"Shadows," "a near-book-length essay I put together before my novel Dhalgren was published"
"it dealt with how verbal forms, totally consecrated by use, can be referentially empty [...] and thus highly mystificational, like the 'it' in 'it is raining' [...] or possessives when they refer up the power scale--when a worker says 'my boss.' a subject says 'my king,' or a slave says 'my master'"
Interesting addendum: "For thirty-odd years, since I published 'Shadows,' I have been trying to promulgate--and develop--a more and more sophisticated notion of discourse."