Hello, hello!
A quick update: I’m pretending to be French and taking some time off from now till about September 5. I’ve been plugging away steadily on book projects and assignments, and I just got done with a very large project, along with several other assignments and what has now become a regular series of weekly essays.
My body and mind are a bit stretched and exhausted, and it’s best I take some time off—most people don’t think of writing as labour, but it is, and it can be both physically and mentally tiring. We’re all like rubber bands: we can only be stretched so far before we snap. As many of you know, I had a pretty severe bout of exhaustion some months ago, because I had absolutely no breaks for over two years (technically, actually, for over twenty years, but that’s another story)—so many of you responded with such kindness when I asked for financial help that I was able to take a month off.
I did want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came forward with cash, encouragement, and support: it meant the world to me.
That break really helped me recalibrate my schedule and recharge, and as you can see (and here, picture me waving my arms around, at this website), I’ve been able to produce a lot much more regularly as a result. One of the lessons I’ve learned is to not keep pounding away without a break, and to step back for periods of rest. Moving forward, I’m going to take a brief break about every three months or so.
But what is rest? I’m going to be spending a chunk of this period organising my next significant series on Soft (and hard) Plagiarism (to be clear: I’m looking forward to it!), while also organising the next bit of work on a very big project. I jump started the series this week with “Don’t Share Your Book Proposal”: I just heard of more noxious agent/plagiarist behaviour, and many writers begin looking for agents come Fall—so I thought it important to have this essay out in the world.
I’m also going to read a lot of fiction, make a number of new dishes from all the cookbooks I’ve been collecting, cull my book collection, finish that embroidery project, take lots of photographs, and organise my pantry (yet again).
Which is to say: I’m going to loll around, peel some grapes, and watch the Alien and Harry Potter movies all over again.
This time around, I do have a wee pincushion to tide me through, but one is always on the edge of financial doom and one likes one’s takeout and the occasional treat (and the knee is worse, making walking harder), so if you feel inclined to send me a tip, here’s a handy link. And anything from my wishlist (one that reveals the full extent of my dorkiness) is always welcome.
I know it will be tough for many of you, to not see my Daily Posts pop up in your weekday timelines but here’s a list of some of my many works and some podcasts to tide you over this rough patch. When I return, I’ll be ready to go with new work on Justified (the old and new), Santa Clarita Diet, infidelity, the many issues with and in the publishing industry, some thoughts (okay, many thoughts) on the Left in general, and so much more. I’ll also have new essays on the sad state of the Democratic Socialists of America (which now resembles Lord of the Flies but in a kindergarten playpen, and with a great deal of pouty squealing) and Bash Back, once a promising new queer left organisation that turned into a vicious and toxic enclave of trust fund kids who set about bullying everyone into submission.
Anyway. A new world, a new left: what else can we hope for?
Whether you’re new to my work or not, here are some podcasts and essays to tide you through this upcoming period of drought.
PODCASTS
I was on Mtume Gant’s podcast, talking about what “Indie” really means these days, in a world of infinite corporatisation disguised to look like revolutionary work.
I discuss Amia Srinivasan’s book The Right to Sex with Allison Lirish Dean of Ear to the Pavement.
I discuss Tom Cruise, yes, Tom Cruise with David Parsons of Nostalgia Trap.
On the Current Affairs podcast, I had a great conversation with Nathan and Lily about the Minion movies. It’s a particularly hilarious episode because Nathan went into it hating the very idea of the Minions (and emerged unchanged in his opinion), Lily pointed out that their racial politics were really…very bad, and I went bouncing in convinced that I’d change their minds because, who could not love the Minions? I was the only one who changed her mind, and they were right.
Here, I discuss “Corporate Wokeness,” with the excellent folk on Escape from Plan A.
ESSAYS
“A Manifesto,” in the storied Evergreen Review, is always the best introduction to me and my work. Writing it changed my life.
This luscious, long, and often very funny and always biting essay on “What Really Happened At Current Affairs?” is not just an investigation (that took nearly two years) into That Incident but an excellent analysis of the many issues facing left publishing. It asks and attempts to answer the question: How do we create and sustain a socialist magazine under capitalism? For that matter, really, how do we sustain a left politics under capitalism?
