If they can’t see, they won’t panic. I tried to figure out if I felt calmer with a blanket over my head. No I did not was the answer.--That one was so beautiful I used to watch him sleep. If I had to sum up what he did to me, I’d say it was this: he made me sing along to all the bad songs on the radio. Both when he loved me and when he didn’t.--You got down on one knee. All around us shining things.--Of course it is difficult. You are creating a creature with a soul, my friend says.--I decide to make my class read creation myths. The idea is to go back to the beginning. In some, God is portrayed as a father, in others, as a mother. When God is a father, he is said to be elsewhere. When God is a mother, she is said to be everywhere.--Some women make it look so easy, the way they cast ambition off like an expensive coat that no longer fits.--The wife watched her neighbor get fat over the next year. The Germans have a word for that. Kummerspeck. Literally, grief bacon.--Whenever the wife wants to do drugs, she thinks about Sartre. One bad trip and then a giant lobster followed him around for the rest of his days.--Q. Why couldn’t the Buddhist vacuum in corners?A. Because she had no attachments.--

I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.

^^ Rilke--

I write to close my eyes.

^^ Kafka--You can buy the book here. :)