I read somewhere the other day, in an interview with Clifford Geertz (great 20th-century anthropologist), that he didn’t write drafts. He said that he sat down and wrote his books from the beginning to the end and that he rarely edited. This gave me heart, because, in truth, this book has gone best when I forged ahead. When I labored over a passage here and there or went back to edit, I descended into uncertainty. I worried as all but the most self-assured or narcissistic worry that I would disappoint all those who have helped me or that the work would reveal me to be stupid, ignorant or foolhardy. I don’t think this is why Geertz didn’t rewrite. He seemed to be saying that the act of writing ...
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