Jennifer Egan, “Black Box,” from The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/05/jennifer-egan-black-box.html

The story is written in terse dispatches of 140 characters or less, which will be tweeted, through The New Yorker Fiction Department’s Twitter handle, @NYerFiction, in ten nightly installments between 8 and 9 P.M. E.T.

Technology has afforded ordinary people 
a chance to glow in the cosmos of human 
achievement.

Your lack of espionage and language 
training is what makes your record clean 
and neutral.

You are an ordinary person undertaking an 
extraordinary task.

You need not be remarkable for your 
credentials or skill sets, only for your 
bravery and equilibrium.

Knowing that you are one of hundreds 
shouldn’t feel belittling.

In the new heroism, the goal is to merge 
with something larger than yourself.

In the new heroism, the goal is to throw off 
generations of self-involvement.

In the new heroism, the goal is to renounce 
the American fixation with being seen and 
recognized.

In the new heroism, the goal is to dig 
beneath your shiny persona.

You’ll be surprised by what lies under it: a 
rich, deep crawl space of possibilities.

Some liken this discovery to a dream in 
which a familiar home acquires new wings 
and rooms.

The power of individual magnetism is 
nothing against the power of combined 
selfless effort.

You may accomplish astonishing personal 
feats, but citizen agents rarely seek 
individual credit.

They liken the need for personal glory to 
cigarette addiction: a habit that feels 
life-sustaining even as it kills you.

Childish attention-seeking is usually 
satisfied at the expense of real power.

An enemy of the state could not have 
connived a better way to declaw and 
distract us.

Now our notorious narcissism is our 
camouflage.

29

The presence of another person can be 
sensed, even when not directly perceived.

The discovery of another person at close 
range, when you thought you were alone, 
may occasion fear.

Leaping from a supine into a standing 
posture will induce a head rush.

“I see you. Come out” must be uttered 
calmly, from the Readiness Position.

If you show fear, make sure that it isn’t the 
fear you actually feel.

When you’ve expected a man, the 
appearance of a woman may be shocking.

Despite all that you know and are, you may 
experience that shock as a relief.

“Why are you here?,” uttered by your new 
host’s alpha beauty, is likely hostile.

Respond to abstract questions on the 
most literal level: “He left without me.” 

“Bastard,” muttered bitterly, suggests 
familiarity with the phenomenon of being 
left behind.

Sympathy from an unexpected source can 
prompt a swell of emotion.

Measure the potential liability of shedding 
tears before you let them fall.

The perfumed arm of a beauty may pour 
strength and hope directly into your skin.