There are more words beginning with the letter S than any other letter in this exercise. Is that because of my name? If so, I wasn’t conscious of the choice. If there is something causal operating here, where does the association take place? The photo was taken in Providence on a street where I lived for a number of years as a graduate student. Photography was a respite from the literary texts and heady, elusive, analysis I was being trained in. I scrounged extra cash for Kodak's TRI-X 400 black-and-white film, a brick at a time, that I kept in my freezer. I developed the film myself after getting permission from the landlord to set up a makeshift darkroom in the back hallway of the first floor apartment I rented. Upstairs lived three grad students from Greece, all physicists, all men. The building had two entrances. One day the physicists decided they wanted to use as their main entrance the one that housed my darkroom. I appealed to the landlord; he refused to take sides. Eventually the physicists and I reached a compromise. Looking back, I am embarrassed by how adamantly I insisted my need for a clean, dark space was greater than their need to throw nice parties. I wanted to be alone; they were hoping to put an end to loneliness.
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