But I’ll tell you here . . . it is the nature of villainy to absent itself, even as it stands before you. You reach for it and close on nothing. You smash your hand on the mirror. Who is this looking back at you? Perhaps you’re aware by now of the elusiveness of my villains. This is a story of invisible men, dead men or men indeterminately alive . . . of men hidden, barricaded, in their own created realm. . . . You have not seen them, except in the shadows, or heard them speak, except in the voices of others. . . . They’ve been hiding in my language . . . powerful, absent men.

—E. L. DOCTOROW, THE WATERWORKS