Summary

In Vignette 61, “The Tongue is the Strongest Muscle," the narrator ponders the predicament of native English speakers, whose “real” language is that which the rest of the world uses when travelling. They are the only people without a “secret” language. She sees them as vulnerable, exposed; “They may be understood by anyone at any moment…How lost they must feel in the world” (176). The language of their private thoughts is pasted on all the menus, brochures, and buttons on the elevators around them. She mentions a rumor she's heard, that these English speakers will soon adopt a “dead” language for their private thoughts, “so that for once they can have something just for themselves” (177).

In the next vignette, “Speak! Speak!” the narrator speaks in the imperative, urging her audience (or perhaps herself) to make their life a narrative work-in-progress. “Inside and out, to...