Article of the Week

We’re back! Sort of. This week, we’re reconsidering some common narratives. Why do men always want us to read Infinite Jest? Why does Melania want to stay in New York? And most importantly, why was everyone so wrong about Girls?

“Men Recommend David Foster Wallace to Me” by Deirdre Coyle, April 17 2017, Electric Literature

I love DFW’s essays as much as the next girl (”Up, Simba” is one of my favorite pieces of political writing maybe ever), but the writer is very right about the way men treat Infinite Jest as the sine qua non of literary accomplishments.

AND THE RUNNERS-UP:

“Fairytale Prisoner by Choice: The Photographic Eye of Melania Trump” by Kate Imbach, April 16 2017, Medium

Life through Melania’s eye by analyzing her photography: everything viewed from behind glass or from inside a vehicle or from high above everyone else. New York is her tower and this princess is never leaving.

“On Finally Watching ‘Girls,’ a Different and Better Show Than I’d Been Led to Imagine” by Jia Tolentino, April 13 2017, The New Yorker

I have been thinking about the final season all week and have come to the conclusion that it was basically perfect. Fight me.

“The American Experiment” by Sarah Nicole Prickett, April/May 2017, Bookforum

The fault in the system, whether solar or financial.  

“Stars - They’re Just Like Us!” by The Editors, Winter 2016, n+1

An exploration of and investigation of why we like astrology. Are stars charts and tarot cards just therapy by another name, or is there some deeper explanation for why people are drawn to objects that try to divine the secrets of an unknowable future?

“White Debt” by Eula Biss, Dec 2 2015, The New Times Magazine

An interesting and necessary read in the year of “Between the World and Me” (which you should also definitely read), on the morality of benefitting from a system that was built on the oppression of others.

AND THE RUNNERS-UP:

“Punk Crock” by Eugenia Williamson, December 2015, The Baffler

Not only is rock dead, but even punk, that last bastion of the anti-establishment, has gone mainstream, thanks to a sudden recent spate of memoirs that feature CBGB prominently. The truth is that the people reminiscing about punk may have given the movement more credit than its own originators ever did.

“Beauty Is Broken” by Arabelle Sicardi, Dec 10 2015, Matter

Stop defining beauty by the patriarchy’s standards. The cosmetics and fashion industries, for women, have largely been driven by the tastes and desires of men. When will women get to have a say in determining what about them is considered beautiful or desirable?  

“All I Want Are Some Potato Skins” by Keith Pandolfi, Jan 7 2016, Serious Eats

The pictures we take and the words we write and the selective portrait of ourselves that we display to the world. How authentic are our selfies and our stories?

The article of the week is: 

“Selfie” by Rachel Syme, Nov 19 2015, Matter

In defense of selfies. An ode to selfies. An epic seven-part article examining the selfie: why people hate them, why people love them, what selfies mean for teens and women and Kardashians.

“On Pandering” by Claire Vaye Watkins, Nov 23 2015, Tin House

Oh man, this one. On being a female writer, a female writer who has been conditioned to write for men, and what men think of women who write.

THE RUNNERS-UP:

“Teen TV Legacies” by Josh Schwartz and Rob Thomas, Nov 9 2015, Vulture

The creators of your (OK, our) favorite teen TV shows (Schwartz: The O.C., Gossip Girl; Thomas: Veronica Mars, iZombie) talk about casting realistic high schoolers, creating love triangles and following natural romantic chemistry on screen, and crafting the perfect playlist.

“The Great Surrender” by Amanda Fortini, Sept 28 2015, Good

Nature can be scary as well as beautiful, a force to be reckoned with that most people will never really have to reckon with except for extremes.

“Live Long and Die Out” by Joel Veix, Nov 2 2015, The Awl

Sometimes that crazy thing you read on the Internet is not true. But also, sometimes, it is -- or at least, true enough to keep hope alive in this garbage world. Anyway, this week, here are some truth bombs headed your way.

