"And what about the cutting?" asks Madeleine Schwartz of Sally Rooney’s novels, in a piece for the NYRB. Somebody had to! The question reminded me of an observation by Zadie Smith in this 2017 interview.

“We’ve been reading a lot of books by young people, young women. How many times in these books the character, usually in the first person, will say – something emotional will have happened – and instead of responding, either in the narrative, or vocally, as you would in a ‘traditional novel,’ the character will pinch a bit of their skin until it bleeds, or do this, or hold their jaw. It’s so strange.
“As if the body was a dissociated thing, you know? ‘He said that to me, and I put my fingernails into my hand until it bled.’ I keep on finding these lines, over and over again. That’s very fascinating to me.
“They don’t have…the idea of verbalizing an emotion is quite distant. And the body is treated like this strange thing you have to drag around, after you’ve finished your text messages, and emails, your virtual life. Like, why have I got this flesh bucket that I’m carrying around? I’m very struck by that perspective, and I keep on finding it.”