How to Feel

The earliest known skeletal reconstruction of a sauropod: Camarasaurus supremus by John A. Ryder, 1877. Source: Osborn and Mook (1921: plate LXXXII) via Wikimedia Commons

Artists are known to be a bit off, inclined to sadness and loud weeping and hours of gazing into the middle distance whilst wearing black turtlenecks and/or stained sweatpants. There are all sorts of terms to describe this type of individual — “highly sensitive person;” “melancholic temperament;” “raging alcoholic with a penchant for whimsical site-specific dance sculpture” — but ultimately, I have always known I was one of them. Perhaps, if you are inclined to read…