Good Cry

What I enjoyed in May

Reading

In all honesty, I didn’t think I was going to love Trick Mirror. I don’t know why, except that I am often frustrated by journalists’ politics, often find books written by journalists to touch on a topic of extreme interest to me, but necessarily in a less exhaustive manner than I typically want out of something so important. Sometimes my impulse to protect myself from aggravation and time wasted keeps me from experiencing surprise. This book is, unfortunately, very fucking good.

“Unfortunately” because I waited so long to read it, unfortunately because it’s at least as depressing as it is good—which is not to say that it isn’t also fun and sharp. These essays raise our dystopic politics without being a slog to read; still, their effectiveness at cutting to the bone of American culture does leave one with a renewed sense of clarity about how fucked everything is. And I mean “is” in the present tense—though the book is now seven years old, one of the main reasons it had me shaking my head so often is how its insights have only gotten more true in the time since its publication.

In a chapter on the pleasures and traps of self-optimization, for example, Tolentino writes that “Mainstream feminism has had to conform to patriarchy and capitalism to become mainstream in the first place. Old requirements, instead of being overthrown, are rebranded,” pointing out how today’s “lifestyle changes” sure look a lot like now passé “dieting.” This was true when the Sweetgreen caesar that opens the chapter was $12. It’s more true now that it’s $20. And if that efficient way of summarizing mainstream feminism hints at Tolentino’s skill with translating academic concepts, the discussion of Donna Haraway that closes the essay confirms it.

There’s an essay on the role of the heroine in literature (“The heroine’s text tells us that, at best, under a minimum of structural constrictions, women are still mostly pulverized by their own lives”); sexual assault on college campuses (“Universities have a tendency to overlook fraternity violence in part because fraternities are a significant source of institutional capital”); and what we would now call the enshittification of the internet. I think “The Story of a Generation in Seven Scams” is a brilliant framework for thinking through both the Millennial generation to which Tolentino belongs and the culture of the United States writ-large. I know I’m really late on this book, but if you are too: take this as your nudge.

Listening

Friko! Their debut full-length is in some ways classic indie rock record. Yet small choices everywhere add up to elevate this above the crowd. The out and out romance of “Certainty” is what I hear in the background of the album’s cover, a freewheeling bicycle gang headed somewhere unknown, something of the aimlessness of the suburbs (which is to say the aimlessness of youth) but in a way much more direct and urgent than anything I every heard in the Arcade Fire. Niko Kapetan’s vocals shred and belt near the end, rising with silvery strings. I love the impulse to force the drama to happen between these parties, with piano rather constant and foundational in the background, love the restraint I hear in the choice not to add drums or other too-easy means of dialing up intensity. Something of Springsteen’s epic rendering of normal life comes through (check the following “Hot Air Balloon”), but with a garage rock stain on the denim.

On the other end of the spectrum, MUNA’s Dancing on the Wall is also excellent. (Are black and white covers a thing right now?) It reminds me of Gaga a bit (see “Mary Jane”), and it shares a dance-club vibe with another sapphic record I loved this year (The Aces’ Gold Star Baby). That said, “Big Stick” for example shows a political critique that the others lack, and all to the better. My friend K said it’s got her thinking about “the ineffability of feeling” especially around girls and femmeness. And if that’s not an endorsement I dunno what would be.

I’m gonna keep it there for now because the next few posts are doozies. Here’s a little reminder though that the cry babies record is out. You can stream the whole thing to yr heart’s content, and purchase if you wanna support a good cause.

With huge thanks and appreciation to the buds who have already done so. 🥲🥲🥲

(cry hard)