The article of the week is:

“The true story behind ‘Zola,’ the Twitter story too epic to be real” by Caitlin Dewey, November 2 2015, The Washington Post

The Zola story, in which a young woman took to Twitter to describe a weekend stripping trip gone horribly awry, might not be entirely real...but it’s also not entirely false, either. This piece combines some great investigative work with some true crime involving sex workers and coercion and the murky waters of consent. Not that any of this should detract from the Zola’s storytelling skills, which are considerable.

AND THE RUNNERS-UP:

“Why Angry Old Men Calling a Meeting to Yell at a Woman Is Always a Spectacular Failure” by Anna Merlan, October 23 2015, Jezebel

Hillary wins the Benghazi hearings, Cecile Richards wins for Planned Parenthood, women everywhere who have ever had an older man yell at them about a topic that they know better smile and nod knowingly.

“I’m Always the Wallflower at the Orgy” by Anna Pulley, October 27, 2015, The Cut

What happens when you go to a sex party but don’t have sex? Apparently there are household pets to entertain and snacks to eat. 

“Remember the Guy Who Gave His Employees a $70,000 Minimum Wage? Here’s What Happened Next” by Paul Keegan, October 23 2015, Slate

Oh man this week is a POP STAR TAKEOVER on the blog. Plus deciphering what life is like for a couple who never quite embraced reality.

THE ARTICLE OF THE WEEK IS:

“Over ‘The Hills’: The Afterlife of Heidi and Spencer Pratt” by Andrew Gruttadaro, October 14 2015, Complex

You know you want to read about what happened to Spencer and Heidi, perpetual reality TV villains. A sad but weirdly optimistic look at a couple who are eternally hustling, ignoring the memo that maybe their 15 minutes were up quite some time ago. I’m kind of rooting for Speidi now?

AND THE RUNNERS-UP:

“Taylor Swift on ‘Bad Blood,’ Kanye West, and How People Interpret Her Lyrics“ by Chuck Klosterman, October 15 2015, GQ

Yes, yes, we’ve shared a lot of Taylor Swift articles this year. But really you should take a moment for this one by Chuck Klosterman, who is perfect as always at over-analyzing musicians and what they mean to us. 

“Why Beyonce Has Stopped Doing Interviews” by Jia Tolentino, October 5 2015, The Fader

Of course, the short answer to this one is “because she can.” But actually, some interesting insight into image control, and Beyonce’s particular brand of being flawless.

“A Very Revealing Conversation With Rihanna” by Miranda July, October 12 2015, New York Times T Magazine

I don’t think I was born in the wrong era or anything, but I do think I tend to glamorize the past. We’re all guilty of that, I guess, but it certainly affects some places and times more than others. I live in DC but am not nostalgic for the 70s; in many ways the city still looks like that. But New York makes you yearn for the chaos you missed. 

The article of the week is:

“Why Can’t We Stop Talking About New York in the Late 1970s?” by Edmund White, September 10 2015, New York Times T Magazine

Yes, this is a story about it’s cliche to glamorize this era of New York history, but...I’m going to idealize it anyway. Patti Smith’s new memoir up next.

AND THE RUNNERS-UP:

“Imposter” by Alexander Chee, September 12 2015, Catapult

A short but sweet essay by the always-brilliant Alexander Chee on trying to make it as a writer and living in the same building as Chloe Sevigny in the 90s in New York and how to know if you’ve really “made it” or whatever that really means.

“Stud: How to Have 106 Babies (and Counting)” by Michael Paterniti, October 1 2015, GQ

An ordinary Dutch man fathers children in the natural way with women who seek him out, because donating sperm seemed impersonal and expensive and less effective. He does this for free. He has a waiting list. You’re going to want to read this one.  

“Praise Chorus” by Pilot Viruet, September 6 2015, Medium

Hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! TAOTW is still wearing white and thinking about some end-of-summer mysteries, like whether we should become sugar babies and how come everyone has not read Elena Ferrante yet because we really want to talk about it now.  

The article of the week is:

The Elena Ferrante interview: Part One and Part Two by Elissa Schappell, August 27 2015, Vanity Fair

Are you reading the Neapolitan novels yet? Read them. Read them now. The privacy-loving author, who writes under the pen name Elena Ferrante, has so far declined to identify herself, or be photographed, and commits herself to very few interviews to which she will only respond to questions in writing. She wants her writing to speak for itself, which it does astonishingly well. But still, her thoughts are worth reading here, on the inherent violence of female friendships and how adults want to erase themselves.

