Is it fair to read Box Elder as a critique of college culture?
That’s the way I hope it would be read. That’s perfect. And what is that culture, exactly? I think it’s primarily a culture of haves. It’s a want-have type thing. It’s primarily the effect of this unhappiness with a good situation, but a paralyzing fear of “it could be worse so I’m not going to strive for anything better.” There’s just a lot of settling. It’s a very American thing. It’s a very cyclical, American culture thing in general. But I think this is the time in life when you’re supposed to take risks. You’re supposed to try things. There’s a lot of shelter, there’s a lot of systemic things that are supporting you, so you should be able to do things, to take risks. You should be able to kind of explore. And instead of doing all that, it’s just like, “Well, this is the most comfortable it’s ever been and it’s not going to get any more comfortable after this, so I’d better really enjoy things now,” instead of actually take advantage of what’s going on. Is that what you’re doing ri
