213. READ. LOOK. THINK.
... ephemeral, flimsy and wholly without plot, Slater also cleans, children are not property, first night effect (you suffer from it), moral beauty, lovely prison biscuits.
READ.
‘I’d wondered before whether writing in bars and on trains affected my style, whether all these liminal spaces made my writing ephemeral, flimsy and wholly without plot. I’d blamed the lack of space that felt like mine for the journals full of fragments which didn’t cohere.’ Young novelists on the housing crisis.
This perfect essay on Grey’s Anatomy by Helen Charman is (the ultimate compliment) unquotable.
‘… somehow writing about female bodies and interiority is no longer important or edgy.’
Fantasy show-runner.
Beauty tips from my dead sister.
Stephanie Danler’s moving essay: On Pretend Cooking.
LOOK.
This Alison Roman bolognese is different enough from mine that I now have to try it (and I love fennel seeds). This Bon App Spring Minestrone has fennel seeds, made it for a Sunday lunch, v.g.
I loved Diem Tran’s recipes she knows by heart.
Todd Field’s Didion homage in Tár.
Room with a View denim jacket.
Hand-knitted frog and toad.
‘I was like, That’s why there’s no influencers in the U.K. Because the light’s just really bad — the gray skies.’
‘Slater also cleans. ‘It gives me a break from writing,’ he explains. ‘How else do you stop doing something which otherwise is never done?’ He laughs.’ Nigel Slater’s house in The World of Interiors.
Yes, we have been watching Colin from Accounts and really enjoying, although as Jude reminds me, I would not watch a show like this (pure comedy) set in England.
I want this purple YES campaign tshirt so badly. (There is a referendum in Australia this year to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Constitution with a formal Voice to Parliament. More info.) (Okay, I just bought the tee and got it sent to my brother, hopefully I will be yessing my way through London summer, if it ever arrives.) (Summer, I mean, my brother is very reliable.)
THINK.
“Once they opened that parents’ rights frame, they began to use it everywhere.”
In the UK, one-third of children referred for mental health care are denied help. Families forced out of London.
The class politics of Instagram face. Smartphone face.
The first night effect.
‘Although he recognises there was much he didn’t know about his mother, in other ways they were painfully close. “When she died, she took me out too,” he says. “It was a suicide bomb. I never had a separate identity from Mum.”’
‘When we insist that we could only ever effectively love someone who’s been perfectly “healed” — who will not struggle, accidentally hurt us, trigger us, say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing, or participate in any other uncomfortable display of humanity — we are reinforcing, and perhaps projecting, our own beliefs that we have to be perfect in order to be loved.’
‘Australian scientists have successfully used backyard mould to break down one of the world's most stubborn plastics — a discovery they hope could ease the burden of the global recycling crisis within years. ‘
‘Ironically, it’s possible the crackdown on nonviolent protest in the U.S. could strengthen the case for those considering eco-terrorism: If protesting near a pipeline carries a heavy prison sentence, why not just put it out of commission yourself?’
‘This is the kind of abundance we need to meet the climate crisis, to make many, or even most, lives better. It is the opposite of moral injury; it is moral beauty. A thing we needn’t acquire, because we already have it in us.’
‘Besides, they’ve got lovely biscuits in prison. I eat them with a slice of pear and peanut butter, dunked into tea with plant milk. And my tomato seeds have just started to sprout.’
Jess
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