HELLO and welcome to the 239th 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 Trump Tower! 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.
Queer Suicidality, Conflict and Repair, by Sarah Schulman and Morgan M Page for QED: A Journal in GLTBQ Worldmaking, May 2017
Where do I even begin describing this to you — it’s fantastic. It’s a transcript of a conversation between Page and Schulman that took place on October 10, 2016 at Le Cagibi in Montreal and it’s about queer communities and the suicide of Bryn Kelly and a push to reconsider conflict, care and community. I could pick one quote but I want to pick the whole thing. Even if you don’t agree with their points, the intellectual exercise is worth it.
Just Chaste Me, by Diane Shipley for The Rumpus, June 2017
Every TV show she mentions I watched, every plotline she remembers, I remember. I think I might be the exact same age as this author! Anyhow it’s about losing your virginity and Beverly Hills 90210.
The Rise of Roxane Gay, by Molly McArdle for Brooklyn Magazine, February 2017
As a huge Roxane Gay fan I was surprised to learn that there is so much more to know about Roxane Gay than I already knew and this was such a wonderful profile in which to learn it.
Who Are the Literary Brat Pack – Meet Authors Donna Tartt, Jay McInerney, and Bret Easton Ellis, by Jason Diamond for Harper’s Bazaar, November 2016
Every time I read a Brett Easton Ellis book, he ruins my life but I sort of enjoy the torture. I’ve read two of Tama Janowitz’s books, and two of Jay McInenerny’s (Bright Lights, Big City is one of my favorite books ever), and always been super interested in the “literary brat pack” concept that swirls around them and which they are usually very vocal in discrediting whenever interviewed. So what a prize, this article! Maybe just for me and Crystal, we’ll see!
Inside Hillary Clinton’s Surreal Post-Election Life, by Rebecca Traister, May 2017
This is the Hillary Clinton feature that everybody told you to read, did you read it? It’s got a lot of very interesting tidbits in here and some stellar quotes from our not-President. :-(
White as a Ghost World, by Rich Juzwiak for Jezebel, June 2017
I’d just re-watched Ghost World two days before reading this and like so many movies I saw in theaters and not much since, I was like, Wow, this is really racially problematic! and this gets into that a lot and also about the aspects of the movie that resonated, too.
How Angelo Donghia Tried (And Failed) To Make Trump Tower Tasteful, by Jesse Kornbluth for Buzzfeed, January 2017
Sometimes it’s just nice to read about how bad Donald Trump is at furniture.
I See a Darkness, by David Aim for The Point Magazine, May 2017
On the instinct so many writers have to write “before they became conservative superstars” pieces about old friends who are now Professional Assholes, and the author’s own instinct to do the same about Richard Spencer. But Richard Spencer, he realizes, has been an asshole all along.
The Loneliness of Donald Trump, by Rebecca Solnit for Hazlitt, May 2017
If you read just one thing read this thing
A man who wished to become the most powerful man in the world, and by happenstance and intervention and a series of disasters was granted his wish. Surely he must have imagined that more power meant more flattery, a grander image, a greater hall of mirrors reflecting back his magnificence. But he misunderstood power and prominence. This man had bullied friends and acquaintances, wives and servants, and he bullied facts and truths, insistent that he was more than they were, than it is, that it too must yield to his will. It did not, but the people he bullied pretended that it did. Or perhaps it was that he was a salesman, throwing out one pitch after another, abandoning each one as soon as it left his mouth. A hungry ghost always wants the next thing, not the last thing.
The Feels of Love, by T Kira Madden, December 2016
I guess this is a big day for women circa my age telling stories of pre-adolescence dotted with the same pop culture points that informed my own. This is intense, though, so approach at your own risk if you don’t want to read about sexual assault today. The writing is haunting, the details authentic, the story gripping. And! It turns out the author is queer and her Dad died and she’ll never get over it, just like me. Is someone keeping track of all the writers I include here and say “I want them to write for us”
I fucking hate Brett Easton Ellis
I’m so proud of myself every time Things I Read That I Love features something I too have read. Rebecca Solnit’s fairytale of Donald Trump was a treat. I love everything she writes and there’s a new collection of her essays out that I need to get my hands on.
I’m so heartbroken that a brilliant woman can’t just go be president wearing a turtleneck and dorky glasses.
Maybe she can’t, but I WOULD watch this Diane Keaton movie.
I am still so heartbroken that a woman cannot be president, period.
That too, of course. I’m just at this point where playing by those rules just feels like a trick. I want more.
“It was all very ordinary and small-talk-y until you remembered that Donald Trump is president and Hillary Clinton is discussing the merits of Peeps versus jelly beans.”
I’ve been thinking about this sentence for like two weeks. Ooof.