{"id":149648,"date":"2020-12-23T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=149648"},"modified":"2020-12-23T14:44:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T19:44:09","slug":"fuck-the-bread-the-bread-is-over-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2020\/12\/23\/fuck-the-bread-the-bread-is-over-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuck the Bread. The Bread Is Over."},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re away until January 4, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2020. Enjoy your holiday!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

H\u00e4nsel and Gretel, by Darstellung von Alexander Zick<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

In February, as a plague enters America, I am a finalist for a job I am not offered.<\/p>\n

I am brought to campus for a three-day interview. I am shown the library I\u2019ll never have access to, and introduced to students I\u2019ll never teach. I shake hands with faculty I\u2019ll never see again. I describe in great detail the course on fairy tales I\u2019ll never offer. I stand up straight in a simple black-and-white dress. \u201cDon\u2019t say anything strange,\u201d says my mother. \u201cDon\u2019t blather,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have a tendency to blather.\u201d I meet with a dean who rubs his face until it reddens, then asks me whether writers even belong in universities. I meet with another dean who asks me the same thing. There are so many deans. I cannot tell the deans apart. Another dean asks me who the babies in my first collection of poems, The Babies<\/em>, actually are. \u201cWe only have a few minutes left,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey don\u2019t exist,\u201d I think I say. I am hurrying. \u201cI was writing about voices we\u2019ll never hear,\u201d I think I say. He stands up and shakes my hand. I shake so many hands. I can\u2019t tell if everything is at stake, or nothing is at stake. All I know is that I am being tested, and whether or not I am offered this job will depend on the appetite and mood of strangers. \u201cYour final task,\u201d I imagine the dean saying, \u201cis to make a rope out of these ashes. Do it and the job is yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read More >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What does it mean to be worth something? Or worth enough? Or worthless?\u00a0What does it mean to earn a living?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1615,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2020"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFuck the Bread. The Bread Is Over. by Sabrina Orah Mark<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What does it mean to be worth something? Or worth enough? 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