Hello, hello, hello!
Here we are, and “we” are “out” of Afghanistan and “we” are finally taking the Delta variant seriously. Maybe. Sort of. Perhaps.
I worry for everyone back in their offices, for everyone forced to interact with customers and others on a daily basis, and I worry so much for all my friends who are compelled to return to teaching in unsafe conditions.
I wanted to write more about COVID but the news began to change very quickly, on a daily basis. I’ll start up again, very soon, once things have stabilised to some extent and we’re not just facing a barrage of panic and misinformation all the time. And please be assured that the list of pieces I listed in my July 6 Update still stands!
Meanwhile, I’ve been thinking and writing about grief a lot, and I realised the other day that three of my major projects are explicitly about mourning and loss.
I’m also returning to a kind of writing that combines journalism, analysis, and research, with a forthcoming series on Hyde Park and the Obama Presidential Center (OPC). The OPC is a travesty, and the result of neoliberal corruption in Chicago as well as in local and national media — “corruption” doesn’t always mean money changing hands, or at least not explicitly, as I’ll detail in several future posts. This vile behemoth, which is not a presidential library, is being thrust upon a beautiful, historic park that was a gift to the world—all so that the Obamas can continue making money off a part of an area, the mostly Black south side of Chicago, that they only claim as home when it’s politically expeditious to do so. Obama has been able to get away with his plans for the south side largely because of Trump, whose ascent and blisteringly awful presidency diverted attention from a former Democratic president who quietly went about getting approval for exploiting and destroying parts of the neighbourhood where he got his political start. All of this went on while we excoriated Trump for exploiting his influence to build his empire. But more on all that later.
I’m excited about this kind of work (you may remember that I was to do a couple of longform pieces on R. Kelley and the Jussie Smollett stories: those are still in the pipeline). Having my own place makes a huge difference in being able to allot time and, well, more time to complicated projects. It also makes it easier to see the connections between and patterns emerging in all my projects. I just realised, for instance, that three of my four major projects are about grief and mourning. And all the Chicago stories are very much connected to my ongoing work on the historical and social contours of Blackness on a global and national scale. Rather than scrambling for any time I can get to work on a project, I’m finally able to drill into one for sustained periods of time and I can feel the work itself being able to breathe and expand in ways I hadn’t thought possible.
Plus, I’m getting better at cooking. I made all the vegan food for a picnic with a friend and it was actually a success (I did have to buy the dessert because for some reason my local Whole Foods doesn’t carry vegan chocolate chips). And I’m becoming the Queen of Quiches.
All of this is to say: if you have a writer friend whom you really want to support, please know that a room of their own and time may be the greatest gifts you can give them, or contribute towards (Or groceries! Anything else they need!). And please, please continue to support the magazines and newspapers you really enjoy. The kind of writing work many people take for granted is much more labour-intensive and expensive than the reams of op-eds that too many of us mistake for journalism. It doesn’t help that so many writers and journos, like Elizabeth Gilbert, about whom I’ve written here, like to mystify their work as social justice or as airy-fairy stuff that they just produce because of some magical creative urges. But if you really want analysis and predictions based on someone spending hours talking to endless numbers of people for hours on end (sometimes five conversations might yield only a few sentences or facts worth using) please know that this kind of work is expensive and very, very hard to do and do well. It’s not that op-ed-y writing and analysis are unimportant, but if you feed your brain on nothing more than the opinions of a few dozen people on Medium or Substack, your view of the world is more than likely distorted and you’re increasingly less able to think about complex issues with any degree of nuance.
As someone unaffiliated with any formal news/journalistic agency, I can’t do the kind of reporting I’d like because of a lack of resources (again: investigative journalism is very expensive, so please support your local newspapers!). But I can bring my ability to do research, ask hard questions of people, and look at very big pictures to provide detailed and informed analyses that conventional media, including the lefty press and magazines, can’t always spend time on. Hyde Park is the birthplace of neoliberalism: it’s where Milton Friedman was able to explore and test his work, and it’s also a place for lefties of all stripes who have resolutely opposed the economic forces that shape their lives. And Chicago, while often ignored by the mainstream press, remains an epicentre of the kinds of economic shifts that are making things worse for people across the country. The city was interesting to a lot of people for a while because of Obama, but its corruption and hypocrisy and deep, virulent racism have mostly remained unexamined. The fact that we have a Black, lesbian mayor fascinates the New York Time and other national media outlets, and they ignore how she has historically backed the use of police force and brutality on Black people.
Anyway. For now, please: mask up, especially inside, maintain a safe distance, and get vaccinated.
WRITING
I wrote “Grief.”
I also wrote “We Created the Cuomos.” Expect more about this in the coming weeks.
I wrote “Obama’s Birthday Bash Is for Neoliberal Elites.” Again, expect much more.
And the always gorgeous Current Affairs published my “Where the Gay Things Are,” with glorious artwork by Seb Westcott.
POSTS FROM THE ARCHIVE
“Why Is America Turning to Shit?”
“So Long, And Thanks for Nothing.”
“Person.”
“Christopher Lane’s Shyness: How Normal Behaviour Became A Sickness.”
“Season’s Greetings, Love, and Molecules.”
And here’s Nick Drake, “Day Is Done.”
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Don’t plagiarise any of this, in any way. Read and memorise “On Plagiarism.” There’s more forthcoming, as I point out in “The Plagiarism Papers.” I have used legal resources to punish and prevent plagiarism, and I am ruthless and persistent. If you’d like to support me, please donate and/or subscribe, or get me something from my wish list. Thank you.
Image: Edward Hopper, Two Comedians (1966).