Abuse

Why do you think you've a failed as a lover?, asks W. What do you think you're lacking? What's missing in you? What crucial stage of development have you missed? Your parents brought you up properly, didn't they? Then you've got no excuse. Yes, it's your fascination with beauty that's your problem. You're not deep enough, romantically I mean. You need a woman who abuses you

Sal has complete contempt for me, says W., that's how it should be. Your partner should always have contempt for you. Abuse is the key. W. takes me back through his romance with Sal. It began with a mixtape, he says. Before he met Sal, says W., he only listened to Gary Glitter and Mahler. Sal introduced him to Will Oldham. You know what she put on my mixtape? I Send My Love To You.

Sal improves me, says W., she makes me better than I am. That's what you need. And then, after thinking a little, W. says, you have to feel proud of your partner. Of her achievements. W. feels proud of Sal, he says. Have you ever felt proud of someone?, he asks me. Are you proud of yourself?

The living room is filled with examples of Sal's ceramics. We could never do that sort of thing, says W. Look at us. But Sal, he says, has a natural gift. She's gifted. Not like us. He feels proud, he says. All my friends prefer Sal to me. That's a good sign. At the ceramics show, he went to buy a piece of glassware without knowing who it was by. It was Sal, of course, who had made it. You see?, says W.