204. READ. LOOK. THINK.
I want a storm I can dance in, dissociating out of your own plotline, Vic's book, Margot Henderson’s wedding dress, Ana's trend report, #oldmoneyaesthetic, a lonely kitchen
Hi everyone,
Such a nice RLT today. Barely any politics or depressing stuff.
READ.
Lord, I confess I want the clarity of catastrophe but not the catastrophe.
Like everyone else, I want a storm I can dance in.
I want an excuse to change my life.
‘Meeting sufferers of frantumaglia in fiction doesn’t guarantee pleasurable reading. A warm, palpable sense of self does not waft off the page to greet you, like a friend or familiar scent. These characters might seem underdeveloped, cold, aloof, not fully fleshed-out, unable to offer the reader a straightforward account of themselves. They might be described as unreliable, complex, neurotic, frustrating, unlikeable. They are often—but not exclusively—poor, neurodivergent, queer, women, people of color. They have often—but not necessarily—experienced trauma. Some might try to dissociate out of their own plotlines. Their incoherence is not the result of being poorly written, but because they exist in a troubled relation to what it means to feel real—to neatly gather a disarray of thoughts, sensations and experiences under the banner of an ‘I,’ with all the self-assurance that implies.’
Brilliant little profile of Gwendoline Riley.
‘What struck me about these writer friends is that they talked about writing a lot, but they weren’t actually writing that much. They weren’t writing as much as I was’ — Elizabeth Strout. (Currently reading Olive Kitteridge.)
‘…ruminating and thinking and absorbing, building up a head of steam.’ Helen Garner.
‘I was horrified! I thought, This person seems to know absolutely nothing about human society, but she’s throwing everything she has at it, stylistically, to hide this terrible fact! That’s what I felt. It was really unnerving.’ Mary Gaitskill on rereading her own books.
My friend Vic, who I used to have novel-writing dates with in Violet Cakes (!) has published her second, Marshmallow. All you need to know is it’s even better than Kokomo. And speaking of friends, Laura Goodman has an insane new cookbook out, The Joy of Snacks! God if we are friends and you have a book out and I haven’t mentioned, please go easy on me, I operate this newsletter on a shoestring budget, brain-wise.
LOOK.
Margot Henderson’s wedding dress.
Beautiful tiles in this bookshop (which I actually recognise as being from Granby Workshop I think)
Hari Kunzru’s writing soundtracks.
The faded leopard dining chairs of Christopher Isherwood.
Ana’s 2022 Summer trend report.
The birds of Sydney’s botanic gardens in Spring.
My genius friend James has a new Substack. It seems to be about adverts (but his Moderation Hotel was about ‘reviewing pubs’ and it turned out to be about everything).
‘Sneakers are being swapped for penny loafers, modernist interiors are being swaddled in chintz and chinoiserie, Hamptons vets are decamping to Palm Beach. All the traditional trappings of WASP-dom, a sensibility that has been upheld by generations of the one percent of the one percent, are striking a chord with many who don’t know Andover from Exeter and couldn’t care less.’ #oldmoneyaesthetic
Really nice carrot salad recipe at the bottom of this Fanny Singer Q and A.
‘I prefer a lonely kitchen.’
‘Haidee contemplated moving to a house where she could both live and paint, but it was a tough and painful time – in fact it was one of the few times in her life where she was completely unable to paint – and she felt a move might be too much. And then, in a case of improbable timing, an estate agent got in touch with a house in Newington Green that he thought might work.' This is a beautiful house, which is why it’s here in LOOK, but I’m always struck by how personal everything is to do with houses, and it’s why I couldn’t start A Great Hope until I had imagined 99 Greeves Street.
The most sustainable idea in fashion is personal style.
THINK.
‘As a single almost 36-year-old woman with a successful career, I feel like the pandemic has robbed me of two prime years of my dating life and has fast-tracked me to the red region of my biological clock. The pressure I feel to do something about this deadline is massive, but for the first time in my life, I have no idea how to make up my mind. Do I continue to focus on myself, or prioritise dating, or resort to egg freezing?’ I love the answer to this question.
‘It’s amazing. I don’t have to explain one thing about myself because she knows everything, you know? She knows everything. The good stuff and the bad. There’s such a comfort in that.’ What makes friendships work.
‘I realised that the entire time that I was famous, all this energy and all this love was being received by an avatar. It wasn’t being received by me.’ Poignant profile of Darren Hayes.
The case for writing fan mail. (I do this!)
‘Social media isn’t like rat poison, which is toxic to almost everyone. It’s more like alcohol: a mildly addictive substance that can enhance social situations but can also lead to dependency and depression among a minority of users.’
‘…public schools are where a patriarch, or any parent, begins to lose the ability to superintend all their children see or hear or read, the place where the home begins to give way to society.’
Jess x
PS.
And don't forget to read my novel, A Great Hope, which recently turned six month old. 🥲
‘…brilliant on family dynamics, this is the story of sex and betrayal in the lead-up to an Australian election. Thrilling’ — Eva Wiseman ❤️
I lived in it. I loved it. It’s like a woman-centred The Line of Beauty but funnier and Australian’ — Ella Risbridger ❤️