standing on the fire escape in the fog. i watched 8 chapters of the stairway last night and it was still going on. why is this so compelling? if it were news i would quickly grow bored. what is compelling is not just the reality of a death, but in the characters surrounding this death. the absence at the center drawing all the lives around, conducting the aftermath. and the way people act, all of them acting a role, as themselves, but the main character, the accused, being a cipher, a writer, making a living, growing wealthy, telling stories, who does not know himself who he is and says the only thing he knows is the person in this story is not him.