Here in the country I look at children\u2019s books when I go to the library because there are hardly any books on art. If I\u2019m honest, I\u2019m comforted by their illustrations; there\u2019s something in them that reaches me.<\/p>\n
It rains in a drawing and if the drawing is good you feel that you are wet. The hard rain falls on the umbrellas moving slowly down the street. I want to be in the street too.<\/p>\n
Maybe I have always needed things to be softened, like things are softened for children. If I were honest about who I am more of the time I would write more honest things.<\/p>\n
When I was younger I felt everything around me; in one summer this was especially true. It sounds simple, but it was because the town where I lived was empty. I can\u2019t say why the emptiness was so nice, maybe that people were normally everywhere. When they were gone for the summer that emptiness made space for me. I was aware of my future, and I could also relate to myself as a child. That was when I was fourteen.<\/p>\n
But I take my evening walks here now. I begin just as it is getting dark and then walk into that darkness. It is really the best time. The plants are hard to see, but sometimes a leaf or a flower is glowing in a bit of light from the window of a farmhouse. And the scent of the flowers is more refreshing then, not heavy with the day, and the day\u2019s sun.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Umbrellas”\u00a0is an excerpt from the coming novel\u00a0<\/em>The Energy of Vit\u00f3ria.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Amina Cain is the author, most recently, of CREATURE<\/i>, out with Dorothy, a publishing project. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is working on a novel, The Energy of Vit\u00f3ria<\/i>, and a book of essays on the space of fiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here in the country I look at children\u2019s books when I go to the library because there are hardly any books on art. If…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}