205. READ. LOOK. THINK.
Against aboutness, unchecked self-consciousness, imagined bad faith reader, Natalie Massenet's pantry, an app I've found helpful because it's so annoying.
Alan’s Rickman’s showbiz diaries. Part 1 (Harry Potter) | Part 2 (very sad when his widow writes the last entry).
Hi guys,
Just realised as I was about to press send that this R.L.T. doesn’t have any books in it. Right now I am reading Piers Morgan’s Diaries which cost 99p.
READ.
'I can convince myself of anything. If someone is crying, I want to know why they’re crying, and I’ll believe them, I’ll believe in how they’ve been hurt, or how they’ve been wronged. Even if their politics are odious, as long as they’re emoting I have this involuntary sympathetic or empathetic response. This makes me a very bad party member, but I think it makes me an okay novelist. The fiction I'm attracted to is often the result of both-sides-ism.'
‘Applying any words to who I am feels like a straight pin aimed at my insect self.’ Against aboutness by Yiyun Li
'I sometimes think that the most detrimental effect being online has had on writers is the proliferation of unchecked self-consciousness. More and more writing reeks of social calculation. The best writing, by contrast, appears effortless, but aims for truthfulness.'
'I woke up this morning confident that I want one. In the shower, soaping, I close my eyes and imagine cradling an object. Surely it is an infant. But, faceless and silent, it is also a void.'
'My own world, over the last few years, has grown smaller and harder. Between divorce and death and quarantine, my soul has shrunk like a wool sweater in a washing machine.'
‘What I should do, instead of writing about people who can't manage, is quit writing and learn to manage.’
Banishing the imagined bad faith reader from your writing process.
How student debt killed the plot.
Ben Lerner reads Café Loup.
Everyone who reads this short story loves it.
LOOK.
Using iOS 16 background removal to categorise all his fit checks.
Natalie Massenet's pantry.
Jean-Luc Godard's studio.
'Many people were intrigued by the extraordinary totemic sculpture at the entrance but very few knew of the astonishing fantasy world that lay within.' Ron's place
The sexy sincerity of Maryam Nassir Zadeh.
I've been on 'social media' barely at all because this clever app makes it so boring to mindlessly toggle. It’s called One Sec if that link doesn’t work for you.
THINK.
Beautiful cartoon by Cathy Wilcox in The Age/SMH.
‘… people see history as something that just passively happens, something that is done to them. Do those swarming around Westminster Hall to gaze at the coffin not see themselves as agents of change, in control of their own destiny?’
‘As we stood there, listening to the heartache of [Chris] Kaba’s bereaved family and friends […] a woman stalked past and shouted, “Someone’s mother has died.” It was a moment so surreal, the violence – and I don’t use that word lightly – of it so shocking, it was hard to fully comprehend. The sentiment, so often silent had been uttered, loud and clear. One life is not equal to another.’
‘From the perspective of 2022, it feels that the more wretched, bitter and badly governed the country becomes, the more splendid and gilded the royal ceremonies, and the more outrageous the national self-delusion.’
‘I will miss the Queen. As an adopted person, she has been the one and only stable female in my life. Her portrait (Beaton) hung over our coal fire above the brass flying ducks. When Mrs Winterson was at her most volatile, taking my dad’s service (there’s that word again) revolver out of the duster and fiddling with the bullets embedded in a tin of Pledge, I looked to the Queen for help. She was better than Jesus because she was alive, as well as possessing special powers.’ Jeanette Winterson.
Austerity has wrecked solidarity by pitting charities against one another for money; and if being truthful is troublesome and could cost you funding or status, it’s better to aim for what’s ‘realistic’ and distance yourself from anyone who could jeopardise that. In other words, keep your head down and stick to the status quo. Civility keeps charities submissive.
“Stop thinking like two individuals, and start thinking ecologically. Your relationship is your biosphere. You’re not above it. You’re in it. You breathe it.”
What if the cure for our current mental health crisis is not more mental health care? / ‘If a plant were wilting we wouldn’t diagnose it with “wilting-plant-syndrome” – we would change its conditions. Yet when humans are suffering under unliveable conditions, we’re told something is wrong with us, and expected to keep pushing through.’
‘Dealing with something that doesn’t respond directly to our actions induces feelings of hopelessness and increases the desire to quell those sensations with substances’: staying sober on a dying planet.
In the Journal of Environmental Psychology: air pollution leads to the dehumanization of oneself and others.
Link roundups are the mix tapes of the internet era, a way to immerse yourself in the point of view of another person.They’re also about presenting yourself in a particular way; highlighting the aspects of your complicated humanity that you want to showcase, and hiding the things you prefer to minimise. Mixtapes were traditionally an important step in courting rituals. Link roundups are often about appearing concerned and knowledgeable about the right things, while also showcasing the certain elements of your desired presentation. At its core, we curate our lists to communicate something about who we are. It is, like many things that happen on the internet, a performative practice.
— This is from a blog post that takes as its main example my newsletter! The writer, Clare Egan, is 100% right about the dance I’m doing here. For some reason I can only communicate any truth about myself or how I view the world in three ways: one on one in person with safe others; through the vague conjuring of “vibes” (my little links and IGs); and by inventing people to do and say invented stuff in an invented world. Those are my options. I’m quite envious of people who can engage in straight up public presentation or argumentation. Although being able to do that is surely unnatural? Or is not being able to do it unnatural? Therapist: (therapist face)
FYI the most-clicked link last time was of Margot Henderson’s wedding dress.
Jess
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