On Rick’s letter, and on memory control.
New York City
November 21, 2000
Dear Readers,
Today’s letter is by Rick Moody: novelist, poet, letter-writer. Rick is the author of The Ice Storm and Garden State and Purple America; his next book, which comes out in January, is a collection of short stories calledDemonology.
His letter today is about many things: red-wing blackbirds, country rats, numerological obsessions: but mostly what it’s about, it seems to me, is how unruly memory can be. In that way Rick’s letterhas some nice echoes of John Hodgman’sfirst letter, about a family trip to the Jersey shore, though John was trying to teach himself not to forget things, and Rick is trying to train himself not to remember things.
It’s anyone’s guess which trick is more impossible.
Yours truly,
