LINKDING

<blockquote>Zhou: You can understand this language? The sign? Subject: Yes, I can understand this sign. It is one of my father’s languages, I have learned it from he, my father, who learned it from [sign unrecognizable], but past that the wake of history is lost. Zhou: Who was your father? Subject: My father was. [here she makes the phonetic sign marker, then pauses] Zhou: Go on. Subject: It is not his real name. Zhou: Tell us his real name, then. Subject: [ejects something wet onto the table]</blockquote>

<blockquote>You’re looking down—a camera is looking down—at a man labeled Joseph Meyer (Dad). You already knew that. Born 1992, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, currently residing in California. There’s a photograph attached to the label, but it’s wrong. It’s younger and skinnier and it has a beard. Both men are your father, but you don’t recognize either of them. “—So, this is how it’s going to be?—” Your father. You don’t recognize your own father. You? How do you know? Wait. You? No! You have to stop looping. You have to figure out what to do.</blockquote> ➤ about abuse