Alice W. Flaherty · 2004 · EPUB · Calibre ID 9808
Resurfaced in Wrote Nothing Today (2026-10-08).
Role in the triad
Clinical diagnosis: block as disease, defined by the suffering clause
Why this book
Gestext. Gives the triad its instrument, a two-trait definition of block that decides whether Bartlebys are patients. Uses Kafka as a block case through mixed channels (Diaries, Felice letters via Leader, an uncited line closest to Janouch). The author is her own hypergraphic case.
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- ‘Hypergraphia is neither painful nor common. Writer’s block is both.’ (Introduction)
- ‘all blocked writers share two traits: they do not write despite being intellectually capable of doing so, and they suffer because they are not writing.’ (ch. 3)
- ‘Writers can even be hypergraphic and blocked at the same time’ (ch. 3)
- ‘Melville’s hypergraphia is only a fragment of his literary inspiration, reflecting his drive but not his talent.’ (ch. 2)
- ‘Could we get the long-awaited sequel to The Catcher in the Rye if J. D. Salinger were on Paxil?’ (ch. 4)
- ‘I write in order to shut my eyes.’ (ch. 6, attributed to Kafka)
Themes
Geschwind syndrome · hypergraphia · Kafka as case · limbic drive · postpartum mania · source audit · temporal lobe epilepsy · writer’s block