While its reputation as impenetrable holds up, keep in mind that James Joyce said there isn't a single serious line in this book -- that's the best way to experience the book, both an ode to and exhaustive examination of unseriousness.
The books about Ulysses (especially Ulysses and Us: A Guide to Everyday Living) are also great.
Feb 13, 2024
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This is inarguably the most difficult (and formally radical) book ever written and most people canāt make heads or tails of it but if you just start reading and donāt stop and let the words wash over you, its strange poetry starts to speak to you. Joyce invented a new language of neologisms and portmanteau words that were puns in multiple languages at once. He went as far with the English language as anyone can go and he attains heights of poetry, subtlety, and complexity that have never been surpassed. Iāve been reading it for 40 years and have only just scratched its surface but it has been an immensely rewarding experience.
Aug 31, 2021
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In 'Slumming', Ottessa Moshfegh so perfectly outlined the annoyance (hopefully universally) felt for the type of pseudo-intellectual who: "was too concerned with his own intelligence to see the bigger picture. He thought that the drugs we bought in the āØbus depot restroom were intended to expand his mind, as though āØsome door could be unlocked up there and he would greet his āØown geniusāsome glowing alien in glasses and sneakers, spinning planet Earth on its finger". A stellar read.
Jan 24, 2024
Funny, tragic, idiosyncratic, embarrassingly relatable at points, & most of all intelligent as hell. Absolutely worth working through!
Apr 19, 2024
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this was the epitome of the Obama administration
Feb 19, 2024
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Not a rec but a trend I noticed in music.
In Hayes Code Hollywood (puritanical production mandates against things like sex, violence, swearing in movies), there were musical numbers that took otherwise innocuous songs and added eroti./BDSM undertones. we had āDiamonds Are a Girlās Best Friendā from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The big dance sequence in Minnelliās The Pirate, where a woman is transformed into a donkey/bunny(? I forget) on all fours (I think?) while Gene Kelly gyrates around her in tight, low cut leather (this is crystal clear).
Fast forward (Iām skipping many steps - an amateur at this sort of thing) to the late 2000s/early 2010s. The latent BDSM becomes more explicitly lyrical in songs Like āBad Romanceā and (obviously) āSM.ā However, these songs have erotic purchase - they chart desire ( ā I want your revengeā āChains and whips excite meā) without the context of the body. The instrument and the lyrics let the listener construct titillation/lust.
Then, in the latter 2010s, we get total assaults of the physical experience of pleasure in Songs like āWAPā artists like Cupcakke, etc. so explicit that they undermine eroticism. At the same time, thereās also artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, who wax about yearning in a mystical, spiritual fashion (that im sure Jia Tolentino wrote about somewhere).
still working out why, but I think this change speaks to how rabidly we want sensation (not contemplation) from art but also (bc we get most of our art electronicall) technology and (still Working this one out) religion?
i told my friend about this and he said, āSex Positive Accelerationism.ā
Feb 26, 2024
The following photos are examples. another instance which belongs only to memory: I was teaching kindergarten on the UES at a point in my life which seemed to have no point but one morning I was walking from 86th street where they have enormous lavish dogs who look like they have a 401k and the sun was coruscating like entire streets were orange and I strolled past this Platonic piece of dog shit that was sculpted like a soft serve and the shit had this gleaming halo from the sun and stopped and stared at it for like 5 minutes
This song from the legend of Zelda always plays when I see these: https://youtu.be/qtCWgWUhA8s?si=f13382M560HRzX6B
Feb 4, 2024