I admire the quickness of characters in books and movies. I admire the social prowess of characters that can eloquently define their pain without hesitation, and this admiration leads to another, an admiration for writers who can find the perfect metaphor for a feeling.
John confides to Sharon rather than Merilyn, "I'm about to the end of myself. I mean I've reached down and I've reached down and called up all the reserves and there's nothing left." This statement, for me, derives and extremely strong image of an empty person, directionless and lonely, exhausted and bored, sitting on his bed in his apartment, almost begging a sex-line operator to justify his existence. Even as a reader who has never reached a point this low, Bausch makes it easy to imagine just how empty depression can get. Essentially, I'm jealous because I can't even illustrate a concept or image so strong when I have all the time in the world, much less like the characters in a movie.
Good reaction to how he characterizes . . . The line you quoted wouldn't be that hard to achieve; it's a case of the character telling us his state. Not treating it as some puzzle for the reader to solve. See if you can write a character like this who can be be more straightforward--at a breaking point, confessing too much.
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