At Vox, Ottessa Moshfegh discusses her 2018 book, My Year of Rest and Relaxation, and how it has taken on a life of its own during the pandemic. “Everyone I know has gone through an internal transformation,” Moshfegh says, “And that makes perfect sense. That’s why I write about isolated characters — so they can have a deeper relationship with themselves in the course of the novel. That’s why I’m slightly antisocial to begin with, too. I spend a lot of time having to figure out what’s going on inside. […] In a time where there has been so much trauma and loss, it was a silver lining. Humanity finds purpose where it can. It’s like flowers growing out of the cracks in the sidewalk. People can grow anywhere. That is beautiful.”
Ottessa Moshfegh on Isolated Characters Growing Anywhere
Oh, Edward!
Oh, those poor little Twilight-addled tweens–as if they weren’t already goggly-eyed with quasi-chaste adoration of Edward Cullen, hero of Stephenie Meyer‘s Twilight books. How they will melt when they see this utterly shameless New Moon poster that portrays a melancholic Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) in a state of tasteful-ish dishabille.
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Writing Is a Dangerous Pursuit
“We might not win. And yet we have to commit ourselves to the struggle, because there’s nothing else besides struggle.” Toni Morrison talks about literature and activism with Ta-Nehisi Coates and Sonia Sanchez.
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The Resonating Work of Louise Meriwether
Looking back on Louise Meriwether's 1970 novel, Daddy Was a Number Runner, a nuanced portrait of African American life during the Great Depression.
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Changing Definitions
With the Internet endlessly reshaping, reforming, upending our lives, etc., it’s important to ask: what exactly constitutes a magazine these days?
Trash Talk
Not everyone is a fan of Haruki Murakami’s latest short story, “Drive My Car.” Residents of Nakatonbetsu, Japan claim Murakami sullied its reputation when he suggested that residents throw cigarettes from car windows. The offending passage reads: “Probably this is something everyone in Nakatonbetsu commonly does,” a character thinks when he tosses his lit cigarette out. Hopefully, the smoke clears soon.
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