Summary

C.M. explains that X retired many of her various personas prior to the creation of The Human Subject in large part because she learned of Connie Converse’s death. Connie had moved to Queens and begun a quiet but fulfilling life as a drycleaner. C.M. explains that, after the Great Disunion, art became a province dominated almost entirely by female expression, to some debate and opposition among male artists. One of them posited that by the 1980s the female dominance of the art world had served its purpose; X developed The Human Subject as a rebuttal of this stance. It was received to rave reviews and regarded as an essay.

Though she is hesitant to do so, C.M. interviews X’s first wife, Marion Parker, whom C.M. is alarmed to discover is as vivacious as her reputation. Marion...