AND THE RUNNERS-UP:

“Who Is Marc Jacobs?” by Sarah Nicole Prickett, August 20 2015, New York Times T Magazine

The fashion icon and brilliant designer on the pitfalls of being iconic and brilliant, and what boundaries he’s planning to push next.

“Searching for Sugar Daddy” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, August 27 2015, GQ

OK, yes, she is a little disdainful of the men and a lot condescending to the women (sample pseudonym: Kitten Babypuss, Tigress St. Fawn), but a lot of these seemingly ill-fated escapades have surprisingly happy outcomes (at least one marriage proposal in there). But this is pretty great writing, and, given what we know about the number of women on Ashley Madison, a more realistic look at an illicit hookup website and culture.

“Five Shows They Will Never Stop Making” by Linda Holmes, August 27 2015, NPR

People tell each other about our favorite books and movies (and longform journalism articles) because it’s so important to make other people see what you see, think what you think, know what you know. How to win friends (and readers) and influence people (and viewers).

The article of the week is:

“The Heirs,” by Gabriel Sherman, August 23 2015, New York

Behind the scenes at the New York Times during a transition in power. If there was a reality show about the “race” between three Sulzberger cousins to be the next publisher of the paper of record, I would watch that.  

AND THE RUNNERS-UP:

“In Conversation With Quentin Tarantino” by Lane Brown, August 23 2015, Vulture

Yeah I know, it’s sort of cheating to put in a direct interview. But oh man, this is so perfect. Tarantino at the top of his game. (And if that’s not enough, there are also some outtakes.)

“Dateonomics” by Jon Birger, August 24 2015, Time

Statistics and romance: how the dating crises in Mormon and religious Jewish communities can be explained by data, and what that means. A more nuanced and interesting look at the dating apocalypse than that VF Tinder article, which we are not going to link to, because it’s our blog and we do what we want.  

“How Not To Be Elizabeth Gilbert,” by Jessa Crispin, July 20 2015, Boston Review

Balance of power is an illusion. Everyone wants it, but some people let it go to their heads, or are brought down by too much of it. In other words, talented people can be assholes and the femme fatale can take care of herself and apparently it sucks to date when you’re famous.

The article of the week is:

“Gwen Stefani, Nicki Minaj, Jennifer Garner, and the Dilemma of the Powerful Woman” by Molly Lambert, August 7 2015, Grantland

As if it isn’t hard enough to date The Way We Live Now, if you’re a strong and independently talented/capable/famous woman on top of that, it’s even more difficult than you think. The Hollywood facade of a perfect marriage has dropped a lot this year (for real, if Gwen Stefani is having trouble, then what chance for the rest of the peasants?) but it’s interesting to think about how the media culture labels the separations.

“Miles Teller Is Young, Talented, and Doesn’t Give a Rat’s Ass What You Think” by Anna Peele, August 5 2015, Esquire

We cannot even begin to describe how much we love it when celebrity profiles stop being circle-jerks of praise and get real. Miles Teller seems like kind of an asshole, but he’s also pretty talented (and just plain pretty), so maybe that’s the price we pay.

And the runners-up:

“Mindy Kaling’s Guide to Killer Confidence” by Mindy Kaling, August 2015, Glamour

“Work hard, know your shit, show your shit, and then feel entitled.” Amen.

“The Modern Noir Has Atrophied” by Angelica Jade Bastien, August 11 2015, Vulture

TAOTW loves all things noir. We did not watch this season of True D (but did listen, a lot, to the theme song, which is Leonard Cohen and excellent). The genre has changed a lot since its heyday in the 1940s and 50s, but the world is still a scary place and the themes of alienation, mistrust of authority, and that queasy intersection of sex and violence are as relevant as ever.

“Ann Coulter Is A Human Being” by Mitchell Sunderland, August 13 2015, VICE

Denial, changing circumstances, learning too late that you can’t do anything but accept. And some some comfort food for dealing with all of the above.

