Friday Links 11/17

I woke up too early for no reason so here’s a links post, on time for once!

• I’ve started following French Vogue online and I’m really enjoying their “Sunday with…” series. Credit to the Jeanne Damas one for introducing me to this song.
• Love this Classic Film Club idea. I’ve seen most of the film noir on the list, but this selection of Japanese film noir is completely new to me and really peaking my interest! Where to start?
• The Marrying Mr. Darcy board game. Because it is a truth universally acknowledged, etc…
  Truly I have mixed feelings, but I’m curious.
• The trailer for “A Quiet Place“. Spooky. I like.
• The structural inequality within the comedy industry. “The solution is putting people in positions of power who are not male, not straight, not cisgender, not white. This is not taking something away unfairly — it is restoring opportunities that have been historically withheld.”
• You’ve heard of latte art, but how about smoothie art?
• My chosen candidate for the 2020 presidential election.
• My nihilistic sense of humor strikes again, but this time with cats. Super relatable.
• The pajama trend has been taken to its only logical conclusion and we can all go home now.
• The subtle misogyny of male incompetence. I’m surrounded by idiots.
• In at least 34 cases, unusually long Postal Service delays resulted in rejections of DACA applications.
• Choosing a different sperm donor is choosing a different child and a different future. What surprised this couple about their experience.
• I’m sorry, Blake Shelton isn’t even Gwen Stefani’s sexiest husband.
• Karen Brit Chick (who you completely should follow, I’m in love with her) on her favorite vintage shops in NYC. Saving this for my next trip.
• Deadpool mixed with Bob Ross. What’s not to love?
• Honestly it is not Teen Vogue’s time. It’s more relevant now than ever and I wish it had been in my time the politically active and interesting publication that it has been for the past year or so.

Sorry for using up all of your free NYT articles!

The Runt of the Literature

Ayyy, get it? It’s like ‘runt of the litter’, but books and the written word, so literature.
…I’ll see myself out.

Having recently written about my favorite standout works from amazing authors, I decided it was time to do the opposite.  That is, rudely single out my least favorite works by some of my best-beloved authors. Blasphemy.

I think my greatest hope, when I write about books, is that people will be inspired to feel like the classics are less remote.  It’s logical that, looking at the whole of the history of writing and authorship, you can find better pieces than were published in the past five or ten years.  For me personally, writing styles from longer ago are more pleasing than current writing (again, speaking very generally).  But I do think that we have a tendency to venerate classic literature kind of excessively.  Which makes people hesitant to read it and interact with it.  They’re just books like any other, and books are there for people to read and enjoy.  A book should never make you feel bad, and you should never feel ‘unworthy’ of a book or guilty for having a negative opinion about one.  It’s like trying on clothes.  If you try on something that doesn’t fit, it’s the clothing that doesn’t fit you, not you who doesn’t fit the clothing.

Okay, rant over.  Here’s a collection of books from my favorite authors who can by and large do no wrong.  And these are examples of the doing wrong (again, by me).  Books that I am perfectly content to not like.

Eleven Links//Eleventh Month

For my first November link drop, it would seem that I have eleven to share.  This wasn’t practiced or deliberate or anything- I just needed a snazzy title for the post so I figured it I counted the links maybe I could come up with something. Lo and behold, eleven.

Just goes to show, sometimes things are as easy as 1, 2, 3.
But yeah, rarely.

My Favorite Authors

What qualifies an author to be counted among my favorites?
I have very high standards, as befits such a coveted distinction.  You know Orwell is just rolling over in his grave because he’s not on here.

It’s a fairly simple standard actually: if a book is written by one of these authors, I don’t have to worry too much about the risk of disliking it… because I generally won’t.

So in no particular order:

 

Henry James

The first book I read by Henry James was The Portrait of a Lady and it took me so long to begin because the first sentence was so convoluted I was terrified. But it’s an absolutely beautiful book, as are most of his novels and short stories.