194. READ.LOOK.THINK.
Céline Sciamma’s two lists, chasing "leads", revenge fantasies, the fight against despair, a cult £1.50 bobble jug
The Breakfast Table by John Brack (Melbourne 1958).
Hi friends,
I have just gotten over my brush with Omicron. Previously I had sort of hoped I’d already somehow had it? I hadn’t, and I got it, and it was shit!!! My screen time has been seven hours a day for ten days. I invite you to enjoy the fruits of my ‘labour’:
READ.
'Such behavior, which had felt appropriate and legible in the presence of a real or an imagined man, now felt fake and insane. And, yet, if that wasn’t the way to act, what was?' Elif Batuman on Céline Sciamma’s quest for a new, feminist grammar of cinema. (This was just so special, the two lists where she writes what she wants and needs to make a film?)
Being a writer and writing are two separate things, and neither is easy.
'Studying the opinions and physical responses that her stories elicited made her feel like a literary detective; she called the exercise chasing “leads.”' A profile of Margaret Wise Brown (special to me because every night my children sing the song from Little Fur Family).
'Mysteries are a comforting narrative structure for managing social shifts and loss.' Revisited this beautiful 2019 Rivka Galchen essay about detective work in parenting.
'...literature may, in fact, be a more crucial form for the old than for the young. When one’s possibilities grow constricted, fantasy becomes a means of rescue.' Elizabeth Taylor and novels of old age.
'In psychosis, no event or thing is small enough to escape the tightly woven net of personal significance.'
‘My revenge fantasies equipped my adversaries with sophisticated and discerning literary taste; they punished themselves while I simply and transcendently existed.’
A Twitter thread of recommendations for 'books that like 100 pages and feel like being punched in the face'.
A critical function of fiction in the fight against despair.
LOOK.
‘Typical Bloomsbury condition.’
Art by @lucyroleff.
The BBC now has the Showtime show Couples Therapy, where real couples go to visit a real therapist (we also get little glimpses of the couples' lives, and of the therapist despairing about the couples to her supervisor). It’s really well done although a bit of a blood pressure-raiser.
Not having much in the LOOK section is always a bit depressing for me but the reality is I am mainly keeping it cerebral ™️ as a mild anxiety response to my book coming out. Having said that, I will try to pick up this cult bobble jug from Poundland for £1.50. I also got this lampshade!
We finished Yellowjackets and the Spotify playlist is so good.
Currently watching Total Control starring luminous Deborah Mailman.
THINK.
Classification of 74 facial emoji’s emotional states on the valence-arousal axes.
Podcast episodes: Heteropessimism. Freud and politics.
White people love calling other white people "white people." (Also in the piece: “First world problems!” is 'always implicitly condescending, premised on the idea that people in developing countries don’t also have inner lives, and are never prone to neuroses or whimsy.')
Cash aid to poor mothers increases brain activity in babies. Cash aid to unhoused people helps them find homes. That’s what money does. It frees your mind for living.'
No, America is not on the brink of a civil war.
I always wondered this ever since I bought a rugby jumper from Malaysia on Etsy! Why all the best second hand clothes sellers are in Malaysia.
Global warming suggests that humans are powerful enough to destroy the world but too weak to stop it.
Cutting the carbon footprint of the wealthiest might be the fastest way to reach net zero.
'...none of us is going to look back in 20 years and wonder if our climate stories were a little too radical. If we’re lucky, we’ll be living in a world where out-of-control fires, floods, and heat storms haven’t completely upended human life, and where journalism is still an economically viable pillar of democratic society. Fearless climate coverage can help bring that future to pass.'
I’d quite like to write a political Popbitch for the Queen.
MY BOOK!
No I didn’t make this beautiful jpg myself I’m not insane (in that way).
Two-ish weeks until my novel is out in Australia. Exciting news (I LOVE audiobooks): A Great Hope has a narrator, Melbourne actor Jessica Clarke! Her Instagram makes me feel so homesick for Fitzroy, which is where I lived during an important time in my life — and also where the family home of my fictional Clare family is located. (Here is what the book is about.)
Pre-ordering for February 22:
Audio. Audible and Google Play. I'm so sorry I can't add the customary "and support independent sellers!" because I'm not sure what Australian audio options there are outside monopolists, does anyone know?
Paperback. Order from Readings. Booktopia. Dymocks. QBD. Amazon Australia. Find your local Australian bookstore. Why shop at independent bookstores?
e-Book. Order from Kobo. Kindle. Google Play. Apple Books.
Readers outside Australia. Order from Readings. (A Great Hope was on Readings' list of most anticipated 2022 books!)
Jess
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