I always liked the word “interstitial.” It used to pop up occasionally in my critical theory books in reference to abstract in-betweens that post-structuralist theorists liked to expand on so very much (evidently the world’s demand for abstract concepts is beginning to outstrip supply). I always thought it had surgical-Tim-Burton-esque connotations too. Spindly!
Skeletal connotations aside (unless we’re talking about the recent update schedule of this blog…sorry), today and tomorrow will be interstitial time. Yesterday I returned from about six days spent in Hong Kong with family, and on Sunday I’ll be navigating Chinese domestic airspace to visit my grandmother and extended family in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Today I’m sitting in a Starbucks again, attempting to get some writing output done with Enrico (another CTLC teacher based in Luohu District). We’re back in the COCO Park Starbucks and we’ve found a corner and we’re (supposed to be) taking no prisoners. But mostly we’re just chatting and not getting done what we intended to (fiction for me, political commentary for him).
I’ve been reluctant to write about my time or observations in Hong Kong here, mostly to preserve my family’s privacy there. Otherwise they would become recurring characters here for how often I venture over, and I don’t know how they would like that. So instead of writing those experiences into this blog, I’ve been saving them for my fiction, working them over in my head until I can get some kind of anonymous honesty balanced out. Hopefully you’ll see the results in a few months’ time, outlined in a first draft!
