I decided that the less I told Isabella about my commission, the better.
“I’m still at the research stage.”
“Research? And how does that work?”
“Basically, you read thousands of pages to learn what you need to know and to get to the heart of a subject, to its emotional truth, and then you shed all that knowledge and start again at square one.”
Isabella sighed.
“What is emotional truth?”
“It’s sincerity within fiction.”
“So, does one have to be an honest, good person to write fiction?”
“No. One has to be skilled. Emotional truth is not a moral quality. It’s a technique.”
“You sound like a scientist,” protested Isabella.
“Literature, at least good literature, is science tempered with the blood of art. Like architecture or music.”
“I thought it was something that sprang from the artist, just like that, spontaneously.”
“The only things that spring spontaneously are unwanted body hair and warts.”
Isabella considered these revelations without much enthusiasm.
“You’re saying all this to discourage me and make me go home.”
“I should be so lucky.”
“You’re the worst teacher in the world.”
“It’s the student who makes the teacher, not the other way round.”
“It’s impossible to argue with you because you know all the rhetorical tricks. It’s not fair.”
“Nothing is fair. The most one can hope is for things to be logical. Justice is a rare illness in a world that is otherwise a picture of health.”
“Amen. Is that what happens as you grow older? Do people stop believing in things, as you have?”
“No. Most people, as they grow old, continue to believe in nonsense, usually even greater nonsense. I swim against the tide because I like to annoy.”
“Tell me something I don’t know! Well, when I’m older I’ll go on believing in things,” Isabella threatened.
“Good luck.”
“And what’s more, I believe in you.”
She didn’t look away as I fixed my eyes on hers.
“Because you don’t know me.”
“That’s what you think. You’re not as mysterious as you imagine.”
“I don’t pretend to be mysterious.”
“That was a kind substitute for unpleasant. I also know a few rhetorical tricks.”