Have you ever found yourself at Thanksgiving next to your nephew’s smug boyfriend, the one who mumbles that “identity politics is killing the left” but won’t address the fact that millions of people are on the left and are racialised and marginalised because of their identity? Have you listened to your niece talking about her new relationship with this creepy poly guy and wished she could read a critical essay on Polyamory? Your friend wants to be a writer, but he thinks the “Dimes Square” scene and “indie publishing” are real, and you’d like to gently bust those myths. Your 16-year-old daughter loves Taylor Swift and you heard her boyfriend sneer that she was infantile, and you’d like to shove him, maybe, but instead, she could read something interesting about Swift for ammunition. Are you just sick and tired of everyone talking about Traaaaauuuma, but without any sense of its overuse and the history of the term and concept? And who is thinking about the amount of grief we have been forced to withhold during an ongoing pandemic?
Well, now you can introduce them to my work. Many of you have been subscribing to my website because you have faith in me. I remain independent of the desire to create hot takes, and produce work that is original, sharp, witty, and without a stitch of false modesty. This December, I want to give you the opportunity to support me via gift subscriptions (this is separate from my regular subscriptions). For $50, you can support me in writing and spreading the word about my words. A gift subscription to me is like supporting Pandas: your help makes it more possible for them to continue to thrive (like them, I refuse to procreate).
In the coming year, I’ll be focused on finishing my book length projects but continue to produce my usual weekly/fortnightly essays (a lot depends on the topic and the research I need to do for each). Forthcoming topics include infidelity, the political situation(s) unfolding all around us, COVID, the publishing world, and more. I’ll produce more deep dives, like this one on “What Really Happened at Current Affairs?,” the two essays I wrote on Hasan Minhaj (he was caught lying, and then he lied again to distract from the lying, and I dove into it all), this essay on Byline that exposed the truth behind an “indie” publishing racket, and many others. I’ll also be writing more reviews, like this one of Chasten Buttigieg’s “memoir” which, you might recall, resulted in my breaking the internet. I was among the first to be critical of Hannah Gadsby, in this delicious long dive, and was excoriated for my perspective. And, what do you know, Gadsby, such a vicious critic of Picasso, finally got a chance to host an entire exhibit that featured his work alongside her “critiques” and flubbed the assignment, as I wrote here. I also wrote about Succession, twice, here and here, with analysis not found elsewhere. And my work on Lizzo was short but fun and funny (who else can bring Lizzo together with Spalding Gray?). I’ve been writing, on average, an essay a week.
If you’ve wondered, “How do I spread the word about Yasmin’s work?”: here’s your chance! Sign up for a gift subscription, let them know, drop me a line at nairyasmin at gmail dot com, and I’ll add the recepient to my list and send them a wee card in the mail (yes, actual mail) to say hello and welcome (an email if they prefer).
Many thanks, and Happy Holidays!
If you experience problems with any of these payment options, please contact me via email at nairyasmin at gmail dot com (and not through social media), and I’ll work with you.