The Dubliners

James Joyce

I think he died for me, she answered.

Artists think with sassy badness they can plunge and already have and leave their readers behind to catch them if they can, but mostly they're interested in creating the feeling of trying to catch so that they haven't got to produce the goods to be caught. And that's how to tell a true one from the false, from the poser. True Artist spends the time, same as Poser Artist, developing the feeling of wanting to catch; True Artist spends the time running rabbit from you so that you'll chase. But comes a time when True Artist and Poser Artist are separated. This time, True Artist turns and confronts the chasing dog Reader and says bite me. And Reader does. Then! Test. True Artist is revealed in the contrast between what True Artist dangles before Reader's eyes and what True Artist actually tastes like. Poser Artist never has the moment where they turn, sacrifice themselves, let their self be eaten by Reader. Poser Artist never gets inside Reader. Poser Artist asks Reader to get inside them. Of course that can't work.