30 The part about how I’s are lies.
The modern self is a speculative fiction. Selfhood is altered by documentary evidence, specifically, the way surveillance files in police states change the subject’s understanding of their own agency and autonomy.
When my mother read her Securitate file, she said, “I don’t recognize the woman in this story.”[1]
- She also wept with disbelief to discover that those who informed on her were close friends and liberal-minded thinkers. "Trust is for fools," my mother said. ↵