Thank you, and for the formal review as well. Wow. I'm a little overwhelmed -- in a good way, of course!
This did not occur to me at all as I was writing it, but looking back I realize that Paine's reactions in this chapter are partly informed by my own experiences -- my mother was suicidal when I was a teenager (many years ago, and fortunately she is fine now), so I'm very familiar with the fear before and the ugly mix of emotions after an attempt. Suicide is indeed a profoundly selfish act, but only the survivors really understand that.
Re: I
This did not occur to me at all as I was writing it, but looking back I realize that Paine's reactions in this chapter are partly informed by my own experiences -- my mother was suicidal when I was a teenager (many years ago, and fortunately she is fine now), so I'm very familiar with the fear before and the ugly mix of emotions after an attempt. Suicide is indeed a profoundly selfish act, but only the survivors really understand that.