Black Swan is a movie about someone whose art is so pure it annihilates her. Or maybe Black Swan is a movie about someone who is persuaded to believe in an art so pure it can annihilate, and in doing so makes it true.
If this is a list, let it be a syllabus, a series of entry points joined by common questions: What does it look and sound like to understand your life, previously envisioned as exclusively “ahead,” as incrementally, but increasingly, behind? What can a moment of emotional accuracy accomplish? What imperative pleasures does meticulousness afford?
