{"id":84815,"date":"2015-04-15T14:28:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T18:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=84815"},"modified":"2015-04-15T15:19:13","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T19:19:13","slug":"nailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/","title":{"rendered":"Nailed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"nails\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content.\u00a0But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life. \u2015Sun Tzu, The Art of War <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m very prone to cuts and bruises and scrapes of all kinds\u2014seeing my profusion of scars and Band-Aids and burns, you\u2019d be forgiven for assuming I\u2019m clumsy. I think it\u2019s the certainty of my own nimbleness that leads me to take all kinds of stupid chances. In fact, I average far fewer injuries than I should, given my recklessness.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No one was exactly shocked, then, when I showed up at a party not long ago with a bruised fingernail. I\u2019d banged my right hand on the heavy metal door of my apartment while trying to snap back and grab a sock that was falling out of the laundry basket; I almost got away with it. It hurt so much that I ran outside and buried my finger in the snow. The pain abated after a few days, but then the nail turned pitch black.<\/p>\n

The black fingernail became a source of great fascination for me. I was extravagantly proud of it. \u201cThis fingernail is the most exciting thing to happen to me in years,\u201d I said one night, admiring it by the light of the bedside lamp. \u201cThanks a lot,\u201d said my boyfriend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was very conspicuous. People started to say, That just looks so painful!\u2014which means, That looks disgusting. I started curling my fingers into my hand so no one would see it, and I began to look at other people\u2019s hands obsessively, trying to deduce how frequently they\u2019d notice mine. So many people had good-looking nails! At last, I decided mine had \u201cbreathed\u201d enough, and that I should put some polish on it to spare everyone the sight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Polishing fingernails is one of those skills I never learned, or received, or intuited\u2014 however such knowledge is transmitted. I tried to paint my nails and, as usual, the result looked vaguely grotesque and childish. And you could still see the black nail. This called for a professional.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the nail salon, they exclaimed over my black nail (\u201cThat just looks so painful!\u201d) and we settled on a dark gray polish\u2014not my favorite color, but apparently imperative for camouflage purposes. The young manicurist, Carolina, had only moved from Seoul three years before, but her English was excellent. She attributed part of this to the fact that she liked to read. \u201cWhat do you read?\u201d I asked. \u201cThe Art of War<\/em>,\u201d she answered.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s your favorite?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, that\u2019s the book I read.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh. Well, that\u2019s a \u2026 classic,\u201d I said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carolina told me to let the nail heal. I bought a copy of The Art of War<\/em> on my way home. It was good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next time I went to the nail place, I told Carolina I\u2019d finished it. But she would not be distracted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did you do to your nail?\u201d she demanded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I tried to explain how I\u2019d discovered a way to scrape all the blackness out\u2014that I really thought I\u2019d facilitated healthy nail growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow there is a big hole in it. It looks worse than ever,\u201d she said severely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t you \u2026 put some kind of filler in it?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no point. This looks very bad. I think it is permanently damaged. And you did it to yourself. I will try, but I don\u2019t think I can help you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review, and the <\/em>Daily\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content.\u00a0But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life. \u2015Sun Tzu, The Art of War I\u2019m very prone to cuts and bruises and scrapes of all kinds\u2014seeing my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[12528,12511,17772,14759,17770,4996,12206,14983,17771],"class_list":["post-84815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-accidents","tag-city-life","tag-fingernails","tag-injuries","tag-manicures","tag-nail-polish","tag-nails","tag-salons","tag-sun-tzu"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Happens When You Lose a Nail<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on an episode of clumsiness and the long passage of self-consciousness that followed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nailed by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 15, 2015 \u2013 Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content.\u00a0But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-15T18:28:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-15T19:19:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"751\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"609\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Nailed\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-15T18:28:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-15T19:19:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/\"},\"wordCount\":620,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Accidents\",\"City Life\",\"fingernails\",\"injuries\",\"manicures\",\"nail polish\",\"nails\",\"salons\",\"Sun Tzu\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/\",\"name\":\"What Happens When You Lose a Nail\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-15T18:28:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-15T19:19:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sadie Stein on an episode of clumsiness and the long passage of self-consciousness that followed.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nailed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Happens When You Lose a Nail","description":"Sadie Stein on an episode of clumsiness and the long passage of self-consciousness that followed.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nailed by Sadie Stein","og_description":"April 15, 2015 \u2013 Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content.\u00a0But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-04-15T18:28:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-04-15T19:19:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":751,"height":609,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Nailed","datePublished":"2015-04-15T18:28:33+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-15T19:19:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/"},"wordCount":620,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg","keywords":["Accidents","City Life","fingernails","injuries","manicures","nail polish","nails","salons","Sun Tzu"],"articleSection":["Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/","name":"What Happens When You Lose a Nail","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg","datePublished":"2015-04-15T18:28:33+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-15T19:19:13+00:00","description":"Sadie Stein on an episode of clumsiness and the long passage of self-consciousness that followed.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/nails.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/15\/nailed\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Nailed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84815"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84839,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84815\/revisions\/84839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}