The article of the week is:

“It’s Not Climate Change - It’s Everything Change” by Margaret Atwood, July 27, 2015, Matter

Margaret Atwood envisions different versions of the world without oil: a solar-powered paradise; a bankrupt Wild West dystopia; or maybe something in between, depending on well each country has prepared. How well has the US prepared? Well...I’ll just go ahead and cue the REM.

And the runners-up:

“The Mayor Vs. The Mogul” by Luke O’Brien, July/August 2015, Politico

So now that Mike Bloomberg is no longer New York City’s billionaire mayor, he’s gone back to being just another billionaire mogul of a media empire. And he might not be adapting as well as you’d think.

“The Talented Mr. Khater” by Francesca Mari, July 2015, Texas Monthly

A charismatic Palestinian marathoner (who might be neither Palestinian nor a marathoner) steals and swindles his way through Denmark, Chile and Costa Rica, making “friends” and assaulting women, while criminal justice systems on three continents fail to keep him behind bars for more than a few months a time.True crime at its creepiest.

“On Chicken Tenders” by Helen Rosner, June 12, 2015, Guernica

The theme of this week’s readings is how to move on when you realize the party’s over. Maybe for some people the party is a literal one, with booze and musicians, but sometimes it’s more metaphorical: your food, your blog, your planet, your hobby, your life. What happens when you realize you’ve stayed too long at the fair?

The article of the week is:

“Up In The Air” by Ben Wofford, July 20, 2015, Rolling Stone

Ben Schlappig has been flying around the world for free for years, having figured out several ways to game the system to accumulate mileage and sponsors, and last year he made it his full-time job. He goes to multiple countries a week and never even leaves the airport. He and other enthusiasts refer to this system as The Hobby, but it’s hard to say whether any of these real-life Up In The Air types are flying or just fleeing.

“The Really Big One” by Kathryn Schulz, July 20, 2015, The New Yorker

A massive earthquake is going to destroy the Pacific northwest in the not-too-distant future, no one is prepared, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. A chilling and necessary story that gave me literal goosebumps.

And the runners-up:

“The Web We Have To Save” by Hossein Derakhshan, July 14, 2015, Matter

An Iranian dissident recently released from prison reflects on how the Internet freedom he fought to protect has been devalued. He used to have a blog that reached thousands and now he no longer knows how to clear a signal through the noise. 

“How Amy Winehouse’s Pain Was Commodified” by Sady Doyle, July 10, 2015, In These Times

Amy Winehouse was a punchline on late night shows and at music festivals, where people came out to see the trainwreck as much as the talent; after her untimely demise, she instantly became a legend. Millions of people listened to her music, but even as she was so obviously self-destructing in public, she never got the help or respect she needed until it was too late.

“The Piscivore’s Dilemma” by Tim Zimmermann, May 27, 2015, Outside

Writing about writers: what happens when you turn the pen around and the essayists, writers, and journalists become the subjects.

The article of the week is:

“Rewriting David Foster Wallace” by Christian Lorentzen, June 30, 2015, New York

Wallace thought literary fame was sort of bullshit, but by dying young at the height of his popularity, he of course ended up securing his own status as a post-modern literary icon.

“The Hard Truths of Ta-Nehisi Coates” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells, July 12, 2015, New York

The rise and radicalization of Ta-Nehisi Coates, his disagreements with Obama and how he finds himself constantly trying to get people to acknowledge the institutional racism that built America. (Related, but: everyone has already read his amazingly detailed and brilliantly argued The Case for Reparations, right?)

“The Manliness of Joan Didion” by Franklin Strong, July 1, 2015, The Millions

Is Joan Didion a Gillian Flynn-level Cool Girl? (Ed note: Will we ever stop posting stories about Joan Didion? Probably not!)

RUNNERS-UP:

“Los Angeles Plays Itself” by Dayna Tortorici, May 20, 2015, n+1

Scenes from an LA life: getting around without a car, deciding whether to smoke pot, the authenticity of Skid Row, debates over architecture. A street-level examination of the city that, in representing the golden ideal of the American dream, is constantly reinventing itself.

