Maria Semple

So that when it starts to get challenged by Digby, you know, we were like, don't go crazy again, Adora.

You know, you've got it all figured out.

Don't throw it all away.

It certainly was present-day Adora is where I started.

And it's a very good question because, you know, I know people start very different ways, but it was definitely the present-day Adora.

And the more I kind of built her out, I started just wondering, like, why does she need stoicism so badly?

What happened to her that she needed to just kind of

put this entirely ancient operating system into herself to replace what she had had before.

And I just started thinking about what that was.

And I'm very interested in character.

I mean, personal character.

And that's what stoicism really is about, is like strong personal character.

And when I think about that, I just feel a lot of shame about my past.

And I feel like I didn't have good character for many years.

I didn't...

even again, know the concept of good personal character.

And so I was raised Catholic, but I was never taught character.

I was taught to be kind of afraid of nuns and to lie in confession, so you didn't have too many Hail Marys, but I never really had like an ethical training system.

And so I really then kind of reverse engineered the young Adora according to that, you know, and it just made it very interesting to me.

Yeah, that makes sense.