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A thing that I always found interesting with the Reacher characters is its relationship with the author: they are the same height! His description of being taller than others and how it shapes your experience is based on his life.

I feel like Reacher is for Child a sort of Mary sue of himself: the male fantasy that develop from modern life constrictions.

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that is FASCINATING. I had no idea, and brings such an interesting angle to the whole character lol.

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Honestly watch one of his interviews, Reacher is his fantasy version of himself.

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Such a beautiful piece, Patrick. I so relate to the howling, unmoored post-breakup place you describe, and being shocked by it while trying to make sense of it (which you do so beautifully in this and your New Girl piece) - though at the same time, your description of feeling the pressure to be stoic and masculine is so different. Thank god you also have other models of being a person in the world, and know on some level you have permission to feel, even if at a deeper level you feel constricted. Keep on writing it out. You’re awesome, and you’re creating some beautiful and really interesting writing as you process things. x

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thank you, Jo! And yeah, it's such a blessing to be able to sort through everything through writing, it really clarifies things for me.

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Extremely relatable stuff - being unflappable is great, but everybody's gotta flap (be flapped?) sometimes! If it helps, I'll be crouching slightly next time we meet.

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great i'd appreciate that!

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Honestly I thought this was about John Krasinski and I was like "is he even that tall" turns out he plays someone called Jaxk RYAN

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