HELLO and welcome to the 207th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about hope! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
Hope Is An Embrace of the Unknown, by Rebecca Solnit for The Guardian, July 2016
“Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognise uncertainty, you recognise that you may be able to influence the outcomes – you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists adopt the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It is the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterwards either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone.”
90 Million Tweens, A Free App, One Goal: Fame, by Elspeth Reeve for Elle, July 2016
You know if it wasn’t for this column, there are so many things that the kids are doing that I wouldn’t even know existed! So: musical.ly is a thing and this is about the people who are getting famous on it.
Why Can’t I Consent to Sex with My Brother?’: On Genetic Sexual Attraction, by Callie Beusman for Broadly, June 2016
Sorry I had to click on this
Black Lives and the Police, by Darryl Pinckney for The New York Review of Books, August 2016
On Facebook, Saeed Jones said that everybody should read this, so I read this, and now I’m here telling you to read it too.
It is ironic that after so many years of hostility to the notion that we are under constant watch, not only do we accept cameras, we are in favor of the democratization of surveillance.
The Cost of Diane Arbus’s Life At the Edge, by Alex Mar for New York Magazine, July 2016
Diane Arbus was a wonderful, inquisitive, talented photographer eventually lost to suicide. This is a look at her life and career in anticipation of her new show at the Met.
We Are All Witnesses, by Jordan Ritter Conn for The Ringer, July 2016
Talking with Samira Rice, the mother of Tamir, who at the age of 12 was killed by police officers in Cleveland 20 months ago.
Hunger Makes Me, by Jess Zimmerman for Hazlitt, July 2016
If you like this then you would really like Appetites, by Carolynn Knapp, on the same topic.
You Haven’t Seen Everything John Cho Can Do, by E. Alex Jung for Vulture, July 2016
I didn’t even remember that this guy was the MILF guy from American Pie! Anyhow, this is an interview with actor John Cho, you’ll probably fall in love with him by the end of the interview. Also lots of interesting stuff about open racism in casting in Hollywood.
Scents and Sensibility, by Chave Lieber for Racked, July 2016
This is the true story of Yankee Candles, which has a following in a general sense and also a cult following and also a resplendent variety of scents.
The Mall of America, Minnesota’s Suicide Hot Spot, by Susan Du for City Pages, January 2015
Two weeks ago I shared a story called “making Black lives matter in the mall of america,” which lead me to this story about a Mom whose son committed suicide in the Mall of America. There was a reference to “Hennepin County” in the article, which sounded familiar to me — Hennepin contains Minneapolis, which I didn’t know — but then I realized it sounded familiar because of another article about suicide, “One Town’s War on Gay Teens,” about a rash of LGBT suicides in the Anoka-Hennepin school district, north of Minneapolis. And the world keeps spinning round and round.
The Yunited States of Yuge, by Caity Weaver for GQ, July 2016
Firstly, Caity Weaver is hilarious and writes world’s greatest metaphors, her descriptions of the various properties owned by the Donald and her visits therein were delightful from top to bottom. Secondly, the way Trump goes about purchasing properties for his ventures is so epically fucked! This man never ceases to amaze.
CHOVERLORD! I am gunna read the shit outta that article. What a bae.
I just finished Hunger makes me and it’s one of the best things I’ve read in a while.
I heart Caity Weaver- she was the funniest writer at Gawker while she was there, and the “best restaurant” series was amazing.
I miss “The Best Restaurant In New York Is” more than anything on earth
Riese, I almost never comment on the site, but these are always my favorite articles.
god, I loved that Rebecca Solnit one–just passed it on to three more people. thank you thank you for your thoughtful & compassionate curating of the interwebs!
oooh I love Diane Arbus
These are so great. Just finished the one on black lives, in the middle of the Rebecca Solnit one, fascinated by the one on genetic sexual attraction, loved “Hunger makes me” so so much, and just got excited at the part of the john cho interview where he talks about skin tone and lighting, reminding me of alaina’s recent article on the photo filter app. Thank you for sharing these!