the verb for i

flanagan's crimes are many and varied but at this point his insistence on taking material explicitly critical of family structures (sometimes including portrayal of intense abuse) and adapting it into stories about The Beauty Of The Nuclear Family is all but indistinguishable from an entirely conservative project

"I remember perceiving very early, in almost a raw way, that if people didn't find women almost seductive, they generally regarded them with disgust. I remember seeing that and knowing there wasn't a neutral feeling toward women, whereas people mainly felt toward men in a neutral way. They didn't go out of their way to make fun of an older man walking down the street, whereas with a woman there were countless ways to describe her, as a cow or a dragon lady, all those contemptuous terms. Unless she's upfront seductive, generally the terms are contemptuous. I remember realizing that as a kid. I remember even discussing it with people, trying to figure out why it was so. I was absolutely baffled by it because I perceived myself mainly as neutral and invisible, and I didn't particularly want to be perceived either way, either with disgust or as seductive. So obviously that must influence my writing. I don't like to deal with that aspect of life. I don't like going around in a book being somebody who has to either be seductive or face people's disgust. I haven't resolved all my feelings about it, so it's easier to write from the male point of view. I do find it easier to write about gay men for that reason and others. I feel like I'm removed from everything, that I can really have a fresh perspective." -- Conversations With Anne Rice, by Michael Riley

[ID: Obsession (2026) fanart, stylized as a Polaroid. The photo shows Nikki lit by a harsh flash, capturing her shoulders and her grin, but not her eyes— they are pinpricks of light. Her hair is wild, there is a splatter of blood down her face. Sharpie captions the image, “not me”. End ID.]