The Nix(213)

But Faye’s opinion is that sometimes a crisis is not really a crisis at all—just a new beginning. Because one thing she’s learned through all this is that if a new beginning is really new, it will feel like a crisis. Any real change should make you feel, at first, afraid.

If you’re not afraid of it, then it’s not real change.

So banks and governments are cleaning up their ledgers after years of abuse. Everyone owes too much, is the consensus, and we’re in for a few years of pain. But Faye thinks: Okay. That’s probably the way it ought to be. That’s the natural way of things. That’s how we’ll find our way back. This is what she’ll tell her son, if he asks. Eventually, all debts must be repaid.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


THE EVENTS of 1968 described in this novel are a blend of historical facts, eyewitness interviews, and the author’s imagination, ignorance, and fancy. For example, Allen Ginsberg attended the Chicago protests, but he was not a visiting professor at Circle. And Circle did not have dorms in 1968. And the Behavioral Science Building wasn’t opened until 1969. And my depiction of the Grant Park protest does not follow the exact chronological order of things. And so on. For more historically accurate accounts of the ’68 protests, I would recommend the following, which were invaluable to me during the writing of this novel: Chicago ’68 by David Farber; The Whole World Is Watching by Todd Gitlin; Battleground Chicago by Frank Kusch; Miami and the Siege of Chicago by Norman Mailer; Chicago 10 directed by Brett Morgen; Telling It Like It Was: The Chicago Riots edited by Walter Schneir; and No One Was Killed by John Schultz.

In addition, I am indebted to the following books for helping me to portray the time period in (I hope) a convincing way: Make Love, Not War by David Allyn; Young, White, and Miserable by Wini Breines; Culture Against Man by Jules Henry; 1968 by Mark Kurlansky; Dream Time by Geoffrey O’Brien; and Shards of God by Ed Sanders.

Some of the words given to Allen Ginsberg in this book were written by him first in his essays and letters, collected in Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays 1952–1995 edited by Bill Morgan, and in Journals: Early Fifties Early Sixties edited by Gordon Ball.

For the great Norwegian ghost stories, I am indebted to Folktales of Norway edited by Reidar Christiansen and translated by Pat Shaw Iversen. The nix is the Germanic name given to a ghost that, in Norway, would actually be called the n?kk.

My information about panic attacks comes from Dying of Embarrassment by Barbara G. Markway et al. and Fearing Others by Ariel Stravynksi. For insights regarding desire and frustration, I am indebted to Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life by Adam Phillips.

For his research on the psychology and behavior of MMORPG players, I am grateful to Nick Yee and his Daedalus Project. My thinking about the four kinds of challenges in video games was aided by Phil Co’s Level Design for Games. Pwnage’s various brain disorders came from Nicholas Carr’s blog Rough Type and the article “Microstructure Abnormalities in Adolescents with Internet Addiction Disorder” by Kai Yuan et al., published in PLoS ONE, June 2011.

Feminine hygiene ads in Faye’s home ec classroom are from the website Found in Mom’s Basement at pzrservices.typepad.com/?vintageadvertising. Certain Laura Pottsdam details were plucked from a couple of amazing calls to the Savage Lovecast by Dan Savage. My description of the Molly Miller music video owes a debt to Andrew Darley’s Visual Digital Culture. Some information regarding Circle’s brutalist architecture comes from Andrew Bean’s Wesleyan University honors thesis, “The Unloved Campus: Evolution of Perceptions at the University of Illinois at Chicago.” The argument for a reproductive boycott is excerpted from an article in Ain’t I a Woman 3, no. 1 (1972). The letter to the editor that Faye reads in the Chicago Free Voice is excerpted from an unpublished letter to the Chicago Seed donated to the Chicago History Museum. Sebastian’s information about the maarr comes from Franca Tamisari’s “The Meaning of the Steps Is in Between: Dancing and the Curse of Compliments,” published in The Australian Journal of Anthropology, August 2000. Allen Ginsberg’s “Eat Mangoes!” story is from Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna.

Thank you to the staff at the Chicago History Museum for their assistance. For supporting revisions on this novel, a big thank-you to the Minnesota State Arts Board and the University of St. Thomas.

Thank you to my editor, Tim O’Connell, for his exceptional guidance in shaping the story, not to mention his Periwinkle-like enthusiasm and zeal. Thank you to all the great people at Knopf: Tom Pold, Andrew Ridker, Paul Bogaards, Robin Desser, Gabrielle Brooks, Jennifer Kurdyla, LuAnn Walther, Oliver Munday, Kathy Hourigan, Ellen Feldman, Cameron Ackroyd, Karla Eoff, and Sonny Mehta.

Thank you to my agent, Emily Forland, for her wisdom, patience, and good cheer. Thank you to Marianne Merola, and all the wonderful folks at Brandt & Hochman.

Thank you to my family, my friends, and my teachers for their love, kindness, generosity, and support. Thank you to Molly Dorozenski for her counsel after reading lengthy early drafts.

And finally, thank you to Jenni Groyon, my first reader, for helping me find the path through ten years of writing.



An Alfred A. Knopf Reading Guide

The Nix by Nathan Hill

The introduction, author biography, discussion questions, and suggested reading that follow are designed to enhance your group’s discussion of The Nix, the captivating debut novel by Nathan Hill.