Issue 16

Dinah Mengestu, Criterion Collection, Emma Straub, Margaretha Barbara Dietzsch, and Vittorio Zecchin

Thank you to everyone who shared, liked, and commented on my last post. It was very helpful and I felt very appreciated. The sky is blue and the sun is out in Seattle. My rosebush is thriving - for anyone who wanted an update. Most of my focus for this edition is discussing the various media I have encountered over the past few weeks. I apologize for my lackluster intro.

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currently reading

All Our Names by Dinah Mengestu (2015). I cannot remember where I heard about this one, I need to keep a better record of that. There are two stories of two different relationships that run parallel. One story involves a university student in war-torn Uganda in the 1970s, and his relationship with a fellow student turned soldier named Isaac. The parallel story takes place in American Mid-West with the same student (an unknown amount of time has gone by) and the relationship he has with his white social worker. The back and forth between the two worlds is jarring - but it is clearly purposeful. The central character is a foreigner in both situation, he is a citizen of an unnamed country bordering Uganda. It is extremely well written, well structured, and a page turner.

These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett (2022). My Ann Patchett journey of 2024 continues. I have come to love a good book of essays, almost as much as I love novels. As Priscilla Gilman from the Boston Globe stated, “It is her somber awareness of life’s precariousness and her ardent appreciation of its preciousness that makes Patchett an at once sobering and authentically uplifting writer.”

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something short to read/watch/listen to

• Last weekend’s SNL with Ryan Gosling was pretty epic- notably the cold open of another close encounters skit with Kate McKinnon, the opening monologue with Emily Blunt, and the Beavis and Butt-Head skit where even Heidi Gardner broke character.

• The comedian/actor Marc Moran’s Criterion Collection’s Closet pics is very fun and he has some interesting suggestions. If you are looking for some classic arthouse movies the Closet Pics host a huge variety of directors, actors, and musicians (from Dan Levy to Bill Hader to Sarita Choudhury).

• Gary Shteyngart’s essay about the maiden voyage of the Icon of the Seas (the largest cruise ship ever built) is pure gold. I especially appreciate that he is so strongly influenced by David Foster Wallace’s essay “Author embarks on their first cruise ship voyage”

• Elif Batuman, a favorite living writer of mine, wrote a thought provoking piece on the idea of the novel and imperialism. You can’t read the actual essay because she has pay wall, but you can read her introduction. I highly recommend all of her books, especially The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them - which is brilliant and had me chortling throughout the entire thing.

• If you are as obsessed with stickers as I am - these new ones from Blumenhaus are so cute.

• I really love and appreciate Emma Straub commented on winning her 2024 Guggenheim fellowship. Over the past few years I have learned to appreciate the great value of books that are not considered “literary fiction” and the importance of accessibility in the world of books. By accessibility I mean a book that is well written that does not necessarily challenge you, that you don’t need to intellectual wrestle with and just invites you to enjoy reading while also providing ideas to think about.

  It is true that people who write books like mine don’t usually win stuff. In general, I am at peace with that—I watched my father struggle with this sort of thing for his whole career. Of course, he won every genre award about ten times. There aren’t any genre awards for whatever it is I write, except, I suppose, book sales. To quote Don Draper, that’s what the money is for. And yet.

  I’m not sure how to describe how I feel about being awarded this generous, prestigious, fancy prize. I think it’ll take me a little while to get over the idea that they gave it to me just to be nice, because I’m nice. It feels good to be taken seriously. I am going to try to write the best book I’ve ever written, for everyone who has ever read and enjoyed one of my books, and for everyone who has never picked up one of my books because they think they’re just for women, or because sometimes they have happy endings, or whatever. Let’s fucking go.

• Really gorgeous advertisement directed by Naghmeh Pour for the Persian clothing brand Pairi Daeza and their campaign for “the Women, Life, Freedom” movement (#womenlifefreedom). I try not to discuss politics here - but with the world distracted by various situations happening - the Islamic Republic of Iran are once again violently cracking down on women appearing without state-mandated hijabs. It is truly a terrifying situation and a truly terrifying regime.

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something from an archive

Margaretha Barbara Dietzsch (1726-1795) | German | British Museum

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some visual enrichment

The Princesses and the Warriors, from the cycle The Thousand and One Nights | Vittorio Zecchin (1878-1947) | 1914 { Italian | Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Ca’ Pesaro

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