City of God

After a brief interlude of Everett and Pem packing up his books where Pem notes that most philosophers ended up affirming their own upbringing, the narrative shifts to a scene at a ceremony honoring a director. When three writers get up and start speaking his virtues, Everett views it as “the denigration of the literary” (236). He goes on to describe the history of movies as commerce: they began as something that was cheap to make and shown cheaply in storefronts before becoming bigger and bigger business. In the process, stories of regular people were drowned out, and idealized versions of the world were made instead, where people got along and justice was served. In this way, movies were transformed into something that people had to aspire to instead of representations of their own lives.

Everett begins dating a new woman, Miss Warren, and he meets Pem, Sarah, and Sarah’s boys in the park with her. Miss Warren is a freelance journalist and a natural storyteller who relays horrible things she’s witnessed and experienced with a glib dismissal. Sarah is unimpressed with Miss Warren, and Everett sees that she’s beginning to realize that he has a life outside of his relationship to Pem.