George Saunders

I'm here is a hundred percent beautiful in the right condition, but it also, her, her problem is I think she's got a bit of denial built into herself too.

Um,

So, you know, for example, the end condition, let's say that he was a murdering rapist and she came down to his bed and said, I'm here.

You know, that somehow doesn't seem sufficient.

Although by her definition, it is.

So this is where the book really exploded into being interesting to me because I don't really know the answer to these things.

Right, right.

And I think she would say in her peak elevation, she'd say, yeah, yeah.

But we feel, I mean, I think in the book, readers have talked to me about in the middle section, like, God, Jill, you're pissing me off, you know.

That's a result of the fact that she isn't really giving comfort.

She's doing what in Buddhism we call idiot compassion, right?

You know, or like somebody drives a spike through your head and you say, thanks for the coat rack, that thing.

So she's not really doing what she claims to be doing.

That's, I think, the kind of...

Her kind of sin or her tragedy is that I think she had a genuine insight.

But when you go to apply it, it's going to take a little less autopilot than she's on.

That's the hinge.

There's good and bad and evil.

In any specific situation, there is.

Because in specifically the book, this guy spent many, many years knowing the truth and denying it.