Popular Culture Review 30.1
bestsellers were heavily edited in reprinting to the point that Fuller disappeared from the intellectual conversation . Today , scholars spanning the Atlantic are working to resurrect Fuller ’ s authentic voice .
Had Gadsby engaged Nanette , perhaps simply with , “ Wazup ?” she would have something authentic to say in her routine . Perhaps Nanette would have corroborated Gadsby ’ s suspicions , giving her the stink-eye and spitting in her general direction . However , invoking social norms and striking the middle ground of possibilities , I expect they would have had a civil interchange , no matter how brief or superficial . Gadsby could have accomplished what Fuller believed to be the aim of conversation : to educate the participants and bring them to greater understanding . Fuller defended her frequent “ inclusion of various excerpts from other books ” to create a heterogeneous amalgamation of voices by claiming “ one must look ‘ at both sides to find the truth ’” ( qtd . Bilbro 67 ), a belief Gadsby and all of us would do well to adopt .
Following in the rhetorical tradition of twentieth-century writer , Virginia Woolf , who contrived an epistemological dialog between herself and those by whom she felt marginalized in her Three Guineas�an exploration on how war might be prevented�I imagine yet another alternate reality wherein Gadsby and Nanette have a conversation .
Again , envision Gadsby saying to Nanette , “ Wazup ?”
But this time , Nanette drearily replies , “ Arrrg , what a day . I had to put my dog down . By the time I left the vet I ’ d missed my bus . Got in late cuz of the five mile walk . Boss been on my case all day . So , here I am , still . Missed my bus home , too .”
Gadsby ’ s eyes open wide as she realizes what ’ s really on Nanette ’ s mind�a mind she misread .
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