[...] The Granola Cruncher, too, chooses to understand her story in her own terms. Refusing to yield to fear during and after a horrific, life-changing experience, she chooses to open herself to others despite the inevitability of pain. Although they face the very real threat of continued emotional and/or physical pain, both women resist the temptation to retreat inwards and remain willing to connect. Similarly, Wallace and Kaufman seek -- through their challenging literary and filmic texts that invite multiple readings or viewings -- to encourage the reader to do the same: to fight the urge to close one's eyes, and Biro describes, and succumb to the pain of melancholic loneliness. [...]