Lost Cat

https://granta.com/lost-cat/

by allthebest • 7 years ago

120 17 7 years ago

granta.com

snvzz• 7 years ago

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

Can you elaborate on that?

maleno• 7 years ago

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.

dngray• 7 years ago

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.

simion314• 7 years ago

Is not about the cat, is about the person that lost the cat, about some children that she tried to help. 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.

It is a lot of reading but IMO is worth it.

tanzann• 7 years ago

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

RandomBacon• 7 years ago

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.

xgulfie• 7 years ago

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

funkjunky• 7 years ago

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

thrower123• 7 years ago

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.

dang• 7 years ago

You're probably seeing the effect of the second-chance pool (described at 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.

cm2012• 7 years ago

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

ctchocula• 7 years ago

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.

shearskill• 7 years ago

Enjoyed reading this.

buro9• 7 years ago

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.

lars512• 7 years ago

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

jger15• 7 years ago

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."

ak39• 7 years ago

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."

Lost Cat

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