Little Barbaros everywhere
get your thinky reps in
A little chastening to admit that I’m hooked on the Hulu adaptation of The Testaments. Gilead is as batshit trad as ever, but in such a predictable way so as to approximate coziness. They don’t ask Chase Infiniti to do much except widen her eyes a lot, which eh fine, but the real scene stealer is Rowan Blanchard’s mean-girl-with-a-golden-heart Shunammmite.
The act of classification, specifically of images, has become an extraordinarily valued skill these days, whether you’re an AI algorithm, enterprising trendcaster, or regular person on the internet, per Elizabeth Goodspeed on “aesthetics” and the state of visual culture:
The impulse to describe images by “aesthetic” (a term that once described philosophical ideas about beauty and perception that now functions as shorthand for a recognisable visual vibe) emerges naturally from this way of seeing: once images are encountered as clusters instead of singular works, identifying their category becomes part of the experience of looking itself. The classification of an image shifts from a scholarly or critical exercise to a participatory social activity … Naming [has become] a way of forcing coherence onto this dispersed material.
The essay then ventures into a bit of art history and the naming of various movements/periods, from Fauvism to art deco to lesser-known ones like “austerity binge” (!), lingering over the relationship between aesthetic and affiliation — AKA, there’s nothing terribly new being argued here, but there are worse ways to spend one’s scroll time than putting the mind through some familiar paces.
Overall, the piece made me think about about how an obsession with pattern-matching has infiltrated every level of discourse, visual or otherwise (conspiracy theories, trendpiece industrial complex, “vibe checks” galore). Like of course it doesn’t feel like much advancing of thought is happening in civilization in general; we’re still a bunch of confused robots spending all our energy trying to figure out what it is we’re even looking at.
For the literary pattern-matchers among us: What comes after the trauma plot? Vulture’s Gideon Leek takes a stab at defining the post-trauma plot as embodied by a few recent novels, noting that “The trauma plot was characterized by repression; the post-trauma plot is all about obsessive expression.” In a word, it sounds like the latest spate of novel protagonists are crushingly self-aware (which is probably good in saving us, the reader, a lot of time) but also they’re more than a little annoying about it? (Related: I’d absolutely read any and all literacy criticism about the changing role of alcohol and drugs as characterization / plot devices, in the style of that Sloane Crosley essay on literary boozing, given the new norms of sobriety in culture. What’s a main character to do if they aren’t busy repressing stuff for the first third of the novel?)
Meanwhile, as the rest of us are still working over the finer points of Parul Sehgal’s original 2021 critique on the trauma plot, Parul herself dove into the phenom Gisèle Pelicot memoir, situating the book within the context of France’s memoir-driven #MeToo movement and daring to evaluate Pelicot in an actual authorial capacity re: her grasp of narrative control. Lest we forget that the ripest fruits of literary criticism so often do just come about from wondering out loud: But is the book any good????
So many L’s to O L, so little time…
Have belatedly learned that Arthur “Prof. Happiness” Brooks moved his column from The Atlantic to The Free Press this year. Given his pre-happiness career, this actually makes perfect sense (derogatory)!
“Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. contains quotes made up by A.I.” I mean….. Are you shocked? Is anyone shocked? Does anyone who writes about AI seem to not understand that they are all irredeemably ridiculous for allowing such oopsies? I’m so bored by all these AI scandals, man…
The NYT is merging their Audio and Video departments into one “Shows” Department, though probably what every company should invest in is an almighty Clipping squad. Just imagine: Little Barbaros everywhere…
Among the directives for clients who would like to book Choupette — yes, the late Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved cat / heir — for a shoot: “There must be no noise on set, and no one may take photographs aside from the photographer. Also, Choupette must not be shot from above. Shooting from human height … is the classic amateur pet-owner blunder.” Of course! Oh and obviously, Choupette only works with animal-cruelty-free brands.
And finally: “For there to be a critical conversation about an art form at large, there has to be shared experiences. If only a few hundred people get to eat at Noma each year, then that’s an inside baseball conversation that a infinitesimal elite group of people can access. The rest of us are on the outside scratching our heads wondering why every one is nutting themselves over gárûmş while the chef is beating his cooks when on their face garums seem no different than 3 Crabs Fish Sauce.” Of course, Eddie Huang on food criticism in light of the new NYT list of the 100 best restaurants delivers.
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