June 2013
7 posts
“Because this ideal of the attractive but not whorish white woman, in a good marriage but not self-effacing, with a nice job but not so successful she outshines her man, slim but not neurotic over food, forever young without being disfigured by the surgeon’s knife, a radiant mother not overwhelmed by diapers and homework, who manages her home beautifully without becoming a slave to housework, who knows a thing or two but less than a man, this happy white woman who is constantly shoved under our noses, this woman we are all supposed to work hard to resemble - never mind that she seems to be running herself ragged for not much reward - I for one have never met her, not anywhere. My hunch is that she doesn’t exist.”
—King Kong Theory - Virginie Despentes (2006). (via besieging)
“Her death affected me profoundly as did her last show Intra-Venus. She was dying and all her vanity disappeared. Hannah had been very competitive and always felt neglected by other women artists especially those who thought she was just too pretty to be taken seriously. Well she showed them.”
—
Ann Rower, re: Hannah Wilke
we have fun
As this scene opens I am walking around grabbing stuff and putting it in my backpack, about to leave for the day, and Keith is sitting at the kitchen table with his computer.
Me: Did you see the review of Taipei?
Keith: No, where was it?
Me: The New York Times.
Keith: Oh. Was it good?
Me: It was Dwight Garner, and he said that he hated it when critics said they both loved and hated a book, but then said he both loved and hated the book.
Keith: What else?
Me: I don’t know, it didn’t exactly say this but there was the implication that Tao Lin is describing a generation or a scene. I hate that. Not everyone in our generation has some kind of internet-borne autism spectrum disorder.
Keith: (in an affectless monotone, turning back to the computer) I can’t talk to you right now. I’m tweeting.
Me: I’m perceiving the experience of saying goodbye to you right now as “like closing a tab”
May 2013
26 posts
“She mentioned Ernest Hemingway more than once while saying Paul would benefit, as a writer, from the interesting experience. Paul said he would benefit from being in America, where he could speak the language and maintain friendships and “do things,” he said in Mandarin, visualizing himself on his back, on his yoga mat, with his MacBook on the inclined surface of his thighs, formed by bending his knees, looking at the internet.”
—Taipei by Tao Lin comes out next week.
“Everyone is chain-smoking. The windows are always closed. The walls had wood paneling, which soaks things up. They’re all drunk; they’re all drinking. You somehow know that’s not the only time Freddy Rumsen peed in there. And in those days, ladies wore perfume as a matter of course, the same way they wore constricting and terrible undergarments. BUT, every single one of those perfumes, by contemporary standards, was REALLY big, and REALLY obtrusive. Stuff we now think of as extremely difficult and weird, stuff most people will not wear because it frankly offends them — birch tar; civet (which is the nicest way anyone’s ever managed to say “catshit”); real oakmoss, real patchouli; the burnt-tallow kind of aldehyde, the ball-sweat-Crisco-and-sugar kind of musk — well, that was just how perfume smelled. Joan wears Shalimar. Because of course Joan wears Shalimar.* But imagine every female person, in an enclosed space, smelling exactly as strong as Shalimar. But also different from each other. In an office that Freddy Rumsen peed on. While everyone poured liquor, and smoked.”
—
Joy: An Entirely Frivolous Blog About Smells: Smoking, Animal Smells, and Perfume Evil
Just reread this to cheer myself up on a gray day in an office that smells of armpit bagel. Sady Doyle Describing Anything is great, but Sady Doyle Describing Smells is HEAVEN.
”Ball-sweat-Crisco-and-sugar kind of musk” !!!
“I didn’t want Iris to think I was making fun of her for trying to fuck me while I was tied up without undressing me first. She was very sensitive about criticism.”
—
an excerpt from Lee and Elaine by Ann Rower
“I began reading Sarah Schulman’s book Gentrification of the Mind and a slow realization crept into my consciousness. I was afraid of my own gayness. I had become afraid of exploring my gayness in my work and people not being able to connect with it. I was afraid of people ignoring me or wanting to harm me if I wrote about being gay. I was afraid of never being reviewed by a major publication. I was afraid of never being published at all. I was afraid of being stuck in the Purple Room in Powell’s. I wanted to be “normal” and I wanted the opportunities of a “normal” person. I would even settle for the opportunities of a “normal” woman.”
—Emily Books: The Wall by Sara Renberg
“there’s just something about the way that guy writes about music that makes me want to go hug an Ellen Willis book.”
—
a little gem from Manjula Martin’s featured subscriber interview, at Emily Books. I love asking people about the least favorite thing they’ve read lately.
Also: seriously.
