Roy Peter Clark wonders about Lisa Nowak's diaper:
What makes the diaper a great detail? I'm struggling to understand. Perhaps it's the diaper's gritty specificity. Or the way it defines character. Or the way it stands as a symbol of the protagonist's tragic flaws. Or the way it marks the orbit of her narrative from the apogee of heavenly exploration to the perigee of piss and shit.
Can anyone answer that? Why does the diaper detail make that story? Does every story have a diaper-esque nugget waiting to be found?
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