Summary

To start this notebook, the narrator compares college to “an overstuffed bag of tricks” (37). She also defines college as “the nexus of three major institutions (compulsory education, compulsory labor, compulsory marriage),” which she conversely calls “the greatest achievements of human civilization” (37).

Over winter break, February 1988, the protagonist spent time alone in her apartment until she received a threat from Meng Sheng in the mail, ordering her to see him. She thought, “I’d never before feared being dominated in a relationship” (39). Three days later, another threatening letter from Meng Sheng arrived, this time containing a blood-soaked fingertip and a threat to beat her up if she refuses to see him. Relenting, she met with him when he arrived on his motorcycle and informed her he wants to die. The narrator observed that when the two of them are together, their “masculine and feminine sides...