Summary

In "Looking Glass House," Chapter 1, Solnit recalls having looked at herself in a mirror and watched herself disappear. This was during a time she was simultaneously attempting to become visible and invisible. Disappearing herself was a means of staying safe. As is the experience of all women, she says she wanted to find where she belonged, to find a face, while keeping herself out of danger. Being a woman is categorized by constant fear, an attempt to stay in the margins to avoid abuse and death.

In Chapter 2, when Solnit was a girl, she bought a pair of engineer boots she hoped would make her appear rugged. She says she was not trying to be a man exactly, but to disguise that she was a woman. She then describes the skies in San Francisco, considering the spaces between...