“Summer Pictures” by Durga Chew-Bose, July 2, 2015, The Hairpin

This week in Things To Read, TAOTW is happy to report that the ladies are swinging back. Whether it’s coding revenge in your song lyrics or fighting obvious feminine stereotypes or reclaiming the movies people told you didn’t matter, this is a good time to be a woman with opinions. Did someone say Lean In?

The article of the week is:

“Revenge of the Nerds” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, June 22, 2015, The Paris Review

Taylor Swift may seem like the most popular girl in school, but she’s actually fulfilling the dream of anyone who was ever picked on: to show the haters, publicly and spectacularly, that she won. From her passive-aggressive ex-boyfriend-referencing lyrics to her cryptic liner notes, Taylor Swift is not just America’s sweetheart, but also a living embodiment of the ultimate nerd revenge fantasy.

RUNNERS-UP:

“Between Victimhood and Power: The Female Detectives of Television’s Crime Dramas” by Annie Manion, June 22, 2015, Los Angeles Review of Books

Femininity does not have to be the opposite of toughness; a female cop doesn’t need to go to the crime scene in high heels, or have as her main motivation that she was once the victim of a violent crime, or to compulsively eat junk food to prove she’s “just one of the guys.” Despite all the glass ceilings women have broken on TV, where there are female presidents and spies and CEOs, getting the role of police officer right has proven especially problematic.

“Triumph of the Girl Movie” by Ann Friedman, June 3, 2015, New York

Teenage girls get made fun of for loving things so intensely, but that same obsessive quality means the things that they love become not just beloved, but elevated to “classic” status more quickly because of how those things (movies, music) get embedded into the fabric of female friendships and female bonding experiences.

“Marriage is Evolving” by Rebecca Traister, May 21, 2015, The New Republic

A critique of the book featuring the famed “wife bonus,” in which TNR argues that the most shocking thing in the book is not the price tag on the Birkin bag or the vastness of the square footage, but the outdated portrayal of marriage.  

“What Is a Woman’s Wardrobe Worth?” by Susie Cagle, May 21, 2015, Buzzfeed

Readers, first a brief apology: TAOTW has been out of commission for a few weeks, but we’re back now. There are a lot of things we read that we were excited to share, and they all fall under the theme of...stuff we like. Happy reading!

The article of the week is:

“Operation Red Falcon” by Ronen Bergman, The Atavist, April 2015

A long -- but worth it -- deep-dive into the story of Yehuda Gil, a Mossad spy who was accused of fabricating decades worth of Syrian intelligence and then eventually charged with treason. A fascinating story about espionage, paranoia, and good old Middle Eastern politics.  

RUNNERS-UP:

“Up the Amazon With the BS Machine” by Ursula K. Le Guin, Book View Cafe, June 1, 2015

Is Amazon evil? TAOTW thinks about this all the time. TAOTW reads, and buys, a lot of books, and has conflicting feelings about buying them from Amazon, which, yes, is cheaper but also has caused a lot of problems for independent bookstores (and TAOTW loves independent bookstores). Anyway, Ursula K. Le Guin, a Famous Author, does not care for Amazon, and pulls no punches in explaining why.

“Not Knowing” by Katherine Bernard, The Awl, May 6, 2015

Starts out as a review of Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, but really it’s so much more. Bernard writes about different ways of expressing identity (gender, sexuality), but especially about relationships between parents and children and expectations of identity: you are of me, so why are you not more like me?

“Addy Walker, American Girl” by Brit Bennett, The Paris Review, May 28, 2015

We’re not going to post any Mad Men think-pieces because it’s already two days later (which is about two years in Internet time). But the end of Mad Men did get us thinking about growing up and changing and how those are definitely things which are overrated.

The article of the week is:

“There Is Only One Direction” by Samantha Hunt, May 12, 2015, New York

This is a heartbreakingly beautiful essay about growing up and loving things the way we did when we were young(er). A glorious reminder that being a fan of something -- a band, a television show, a sports team -- in the truest sense of the word, to be a fanatic, can mean belonging to something bigger than yourself.  

The runners-up:

“Eat Pray Roll” by Mary H.K. Choi, March 31, 2015, Matter

The author considers various substances and the ways we abuse them, and then has some pretty great revelations about drugs and moderation and being an adult.

