I've never read Poetics. I should probably do that at some point.

I'm glad that the drawing out of the story beyond the climactic scene was effective for you. I might not have done it to such an extreme if Miranda didn't need time to sew the skirt, but I'm happy that it ended up working out that way. Everything is still up in the air, but I wanted the genuine effort to be very present, and that takes time.

So, dénouement ruining aside, what did you think of Adaptation? I LOVE that movie and read The Orchid Thief after watching it and got really obsessed with Susan Orlean (the real one and the orchid-drug-snorting crisis-mode rampage one played by Meryl Streep). Most people I know who've seen it loved it or hated it, and I always like to hear why.