I want powerful, I want lyrical, I want the unexpected,
I want under-the-surface, dive-beneath subtext.
The new essay baffles and delights.
It’s not like fiction: cause and effect, narrative arc, character development. Or like journalism: who, what, how, where, when. Both want answers.
Essay circles, questions, sometimes doesn’t know and–how refreshing!–admits it. And then the braided essay can run along two tracks at once, each unrelated. Or so it seems.