My review of Chasten Buttigieg’s I Have Something to Tell You was in the print edition of Current Affairs, and appeared online on Monday. C. Buttigieg made a couple of insinuations about what I’d written rather than openly stating what his issues were (this, as I know from my research, is very much the Buttigieg style), and I broke the internet because matters just exploded. You can hop over to X/Twitter to check out what’s being said (warning: not for the faint-hearted or those unused to the toxicity of social media). But I took the opportunity to post a lot of links, so if you’d like a more peaceful persual, you can just go straight to my timeline.
And subscribe to Current Affairs: it’s gorgeous and smart!
One of my most recent works is “On Lizzo and Sex and Bananas, Oh My!” I published it on this site and it was recently republished at In These Times.
I’ve been writing a lot on publishing and am very proud of “The Corruption of Influence: On Dimes Square, Byline, and the New York Times.”
I wrote “Here Be No Monsters,” about the finale of Succession, for In These Times.
I followed that up with a longer essay, for the print edition of In These Times, about the entire show: “What Succession Teaches Us About Capitalism.”
Here’s one of my seminal works, the one that actually began the entire trauma discourse everyone’s so obsessed with these days (I’ll have more on how my work on this topic was both hard and soft plagiarised in some of the biggest publications you can think of):
Your Trauma Is Your Passport: Hannah Gadsby, Nanette, and Global Citizenship.
Also on trauma: The Ideal Neoliberal Subject is the Subject of Trauma, my interview with Hypocrite Reader.
On “The Perils of Trauma Feminism,” which is also a review of Rafia Zakaria’s Against White Feminism and Kyla Schuller’s The Trouble with White Women.
Since And Just Like That will soon be winding down, here’s what I wrote about fashion in season two: “A Bestiary in Silks: Fashion and Race In And Just Like That.”
And here’s what I had to say about the first season, and its history of racism: “Sex and the City’s Soft White Supremacy.”
The left has a major gender problem, in all it spaces: “Are Lefty Podcasts Sexist?“, I ask (hint: yes). This has an audio version of the essay.
Here’s a piece on why Your Sex Is Not Radical.
This is the OG on my work on gay marriage: Gay Marriage Hurts My Breasts.
I have no patience with Polyamory: Polyamory is Gay Marriage for Straight People.
But I will always have time for Jason Momoa: Jason Momoa, Aquaman, and the Queer Art of Friendship
I wrote something very different, a rare personal reflection (sort of): On Malayalam and Melancholia
One of my favourites: Why Is America Turning to Shit? The Awl, sadly now gone.
“We Were There, We Are Here, Where Are We?: Notes Toward A Study of Queer Theory in the Neoliberal University” QED, Summer 2016
This tells you a lot about my origins as a writer: I’m a Freelance Writer. I Refuse to Work for Free. Vox
Believe in Something: Corporate Wokeness Is Big Business, The Baffler
The Dangerous Academic Is An Extinct Species, Current Affairs
March As Feminists, Not As Women, Verso Blog
Rights Make Might: The dystopian undertow of Hillary Clinton’s elite feminism, The Baffler
Bourgeois Feminist Bullshit, Current Affairs
This was my very first book review for Windy City Times, and I remain exceedingly fond of it and the novella Shirley Wins, by Todd Taylor.
There’s lots, lots more: do explore this site (the search function works quite well: use any terms that come to mind). You can also peruse my feeds at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. When things are more settled, I’ll upload audio versions of my essays. I’ll also be updating my bio. But first: those grapes.
And, of course, you should also look at the podcasts I reference above. For more reading material, there’s always the incredible and beautiful Current Affairs. The magazine recently launched a bi-weekly newsletter, and it’s an excellent way to keep up with the news; do subscribe.
I’ll see you on the internet in a couple of weeks. I hope you get the rest you need.
Image: Frida, After Nan Goldin, by Yasmin Nair, c. 2016