We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

In another quote from “A Report to an Academy,” Kafka points out how long time can feel when spent alone.

The story jumps back in time to 1979. Rosemary is five years old and all of her family members are in distress. Rosemary notes that her father would want to preface this section with the fact that five-year-olds cannot access logic, so any perceived logic is imposed from an older perspective. The social and political context for the time is given, followed by lesser-known context about the era’s animal rights activism. This includes the founding of the Animal Defense League and an action by an group called Sea Shepherd in which they dyed seal pups’ coats to prevent them from being poached for their fur.

We pick up where Rosemary’s story that she told Harlow in the bar left off: She is being picked up by her father from her grandparents’ house after attempting to walk home. Rosemary is upset because she believes that she is being brought somewhere other than home. She falls asleep in the car and wakes up in a room that is not hers. Afraid, she calls for her mother.