Sometimes writing speaks. Sometimes writing unspeaks. Sometimes writing comes from truth. Sometimes writing comes from a symbolism of the nuanced truth. I do not care what you believe. I literally do not know that there is an audience. It feels like a very deep cold loneliness. Rooney doesn’t channel Sally Rooney. Good for her. She’s awesome. What publishing needs is a few quick kicks by Irish writers. Within the context of the relationships Rooney she writes about, what I am hearing is that as a person – she’s still a writer person – who is a person, she’s decidedly not too procedural. She is, indeed, focused on her characters. I admire her tremendously. Here’s why.

Great writers never Gatekeep. 

They do not become editors, publishers, teachers, and agents. Writers say no. Authenticity is an LA dive bar at four in the morning and it’s dark inside because we have a darkness trapped internally in all our second selves. Rooney seems mystified about readers. They’re shadows. Editors are shadows. Agents are in a cattle call. I see no valid reason they exist. Rooney gets tended to. She sells.

You swim with sharks or go home. By the time an editor is done, I have no idea what the thing is anymore. Editors have changed my endings for pablum. I say nothing. Paul lynch in Prophet Song hands the phone up on punctuation. I bow before him.

Rooney is true to herself. Yes! Characters and relationships and power are all she needs. If you build it, they will come.