conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me a plot for a book about George, Francesco, Ferrara entitled How to Be Both.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: How to Be Both: The story is told from two perspectives: those of George, a pedantic 16-year-old girl living in contemporary Cambridge, and Francesco del Cossa, an Italian renaissance artist responsible for painting a series of frescoes in the 'Hall of the Months' at the Palazzo Schifanoia (translated as the 'Palace of Not Being Bored' in the novel) in Ferrara, Italy.\nTwo versions of the book were published simultaneously, one in which George's story appears first, the other in which Francesco's comes first.\nStruggling to come to terms with the sudden death of her mother (Carol Martineau – Economist, Journalist, Internet Guerilla), George attends counselling sessions at her school.\nShe also has to look after her younger brother and cope with her alcoholic father.\nShe recalls travelling with her mother to see the Frescos in Ferrara and asking her about the elusive painter Francesco del Cossa.\nHer Mother believed herself to be being monitored by the security services as a result of her subversive activities and George has inherited this belief, and becomes obsessed with Lisa Goliard a friend of her mother's with a suspicious claim to be an artist.\nGeorge also becomes obsessed with Francesco and travels frequently to London to view his portrait of st Vincent Ferrer.\nFrancesco finds her disembodied self in front of her portrait of st Vincent Ferrer as it is being examined by what appears to be a boy.\nShe muses on how she came to find herself in this situation, thinking back to the events in her own past life, and as she does so she becomes attached to the (apparent) boy; but people—and genders—are never what they seem to be.\nOr maybe they are both.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: \nTwo versions of the book were published simultaneously, one in which George's story appears first, the other in which Francesco's comes first.\nStruggling to come to terms with the sudden death of her mother (Carol Martineau – Economist, Journalist, Internet Guerilla), George attends counselling sessions at her school.\nShe also has to look after her younger brother and cope with her alcoholic father.\nShe recalls travelling with her mother to see the Frescos in Ferrara and asking her about the elusive painter Francesco del Cossa.\nHer Mother believed herself to be being monitored by the security services as a result of her subversive activities and George has inherited this belief, and becomes obsessed with Lisa Goliard a friend of her mother's with a suspicious claim to be an artist.\nGeorge also becomes obsessed with Francesco and travels frequently to London to view his portrait of st Vincent Ferrer.\nFrancesco finds her disembodied self in front of her portrait of st Vincent Ferrer as it is being examined by what appears to be a boy.\nShe muses on how she came to find herself in this situation, thinking back to the events in her own past life, and as she does so she becomes attached to the (apparent) boy; but people—and genders—are never what they seem to be.\nOr maybe they are both.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the first four paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: How to Be Both
  The Falcon was shaking his head at the infidel : he was no longer laughing : his mouth fell open : he put his hand to his mouth.
  And if he asks anything, he said with his hand still over his mouth, I'll tell him, I don't know, I'll say it's, it's –
  A figure from a little-known French Romance, the Falcon said. One he'd never admit to not knowing. Since we all know how well he knows them all.
  Well then, I'd write and ask myself, direct, I thought as the Falcon descended the scaffolding : I did not need an interceder.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me five more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: You know, I knew this, George, I did know. I read it when we were at home. But right now I can't remember it, her mother says.
  We came all this way to see a picture you like that much but you can't remember the name of the man who did it? George says.
  I know, she says. But it kind of doesn't matter, does it, that we don't know his name. We saw the pictures. What more do we need to know? It's enough just that someone painted them and then one day we came here and saw them. No?
  Her mother doesn't notice. Her mother has no idea. Her mother is looking down for where her phone is, checking it is safely in the pocket of her bag.
  Not that there's anything wrong with soft. Her mother, soft, forgetful, vague and loving, like other people's mothers always seem to be, is a whole new prospect.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Give me the last four paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: But that's not the part that maddens him : he likes that part of the story : there's this other part of the story and it's about 3 maidens, guardians of a store of gold, and whoever wins the gold from them and forges it into a ring will have power over everything, over the land, the sea, the world and all its peoples : but there's a snag : there's a condition : he'll have all the power, the man who forges the ring, but to keep this power he'll have to renounce love.
  My friend looks at me : he shifts about on the stool : his eyes are blunt and aimed : the everything that he can't say to me makes him even finer to my eye.
  I mark behind where his shoulder will end the curve of the line for the rock where I'll put the fisherman : over here I'll put the 2 children with the fish-spear under the high rock overhang : I mark where his hand will come over the frame at the front : I mark out in rough the little circle shape for the ring his hand will hold.
  An old woman is telling them something : a girl (who is she?) bends down to a pot with white in it, reaches forward, adds a small square of white the size of the end of her fingertip then does the same in the same place to the other eye cause an eye with no light is an eye that can't see, I think is what the old woman sitting on a wall is telling