“90s Teen Party Movies and the Golden Age of Feminist Film” by Anne T. Donahue, Durga Chew-Bose, and Sara Black McCulloch, December 3, 2014, Cléo

Sometimes nostalgia means that the things you loved when you were young are not as amazing as you remember. But also, sometimes they are. Some reflections on how far we have regressed from the progressive feminism of Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You.

That title could probably apply to any post that shows up on this blog. We here at TAotW love nothing if it's not thinking for internet-only lack-of-word-limit lengths of time about pieces of pop culture that might not at first glance seem like they need even a sentence of deconstruction. But this week, we're zero-ing in not just on the big ideas behind mass entertainment, but on the big ideas that require a special kind of "bad for you" lack of pretentiousness to be said. So, buckle yourself into your technobabble-powered rocket ship, lower your brow down to the floor, and prepare for some cultural nutrients that come from anything but vegetables.

This Week's Pick:

"In Praise of Vulgar Feminism" by Agata Pyzik, April 28, 2015, n+1

I hate the term "underrated." There's lots of great stuff out there, and sometimes we need to realize that just because we like something more than anyone else does, doesn't mean we're smarter than them. But goddammit, Hole is an underrated rock band. Courtney Love is one of the few pop culture icons towards whom irrational hate seems almost politically correct. She's a woman that people seem totally comfortable blaming for the suicide of her husband whom they’ve never met, and someone that has never lost a reputation for being crazy and desperate for attention. Pyzik compares her tumultuous persona with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, an in-the-flesh model of a cool girl that can make Gillian Flynn's hypothetical seem lame. She examines what it means to be feminist and what it means to rebel, and how sometimes you might need to stop being so damn cool to actually have any of that mean something. Listen to Live Through This and Sister if you haven't recently, read this, and think about how you should maybe scream a little more.

Runners-up:

Three big picture attempts at understanding the biggest picture in the world:

"Masters of the Universe: Marvel's Unprecedented Storytelling Gamble" by Kevin Lincoln, May 5, 2015, Grantland

"Age of Robots: How Marvel is Killing the Popcorn Movie" by Sady Doyle, May 10, 2015, Medium

"The Marvel-Industrial Complex" by James Rocchi, May 5, 2012, Movie Mezzanine

It’s easy to take food for granted: that it will be there when we want it, that we will have choices in what we eat and how we eat and when. The Article of the Week has recently several interesting pieces that parse these choices more clearly: what if your favorite foods were no longer available? Or if they advertised your economic status? Or if your choices were taken away altogether? Everyone’s relationship with food is different, which is why considering the larger context can be so fascinating.

“Fixed Menu” by Kevin Pang, March 24, 2015, Lucky Peach

Controlling food (type, portion, quality) is one of the ways the prison industrial complex dehumanizes prisoners, and it’s more effective than you think.  

“Trash Food” by Chris Offutt, April 10, 2015, Oxford American

Food as an indicator of class and status, and what you’re really saying when you eat something ironically. What do our food choices and affiliations say about us?

Runners-up: Jon’s picks

“Have You Eaten Your Last Avocado” by Adam Sternbergh, April 20, 2015, New York Magazine

Hey remember Famine? Like, from the bible? It's back now. Get excited. Except don't because famine is just a bummer. I love avocados. I have four of them sitting a foot away on my kitchen table. And I'm worried about them, because after reading Adam Sternbergh's excellent piece, I'm concerned that these avocados that I bought for pretty cheap are turning into precious commodities before my very eyes. In case you haven't noticed, California is facing the kind of drought that usually gets prophesied in the dream of a Pharoah or something like that. And that delicious guacamole that you love (if you're not a monster) of course comes from those miracle farms in California that are slowly turning back into the deserts they started as. It's a piece that takes the biblical end of days growing effects of global warming and brings it out of the realm of climate charts and melting ice caps all the way at the poles and into the (for me in my oblivious life, at least) much more close-to-home issue of a food I love becoming prohibitively expensive to create. It's the story of unchecked growth and the realization that we maybe cannot actually utterly conquer nature, even if it would be great if we could.

“David Simon on Baltimore's Anguish” by Bill Keller, April 29, 2015, The Marshall Project