To Read & To Write

The Silk Road  is set within an interstitial place, somewhere between dream and reality, between the conscious and unconscious, in between anything that allows for something to fit within it. Reading Kathryn Davis' writing in this novel is like falling asleep to music or the sound of conversation; as the mind drifts into deep sleep, the real auditory sounds produce images in the mind - dreams - and the words or music one hears begins to blur within the subconscious of the sleeping mind. As you might be able to guess from what I've written so far, you might be able to tell that the narrative and plot of The Silk Road is not formal, and neither are any other parts of the story, save maybe the characters. "When you arrive at the edge of the world you stop remembering things like how you got there. Your attention keeps pouring over the edge, out and away from the footprints left behind you in the snow, unable to focus on anything except the cove of sparkling light there a...

"Though nearly all statements a psychiatric patient can make are not believed, proclamations of insanity are the exception to the rule." To read "The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays" by Esmé Weijun Wang, you must be committed. I say this not to dissuade you, but more to prepare you for the type of book that it is: Wang's writing is decidedly dispassionate and the words less poetic in that flowery way than some may be looking for. However, that is precisely why I loved the book. Moreover, this style (which includes sharp handed, gorgeous prose, I might add) does not take away from the fact that "The Collected Schizophrenias" is for all those deeply committed to raising awareness about mental illness, indeed, mental health, under power structures (such as pharmaceutical industries and hospitals generally) that are imbalanced, difficult to decipher precisely because we all know that the trustworthy and untrustworthy are simultaneously engaged in th...